Rome Guide
Rome
Monti
Immediately north of the Colosseum, the Esquiline Hill is the highest and largest of the city's seven hills. Formerly one of the most fashionable residential quarters of ancient Rome, it's nowadays a mixed area that together with the adjacent Viminale Hill make up the district known as Monti, an appealing and to some extent up-and-coming quarter of cobbled streets and neighbourhood bars and restaurants. It's also an area that most travellers to Rome encounter at some point – not just because of key sights like the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, but also because of its proximity to Termini, whose environs shelter many of Rome's budget hotels.
The Domus Aurea
One of the Esquiline Hill's most intriguing sights is without doubt Nero's Domus Aurea, though unfortunately this is currently closed due to flooding and conservation problems. Once covering a vast area between the Palatine and Esquiline, it was built by the Emperor Nero to glorify himself in typical excessive fashion. Rome was accustomed to Nero's excesses, but it had never seen anything like the Golden House before; the facade was supposed to have been coated in solid gold, there was hot and cold running water in the baths, and the grounds held vineyards and game. Nero didn't get to enjoy it for long – he died a couple of years after it was finished, and later emperors were determined to erase it from Rome's cityscape – Vespasian built the Colosseum over the lake and Trajan built his baths on top of the rest of the complex. But when it's open again you can view some of the paintings that so captivated artists when it was rediscovered during the Renaissance.