Description: Only 5% of the visitors to the Roman Forum and Colosseum, climb the Palatine Hill. Almost always it's because they've been told by friends and family that the Palatine is a place of boundless beauty which they must see. If all of the things in the Forum and Colosseum are related to the public life of the Romans, then on the Palatine one finds all that recounts their private lives - the houses, the places, the secret and intimate circle of their lives.
Over residences of wealthy senators of the republican age, emperors built their incredible palaces: immense and stunning kingdoms with entire arcades covered with shining mirror-like marble, enormous banquet rooms meticulously heated with hypocausts, artificial lakes and floating islands, enormous private stadiums and endless rooms in which to realize their dreams and pander to their whims, like a classical wonderland. It is on the Palatine Hill that there are the most ancient archaeological finds dating back to the huts of the shepherd who found the abandoned twins, Romulus and Remus, and the earliest places of worship in Rome, such as the temple dedicated to the Mother God, of which myths and legends abound.
Some themes of the tour: After the Ancient City tour (Colosseum and Roman Forum) we take a break at the Capitoline museum's roof-top cafe and then take off again. Our first stop on the Palatine Hilli is at the Farnese Gardens constructed by the Farnese Family in the 1500's over the remains of homes from the Roman Age. Then to Roma Quadrata near the most ancient walls of the city. A short walk away is the Temple of Cybele, the great Mother god introduced by the Orient and revered in the form of a meteorite. Soon after, there is the ancient cistern and the House of Livia and Augustus where remain some of the most beautiful frescoes from the Roman age.
We follow with the Temple of Apollo and the House of Griffins which is the oldest abode of the republican era. We finish off with the imperial palaces, the Domus Flavia and the Domus Augustana, that contain private dining rooms, an internal basilica, an immense private stadium, thousands of inner rooms on two o three levels. Last of all, the Palatine Museum for a quick voyage inside the artistic culture of the imperial palaces from Augustus through to the fall of the empire. You too, returning home, will recommend your friends to see, above all, the old Palatine Hill. Here, you really can't afford to forget your camera. |