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Ancient history newly unearthed

A stone’s throw from the Coliseum is Rome’s new, masterfully designed Museum of the Imperial Forums, in a brick complex built by Emperor Trajan in the 2nd century but long concealed beneath centuries of subsequent construction and rubble. When excavation of Trajan’s Markets revealed the walls and roofs of the complex, huge glass windows were added, allowing light to pour into the brick Great Hall, considered a model for vaulted structures built later in the capital. Smaller chambers line two sides of the hall with a dramatically displayed collection of ancient Roman sculptural fragments from several forums in the vicinity. The entrance to Trajan’s Markets is on Via IV Novembre just above Trajan’s Column. Info: en.mercatiditraiano.it.

-- Susan Spano

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Site’s sidekick

Priceline.com has cloned its own Mini Me. But unlike Dr. Evil’s sidekick in the “Austin Powers” movies, the Internet travel seller plans to do good. Priceline last month launched a scaled-down version of its website for Web-enabled wireless devices. You can’t yet book online or bid for travel at www.priceline.mobi, the best-known service of Priceline, but you can do a lot of other stuff: Search for hotels, cruises and trip packages, view restaurant ratings, check your flight’s status and book travel by phone. You can also access e-mail and telephone links to Priceline’s customer service.

-- Jane Engle

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Peak dining

Snowcats have been busy this season, pushing and piling up mounds of snow. But at Mammoth Lakes, the heavy-duty plows are doing more than grooming ski runs. They’re hauling passengers. When the lifts have stopped running, snow-goers who have paid $79, $99 or $139 a head are carted up to the Parallax Restaurant, where they indulge in a three-, four- or five-course meal. Whether they experience a high-altitude sunset depends on when they go, but a 12-passenger snowcat treks up the mountain every 30 minutes between 5:30 and 8:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays through April 5. Info: (800) 626-6684, www.mammothmountain.com.

-- Susan Carpenter

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Boarders welcome

Taos Ski Valley in New Mexico opens its slopes to snowboarders on Wednesday. But two-plankers shouldn’t panic, because the mountain has such sheer pitches that relatively few snowboarders are likely to try them. Also, all of the black descents are littered with big, tight moguls. So if you’re a skier and stick to the resort’s 40-degree inclines, you’ll seldom hear the grind of a snowboard. Uh, dude, you sure we’re in the right place? Info: (866) 968-7386 or www.skitaos.org

-- Art Bentley

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Picture your trip

Lighten up your load next time you travel domestically, with PlaceNotes travel cards, which make it easy to assemble your own page-by-page itinerary and leave the heavy guidebooks at home. Packaged in a 4- by-6-inch box, the cards carry photographs of nine destinations, along with descriptions, history, a map, websites and other information. The notes are from the University of Texas Press and include several Texas destinations: Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas and the University of Texas (in Austin). Others are Santa Fe, N.M., Chicago art and architecture, Pittsburgh, and New York art museums. $19.95 each. Info: (800) 252-3206, www.utexas.edu/utpress/subjects/placenotes.html

-- Josef Molnar