The Palatine Hill: what to see and why it is worth the climb

Short answer: the Palatine is where Rome was founded and where the emperors lived, and it is included in your Colosseum ticket. See the remains of the earliest huts, the houses of Augustus and Livia if they are open, Domitian’s great palace, its sunken stadium, the Farnese Gardens for the view over the Forum, and the terrace above the Circus Maximus. Allow an hour and a half. It is also the shadiest part of the archaeological park.

Why bother after the Forum

Many visitors walk out of the Forum tired and skip the hill. It is a different place: not a public square but a palace district, quieter, greener, with umbrella pines and gardens. The word palace itself comes from its name. And it gives you the two best views in the park.

Where Rome began

On the south-western edge, holes and channels cut into the bedrock mark the posts of Iron Age huts from around the eighth century BC. Romans believed Romulus lived in one of them and kept a hut rebuilt here for centuries in his memory. Next to them stand the remains of the Temple of Cybele, the Great Mother, whose sacred stone was brought to Rome during the war with Hannibal.

Augustus and Livia

Rome’s first emperor lived in a house that was large but deliberately not lavish, and its painted rooms have some of the freshest colours to survive from ancient Rome: painted architecture, theatre masks, birds. Beside it, the House of Livia, his wife, has mythological frescoes in its dining room. Both are small, fragile and often open only at set times or on a specific ticket, so check before you go if they matter to you.

Domitian’s palace

• The Domus Flavia — the official wing, with the throne room and the state dining hall. Domitian insisted on being addressed as «lord and god».
• The Domus Augustana — the private wing, looking down into a sunken courtyard. Suetonius says Domitian, afraid of assassins, had the walls of his walkways faced with a reflective stone so he could see who was behind him. He was killed in the palace anyway.
• The stadium — a long sunken garden in the shape of a racetrack. It was not for chariot racing: it was a private garden and exercise ground for the court.

The views

The Farnese Gardens, laid out in the sixteenth century over the ruins on the northern edge, end in a terrace that looks straight down onto the Forum. On the southern side, a terrace above the huge brick arches built under Septimius Severus faces the Circus Maximus — the chariot-racing track that, by ancient estimates, held well over a hundred thousand people. Emperors watched the races from the palace above it.

Also on the hill

• The Cryptoporticus of Nero — a long vaulted underground passage linking the palaces, with traces of stucco on the ceiling.
• The site of the Temple of Apollo that Augustus built next to his house, with a famous library beside it.
• The Palatine Museum, with sculpture and finds from the hill, when it is open.

Practical

You can reach the Palatine from the Forum by the Clivus Palatinus, the ancient road up from the Arch of Titus, or from the entrance on Via di San Gregorio near the Colosseum. It is uphill and the paths are gravel. Because it has trees, it is the place to be in the middle of a hot day, while the Forum below is at its worst.

Updated 2026-10-27