Rome

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The Palatine

Note: When special exhibitions are being held in the Colosseum, admission costs €11.

Legend relates that a basket holding twin babes Romulus and Remus was found in the swampy area near the Tiber to the west of here. In 753 BC, having murdered his brother, Romulus scaled the Palatine hill and founded Rome. In fact, archeological evidence shows that proto-Romans had settled on Il Palatino a century – or maybe much more – before that. Later, the Palatine became the Beverly Hills of the ancient city, where the movers and shakers built their palaces. With Rome’s decline it became a rural backwater ; in the 1540s, much of the hill was bought by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, who turned it into a pleasure villa and garden. His gardens – the Horti farnesiani – are still a lovely leafy place to wander on a hot day. Beneath the gardens is the Cryptoporticus, a semi-subterranean tunnel built by Nero. South and south-east from the gardens are the remains of vast imperial dwellings, including Emperor Domitian’s Domus Augustana, with what may have been a private stadium in the garden. Next door, the Museo Palatino charts the history of the Palatine from the eighth century BC.

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