My purpose in creating this blog, first and foremost, is for my own enjoyment and to do some light academic research toward some sort of tangible goal. It’s fun for me to look back at where I’ve visited in past years and to learn new things about those sites, and perhaps, to find things that I’ve missed and can see next time. I also hope that this can serve as a resource for others. I found that often it can be a bit difficult to sort out some of the logistics ahead of time. At least from the perspective of a non-native in some countries. Not only getting to and from sites that were outside the centers of major towns or cities, but just the breadth and location of remains at some sites. For instance, I would sometimes find myself in a place where I thought I had a pretty good plan of attack to see things ahead of time, only to find that there was much more to see than I had anticipated, or that the reality of closures, opening times, and locations were not quite what I was lead to believe in doing my pre-visit research. That’s the reason why I’ve tried to include logistical information along side the history and site discussion. Most places I’ve visited, I’ve had to use public transportation, which is not always an easy prospect to do ahead of time in some places, and can hopefully provide some help to others who’d like to see some of these sites.

My focus is primarily Roman sites (as the title of the blog would indicate), though of course, some of those include pre or post Roman remains that are worth noting and discussing. 

I’ve endeavored to keep information as up to date as possible at the time of writing. Where possible, I have included links to places where updated hours or admission might be found if the specific information in my post has become obsolete.

Regarding provinces and regions, I’ve decided to use a fixed point of roughly the first half of the 2nd century CE to determine what division of the Empire a site fell within, regardless of when the site was founded, conquered, abandoned, was at its most important, or any other temporal considerations. So, for example, I will not use Hispania Citerior or Hispania Ulterior as the breakdown for the area of present-day Spain and Portugal, but rather Hispania Tarraconensis, Hispania Baetica, and Lusitania. Similarly, I’m using the Augustan organization of the Italic regions, though, where possible I’ve tried to break it down; using Venetia or Histria, rather than the combined region of Venetia et Histria.