Many of these opulent details have disappeared – but a surprising number remain, from the stuccoed ceilings to the colourful frescoes. According to the ancient historian Suetonius, the palace was bedecked with gold, gems and shells it had a circular banquet hall that rotated to delight its guests. While that's unlikely to be accurate, we do know that he benefited from the massive fire of 64 CE by using the cleared land to build the palace of his dreams. The ancient palace, which once sprawled across up to 300 acres of land, was constructed by Emperor Nero in 64 CE – the same emperor who went down in history as 'fiddling while Rome burned'. Here are eight of my favourite spots for exploring the hidden heritage of Rome.

The capital is also thick with hidden gems, many of which are every bit as fascinating, if not more so, than the city's showstoppers.įurthermore, these sites can reveal other intriguing aspects of its history, beyond the Roman Empire: think going back in time to the Middle Ages, when war between Italy's city-states was so common that it seemed suitable for even a church to be fortified… or to the Fascist era, when Mussolini dreamed of showing off his 'new' Italian empire to the world with an entire neighbourhood built to do so. Most tourists to the city will seek out the best-known ancient sites – but there is far more to Rome than the Colosseum and the Pantheon. And there are few cities better for exploring its legacy than the city of Rome, the caput mundi of the Roman Empire itself. Currently trending is the surprising notion that many men think frequently about the Roman Empire – something that speaks to the enduring appeal of an empire that thrived some 2,000 years ago.

What is underneath the colosseum called