Trajan's Market

Trajan's Market is a multi-level complex built into the hillside above the Forum of Trajan in the early second century AD. It is often described as an ancient shopping mall, a label the partner listing adopts, though scholars debate whether it was commerce, administration or both. Whatever its use, the brickwork is superb: a curved facade of arched windows, a great vaulted hall with shops on two levels and a street, the Via Biberatica, that still bends around the slope. The market now houses a museum dedicated to the Imperial Forums, the series of squares that emperors built beside the older Roman Forum, with sculpture and architectural fragments displayed alongside the original rooms. The booking page gives the address on Via Quattro Novembre, says the site is open seven days a week and fully wheelchair accessible, and offers a skip-the-line ticket with a multimedia video, as well as combinations with the Colosseum and other sights.

What sets this apart from a visit to the Forum is the viewpoint. You look down onto the Forum of Trajan and across to the column, and you can follow the plan of the vanished basilica and libraries from above, where the ground-level ruins are hard to read.

The visit takes about an hour to ninety minutes at a leisurely pace. Check the current exhibitions and opening hours before you go, since does not specify hours, and temporary shows sometimes affect which areas are open. Cafe and shop facilities are limited, so have lunch elsewhere nearby. The site has ramps and lifts, which helps families with strollers, though some of the old streets inside are uneven.

It pairs naturally with the Capitoline Museums, a short walk away, and with Palazzo Valentini nearby. A combination day of the Capitoline hill, this market and the underground houses gives a thorough picture of imperial Rome without a single queue for the Colosseum. If you only have time for the headliners, you can skip it, but for return visitors and anyone interested in how the Romans built, it is one of the most rewarding stops in the city, and surprisingly overlooked.

Spend a few minutes outside as well. The curved facade that faces the modern street is one of the most elegant pieces of Roman civil engineering in the city, and the view across to the column and the dome of the nearby church gives a sense of how the forums were once linked together.

The surrounding streets, with the Vittoriano looming on one side and the Torre delle Milizie on the other, make for a rewarding short walk on the way to or from Monti. If you have a Colosseum or Forum ticket in the same week, check whether a combination is cheaper than buying separately, since the booking page mentions bundles, and keep your receipts handy for security checks.