A Trip to Palatine Hill & Roman Forum with My Daughter

Subhadip Mukherjee

6 years ago

Palatine Hill Roman Forum with Daughter (38)

A lot can happen within a year, nearly a year back I was in Italy soaking in the summer sun with beautiful blue skies and plumes of fluffy white clouds. Who knew that after a year I would be sitting on a lonely Saturday afternoon and writing this blog remembering the time of my life.

It all had happened in just three weeks from committing to go to Italy with family to get my daughter’s passport done and finally applying for Schengen Visa. It was not a FAM or sponsored trip thus I had to squeeze every bit out of it somehow hoping that this trip of a lifetime will reap benefits later. As far as benefits are concerned nothing much happened no invitation from tourism boards no invited trips but what I had gained from that trip was to never stop believing that the impossible can become possible just be sheer willpower. Till date, I do not know how I managed to fund this trip and the repercussion of that trip can still be felt today so much so that I had to cut down on my travel plans for least another year.

What I gained for those few days of Italian bliss will forever remain etched in my memories. As the saying goes “Rome was not built in a day” can surely be seen when you actually visit Rome. The ruins of the Roman empire lie scattered around the city and the place where it can be seen in all its grandeur is at the Palatine Hill & Roman Forum. As mentioned in my previous blog (A Trip to Colosseum with My Daughter) that a ticket to the Colosseum also includes entry to Palatine Hill & Roman Forum and its valid for two days thus on the first day you can take a look around Colosseum and the next day you can see Palatine Hill & Roman Forum in details.

It’s huge really huge when it comes to Palatine Hill & Roman Forum you need to walk a lot and thus you need to plan accordingly. I was traveling with my seven-year-old daughter thus I had to keep in mind the vast distances that I had to cover. I made sure that I was well stocked with fluids especially water if its peak of summer then double your storage. Carry light snacks so that when hunger calls you don’t have to search for shops as there are no shops inside and its ticketed thus no use going out and coming back in.

Since you have to walk a lot plan your walks accordingly, it’s not a race and you don’t have to run from one spot to the other. Take breaks and learn to enjoy what you see, even if it’s a ruin it has a story to tell. Make it interesting especially for children so that they keep up the pace and don’t get bored out.

Palatine Hill

Rome is a city which lies around seven hills: –

Aventine Hill
Caelian Hill
Capitoline Hill
Esquiline Hill
Palatine Hill
Quirinal Hill
Viminal Hill

Palatine Hill is the centermost and possibly the most important since most of the tourist attractions are around this place. The Roman Forum also is located within the Palatine Hill.

Roman Forum

The Roman Forum lies in the valley surrounded by the Palatine, Capitoline, and Esquiline hills. In the Republican period (5th-1st centuries BC) this was the political, economic, religious and commercial heart of ancient Rome. In the 9th-8th centuries BC when the city was made up of the independent villages, the area was occupied by the cemeteries of the various settlements. Later, the villages began to merge and the Forum valley naturally became the place where their inhabitants met for economic transactions and social activities; broad and flat, it gradually became the center of the ancient city’s social life. Originally this was a marshy and unhealthy area, especially as its lowest point near the Capitoline hill. This made it necessary to carry out works here to drain the marshy swamp; this enterprise, one of the first land reclamations of ancient Italy, was ascribed to the Tarquins who built the Cloca Maxima to channel the waters into the Tiber. This was when the area took on a specific social and political function within the community. The Forum hosted games, political meetings, and assemblies. It is described by legend as the setting for some of the most important events in the first few centuries of Rome’s history, including the Rape of the Sabine Women. Particularly between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC, the intense activities carried out here led to the construction of the first buildings with specific sacred and public functions. An initial road network also began to take shape between the temples and basilicas: The Via Sacra, the Vicus Tucus, the Clivus Argentarius etc.

What to See at Palatine Hill & Roman Forum?

There are 49 listed sites around Palatine Hill & Roman Forum. It will take time if you want to visit them all. Use a map or Google Maps to visit these sites. Honestly I could not visit them all in details as this would have taken a real long time but managed to visit quite a few of them. The list of all the 49 sites are mentioned below:-