Today,Thursday, was seminar day.We met in the morning to discuss tombs and funerary monuments in relation to families of the lower classes. We heard two reports from seminar participants.

I was quite tired today after the exploration of Ostia on Wednesday. My alarm clock, unfortunately, only has a snooze button that lasts about a minute. After lunch I felt like I needed a nap but only took a short one. It's difficult to have a good nap in the mid-afternoon when it's so warm. I managed to get some more reading done.

I seem to be having more difficulty these days getting enough to eat at dinner at the Academy. When serving dishes are put on the table, people begin passing it around. It's the luck of the draw whether you start the dish or end up with a near empty platter. The other night we had lamb, and the piece I ended up with barely had any meat on it. Tonight's salad had some kind of greens and cut up cherry tomatoes. Some people took piles of the greens and I ended up with the tomato pieces. They were very tasty.  There was plenty of chicken last night and it was good. But I didn't end up getting much beverage.

Tomorrow we're off to the Vatican Museum. We don't know if we'll be able to go exploring the rest of the museum or not. We have special permission to see the Roman antiquities. I'm not really sure how to get there. No one has said they are going to go as a group. I have some idea of where to go. I'll just have to wing it. We meet at 8:45am at the Vatican Museum exit door.