At its peak, the Roman Empire controlled 5 million km² and 70 million people. The infrastructure they built — roads, aqueducts, baths, amphitheatres — still defines the Italian landscape.
Plan a history trip →Augustus (27 BC–14 AD): "I found Rome a city of brick and left it a city of marble." Built the Forum of Augustus. Nero (54–68): Great Fire (64 AD), built the Domus Aurea (visitable in Rome, €14). Vespasian/Titus: built the Colosseum (70–80 AD). Trajan (98–117): empire at maximum extent. Trajan’s Column (Forum) and Trajan’s Markets (the world’s first shopping mall, €13). Hadrian (117–138): built the Pantheon (as we know it), Villa Adriana (Tivoli), and Castel Sant’Angelo (his mausoleum). Constantine (306–337): legalized Christianity (313), moved capital to Constantinople (330).
Rome: everything above + Terme di Caracalla (€8, 3rd-century baths for 6,000 people). Pompeii/Herculaneum: frozen in 79 AD. Piazza Armerina, Sicily (€12): Villa Romana del Casale, 3,500 m² of mosaic floors. Aquileia (Friuli): 4th-century basilica floor mosaics, free.
Tell our AI which period fascinates you and we’ll build your itinerary.
Plan my trip — free