Rome: Palatine and Forum – Retracing The Roman Funeral Rite

A walk from the Palatine Hill to the Roman Forum, where Rome staged its funerals as spectacles of power — from Augustus's private rooms to the fire that burned down the Senate: un unprecedent journey
Rome staged death as theatre. This walk runs from the Palatine Hill down into the Roman Forum, tracing the empire's most calculated funerals — moments when mourning a body doubled as a display of power.

Start at the Arch of Constantine and climb the Palatine Hill, the most storied of Rome's seven hills, home to kings and emperors. Step inside the House of Augustus or the neighbouring House of Livia, for a multimedia light-and-voice show that brings its 1st-century frescoes back to life — a rare chance to see, in colour, the private world of the man who built the empire this walk is really about: how it was staged, mourned, and remembered.

Descend along the Via Sacra, the same processional road used for the pompa funebris of Rome's elite: wax masks of ancestors worn by actors, professional mourners paid to wail, a funeral cortege built to remind the living exactly who held power.

Reach the Roman Forum at the Rostra, facing the Curia, where the laudatio funebris — the public funeral oration — was delivered before the crowd. In 52 BC that crowd became a mob: outraged at the murder of the politician Clodius, they carried his body into the Curia and burned it there, burning down the Senate house with it. We close before the Tabularium with the Twelve Tables, Rome's founding law code, whose Table X regulated the very thing this walk has followed: how loudly Rome was allowed to grieve.

Per garantire la disponibilità, prenota il prima possibile. La prenotazione anticipata è consigliata soprattutto se stai pianificando il viaggio durante l'alta stagione come le festività pubbliche o i fine settimana.

Questa escursione può essere annullata senza costi fino a 24 ore prima dell'inizio del viaggio. Se la annulli dopo 24 ore o non ti presenti all'escursione, ti verrà comunque addebitato il prezzo intero dell'attività. Essere in ritardo al ritiro o alla partenza sarà considerato come non presentarsi.