Antitrust Marathon

Okay, so as I pack for the airplane, after a day touristing in Rome with V_ and E_, I think it's most appropriate for me to be the one who sings the praises of the Antitrust Marathon (Rome Edition), and its organizers, Spencer, Philip and Philipp, along with our hosts in Rome, the Italian Competition Authority and the University of Rome (Sapienza).  The papers were great, and the conversation lively.  I won't get into substance, because that would preempt the published volume, but the volume will be great.  Now to the important part, the running.  We will be dribbling out photos, I think, as the various shots are living on various phones and cameras, but the official Marathon festivities began on Saturday morning at the Expo. We got there early to beat the crowds.  This was lucky, because by the time we left, the line to get in was around the block.  I generally hate Expos, but this one did provide the best piece of swag yet, the green and blue and green backpacks we are modeling below.     We got off at the Coliseum stop, so we could check out the start/finish.  This is what we found:

Yes, that's the Coliseum in the background, and the Palatine hill to our left.  From there we made our way to the Pantheon for coffee, and so Spencer could stop at the hotel.

Then off to load carbs at a restaurant suggested by the folks at Loyola.  The food was amazing! We all had fried artichokes (a Roman specialty) that were unbelievable.  Then we each had spectacular 

 dishes, from tomato and anchovy (me), to truffle (Philip), to eggplant parm (Spencer).  We rolled out in the mid afternoon, and I, at least set out for another round of carb loading over dinner (pizza).