Walking Through Rome's Ancient Empire

Program Overview

Program Structure

Week 1: Rome's Urban Core

Daily site visits to the Forum, Palatine, and Capitoline Hill. Evening sessions on Republican versus Imperial construction methods. Weekend at Ostia Antica studying port infrastructure and warehouse systems.

Week 2: Vesuvius Region

Five days in Pompeii working with site documentation. Two days at Herculaneum comparing preservation conditions. Focus on domestic architecture, water systems, and commercial spaces. Workshops on reading inscriptions and graffiti.

Week 3: Imperial Projects

Hadrian's Villa complex—residential, administrative, and ceremonial spaces. Colosseum mechanical systems and crowd management design. Aqua Claudia aqueduct engineering. Final seminar synthesizing construction techniques across sites.

What You'll Actually Do

• Measure and sketch architectural elements at each site
• Compare construction techniques across time periods
• Read primary sources about specific buildings you're examining
• Document water, sewage, and heating systems
• Track how Romans adapted Greek architectural principles

What You'll Learn

Most people see Rome in two days and miss everything that matters. This program takes a different approach—three weeks moving slowly through the cities and ruins where the Roman Empire actually operated.

You'll spend mornings at archaeological sites before the crowds arrive, afternoons with historians who've worked these excavations for decades, and evenings reviewing what you've seen. The goal isn't to cover everything. It's to understand how Romans built roads that still exist, why their concrete outlasted modern materials, and what daily life looked like when Pompeii froze in time.

We focus on eight major sites: the Forum and Palatine Hill in Rome, Ostia Antica's port facilities, Pompeii and Herculaneum, Hadrian's Villa, the Colosseum's underground systems, and Aqua Claudia's aqueduct remains. Each location gets multiple visits as you learn to read architectural details and construction techniques.

The reading list covers thirty primary sources—letters, construction records, financial documents—that explain why things were built certain ways. No background in archaeology or Latin required, but expect to take notes and ask specific questions about what you're seeing.