History
Ancient sites and the stories behind them, from Etruscan tombs to Roman forums.
Read: Pompeii Archaeological SiteWorth your time
Appian Way
Rome's ancient Regina Viarum, a 312 BCE road of original basalt paving, catacombs and umbrella pines outside the city.
Temples of Paestum
Three Doric temples of the 6th and 5th centuries BC, among the best preserved outside Greece.
Hadrian's Villa
Emperor Hadrian's sprawling villa at Tivoli, a memory of his travels in marble and brick, with the Canopus and Maritime Theatre.
Places to see
Villa Romana del Casale
A Roman hunting villa whose mudslide-sealed floors preserve the richest Roman mosaics in existence.
Su Nuraxi di Barumini
Sardinia's grandest Bronze Age nuraghe complex, excavated from beneath a hill in the 1950s.
Necropolis of Monterozzi
Tarquinia's painted Etruscan tombs, antiquity's most vivid gallery of daily life.
Necropolis of the Banditaccia
The Etruscan city of the dead outside Cerveteri, its tombs cut street by street into the tufa and furnished like real houses.
Villa Oplontis
The so-called Villa of Poppaea at Oplontis, known for its Roman wall painting, gardens and monumental pool.
Herculaneum Archaeological Park
A Roman town buried by Vesuvius in 79 CE, its wood, food and fabric preserved by carbonization rather than ash.
Palatine Hill
Rome's founding hill, where Iron Age huts and Augustus's house gave way to a stack of imperial palaces.
Ostia Antica
Ancient Rome's harbor city, preserved street by street among pines: bakeries, baths, a theatre and mosaic shipping offices.
Cumae Archaeological Park
The first Greek colony on the Italian mainland: acropolis temples, a sacred way and the tuff gallery called the Cave of the Sibyl.
Baths of Caracalla
The colossal imperial baths of 216 CE, with underground galleries and a summer stage for Rome's open-air opera.
Selinunte
A Greek city sacked by Carthage in 409 BCE and never rebuilt: giant temples on a hill above the sea.
Valley of the Temples
Agrigento's ridge of Greek temples, including the nearly intact Temple of Concordia.
Segesta
An unfinished Doric temple and a hilltop Greek theatre, alone above the Sicilian hills.
Tusculum
An unrestored Latin and Roman hilltop city above Frascati, with a theater, amphitheater, and forum.
Vulci
A wild 15km natural-archaeological park along the Fiora, once one of Etruria's twelve great city-states.
Ancient Theatre of Taormina
Taormina's clifftop Greek theatre, rebuilt by the Romans, its stage open to Etna and the sea.
Tharros
A Phoenician port city on the Sinis peninsula, its basalt streets, twin Corinthian columns and tophet running into the sea.
Nora Archaeological Site
A Phoenician, Punic and Roman port town on a cape south of Cagliari, with a seaside theatre and mosaic floors.
Greek Theatre of Syracuse
The rock-cut Greek theatre in Syracuse where Aeschylus premiered tragedies and INDA still stages Greek drama each spring.
Flavian Amphitheatre of Pozzuoli
Italy’s third-largest Roman amphitheater, known for its intact underground animal-lift system.
Grotte di Catullo
The ruins of Italy’s largest known Roman villa, crowning Sirmione’s peninsula above Lake Garda.
Veleia
A quiet Roman town in the Apennines, famous for Trajan's bronze welfare tablet.
Saepinum Archaeological Area
The Roman country town still standing among Molise's wheat fields.
Romito Cave
A Paleolithic cave above the Lao river with a 12,000-year-old aurochs engraving, in Pollino National Park.
Scolacium (Scylletium)
A Roman and Greek colony on the Gulf of Squillace, with theatre and amphitheatre ruins, a museum and an unfinished Norman basilica.
Funtana Coberta
A well-preserved Nuragic sacred well near Ballao, with a twelve-step staircase and a false-domed chamber.
Roman Theatre of Volterra
Volterra's Augustan-era Roman theatre, buried for centuries and excavated in the 1950s.
Tunnels of Claudius
The Roman drainage tunnel that emptied Lake Fucino, guided visits only.
Hypogeum of the Volumnii
A rock-cut Etruscan family tomb of the 3rd to 2nd century BC, laid out like a Roman house.
Suasa
A Roman city in the Marche with a mosaic-rich aristocratic house, the Domus dei Coiedii.
Temple of Antas
A Carthaginian-Roman temple rebuilt under Augustus in a remote valley near Fluminimaggiore, beside a Nuragic village and necropolis.
Augusta Bagiennorum
The excavated Roman grid-town of Augusta Bagiennorum on the Roncaglia plain near Bene Vagienna.
Bova Marina Synagogue
A 4th-century synagogue mosaic, Italy's second-oldest, uncovered by chance at Bova Marina in 1983.
Capitolium of Brescia
Vespasian's 73 AD Capitoline temple in Brescia, rebuilt over a frescoed Republican-era sanctuary.
Carsulae
Carsulae's abandoned Roman forum, twin temples and Via Flaminia arch near San Gemini.
Sacred Spring of Su Tempiesu
Sardinia's best-preserved Nuragic sacred spring, rediscovered by chance near Orune in 1953.
Su Romanzesu
Su Romanzesu's Nuragic sanctuary above Bitti, with a sacred well, temples and a mysterious labyrinth.
Archaeological Park of Urbs Salvia
The Marche's largest archaeological park, with a 23 AD theater and amphitheater near Urbisaglia.
Crocifisso del Tufo Necropolis
Orvieto's Etruscan necropolis of 200 inscribed tuff tombs, laid out like a city of the dead.
Duino Mithraeum
A rare Roman mithraeum in a Trieste-area cave, with a carved tauroctony and 400 votive coins.
Libarna
Libarna's Roman ruins near Serravalle Scrivia, a trading town that thrived on the Via Postumia.
Ocriculum
Ocriculum's 36-hectare Roman ruins on the Tiber, with a theater, amphitheater and grooved Via Flaminia paving.
Plestia
Plestia's Umbrian-Roman ruins on the Colfiorito plateau, a forgotten town and diocese reclaimed by archaeology.
Venafrum (Roman theatre and amphitheatre)
Roman Venafrum’s amphitheatre, preserved inside a ring of houses, and an Augustan theatre on the hillside.
Larinum
The Roman amphitheater and mosaic baths of Larinum, a near-empty site with real archaeological weight.
Roman Theatre of Aosta
Aosta's Roman theatre, with its 22-meter stage wall still standing.
Roman Cisterns of Fermo
Fermo's near-perfect Roman waterworks, thirty vaulted chambers still mirroring lamplight.
Roman Cryptoporticus
The vaulted double-arcaded galleries that once leveled Aosta's Roman forum terrace.
Samnite Sanctuary of Pietrabbondante
The Samnites' mountain sanctuary at 966 meters, its stone theatre still hosting summer drama.
Archaeological Area of Aquileia
The excavated remains, and vast unexcavated reserve, of the Roman trading city of Aquileia.
Archaeological Park of Baratti and Populonia
An Etruscan city by the sea, where tombs, ironworks and Roman temples remain legible in the landscape.
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