One ticket gets you into the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill and the landmark Colosseum, so we spent the better part of a day exploring the ruins. We took a (rather jarring) bus ride that dropped us off directly across the street from the Palatine Hill entrance. After a quick security check we purchased our ticket and started exploring the grounds.

Palatine Hill is one of the famous “seven hills of Rome” and was home to a string of Roman Emperors including Augustus and Domitian. It is absolutely amazing that anything is left after two thousand years!

the hippodrome, i.e. horse facilities

former fountain space

From the former palaces we headed down Palatine Hill toward the Roman Forum, first with a great piazza view.

Then down into the valley itself.

The amount of history is just staggering, with centuries upon centuries of human activity in this one site.

As we made our way toward the southern exit, I went to check out the Temple of Venus and Rome. Lo and behold, it had a perfect view of the Colosseum.

After a few photos, we walked over to the security check, then made our way to the top ring of the Colosseum.

By this point we were getting rather tired and hungry, so we didn’t read all the various signage on how the stadium worked; however, it certainly looked like you could read and learn a lot if you were so inclined. Exploring the whole site takes hours and the opportunity to better understand the history on this site is well worth the effort. Also worth noting, your ticket is good for two consecutive days, if we had more time we likely would have planned to visit the Colosseum the following day instead.