Rome Guide
Rome
Ancient Rome
There are remnants of the ancient Roman era all over the city, but the most concentrated and central grouping – which for simplicity's sake we've called Ancient Rome – is the area that stretches southeast from the Capitoline Hill. It's a reasonably traffic-free and self-contained part of the city, but it wasn't always like this. Mussolini ploughed Via dei Fori Imperiali through here in the 1930s, with the intention of turning it into one giant archeological park, and this to some extent is what it is. You could spend a good day or so picking your way through the rubble of what was once the heart of the ancient world.
The Forum and Palatine are now combined into one site, accessible either by the Via dei Fori Imperiali entrance to the Forum or the Palatine entrance on Via di San Gregorio. You can also exit at the Colosseum end of the Forum, or at the opposite end, where you join the path up to the Capitoline Hill. The same €12 ticket also covers you for the Colosseum. Opening hours of all three sites are as follows: daily: April– Aug 8.30am–6.15pm, Sept 8.30am–6pm, Oct 8.30am–5.30pm, Nov to mid-Feb 8.30am–3.30pm, mid-Feb to mid-March 8.30am–4pm, mid-March to end-March 8.30am–4.30pm.