Roman Forum and Palatine Hill

The Roman Forum (Foro Romano) and the adjacent Palatine Hill form the archaeological heart of ancient Rome, stretching along the Via Sacra between the Capitoline and the Colosseum in central Rome. The Forum occupies a former marshy valley drained in the 7th century BC by the Cloaca Maxima; over the following thousand years it became the political, judicial, religious and commercial centre of the Roman Republic and early Empire. Visitors walk among the ruins of temples, basilicas, arches and public spaces: the Temple of Saturn with its eight surviving columns, the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina later converted into a church, the circular Temple of Vesta where the sacred flame burned, the Curia Julia senate house, the Basilica of Maxentius with its colossal vaulted nave, and the triumphal Arches of Septimius Severus and Titus. The Palatine Hill rising above the Forum is, by tradition, where Romulus founded Rome in 753 BC and where the city's emperors built their palaces — the word 'palace' derives from Palatium. Its remains include the Domus Augustana and Domus Flavia of Domitian's imperial complex, the Stadium of Domitian, the House of Augustus and House of Livia preserving vivid Republican-era frescoes, and the Farnese Gardens, one of Europe's earliest botanical gardens, laid out in the 16th century over the ruins. The Palatine Museum displays sculpture, frescoes and finds excavated on the hill, including outstanding wall paintings and mosaics. Much of what survives is Republican and Imperial, spanning roughly the 6th century BC to the 4th century AD, with later medieval churches and Renaissance interventions layered on top. Systematic excavation began in the 18th and 19th centuries and continues today under the Parco archeologico del Colosseo, which manages the site and presents it through interpretive panels, marked routes and periodically reopened monuments such as the frescoed imperial rooms. The combined ticket links the Forum, Palatine and Colosseum, making this the single most important window onto the daily life, religion and government of the classical Roman world.