Palatine Hill

Across the street from the Colosseum is a hill covered with ruins. Similarily to the area we just visited, the Romans built a frame of bricks, internally filled it with concrete (a lot of large stones used within) and then this was faced with either stucco, marble or travertine. Tufa (a volcanic rock that is soft to carve but hardens with exposure to the elements) or travertine was mostly used for foundations. One at first notices just how large these ruins are and how impressive these would be today, never mind 2000 years ago.

This is one of the famous seven hills on which Rome was founded and is the most centrally located. Archaeological findings show that the site was inhabited as far back as the 10th century BC. Traditionally it was the site of the Lupercal Cave where Romulus and Remus were nursed by a she-wolf and so it would have been where Romulus began building the city (754BC).

During the Roman Republican Era the hill was a fashionable residential area due to the hill's height and spectacular views it afforded. The great leaders of the Roman Empire chose this hill as their home and the site was wall-to-wall palaces at one point. And so the word "palace" is derived from "Palatine."

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