Monday was the heavy history day. It started gently enough with the now-standard pistachio pastry and cappuccino, then moved to the Pantheon, where the scale finally made sense only from inside the room. The dome, the oculus, the original marble floor, and the impossible age of the building all did what they were supposed to do: they stopped everyone for a minute.

The middle of the day was more uneven. Bathrooms were hard to find, churches were under construction or closed, the catacombs plan fell apart when cabs would not cooperate, and the group ended up walking too far toward the Colosseum in too much heat.

Then Dennis arrived. The private tour through the Forum, Palatine Hill, and the Colosseum gave the day its shape. The Via Sacra, the imperial hill, the Farnese Gardens, the view back across Rome, and finally the Colosseum itself made the ancient city feel less like scattered ruins and more like a working world. By dinner, everyone was cooked, but Campo de’ Fiori and a big charcuterie board at Giordi brought the day safely home.