When I was a child at school I was taught a lot of things about my city and it's ancient history: terms like "eternal",SPQR or "caput mundi" were so common, carved in our minds, folks who were raised here. Long before I decided to study other aspects of the Roman world,more than my Italian school education had given me, a ton of notions more or less historically important were acquired just by walking along its ancient roads, talking with people or reading any piece of marble hanging on the walls, sheets of paper with anything resembling the word Roma on them. So I've learnt facts not found in history books. For instance, what modern Romans refer to as public toilets in the streets, Vespasiani, remind us of the Emperor. But who could know that this has its origins in a story that Vespasian scattered the city with them. Citizens were suppopsed to pay for using them and punished if they did not. To his son Titus, who argued about his father's unusual way of making money, he answered waving them under his nose saying "smell it!" "Do they stink?" This was quite funny and reminds me how this city is involved with its noble past in every little aspect of its life. Less funny when you consider something that you thought to be fact is actually not fact. Just think about the seven hills of Rome, learned (as it happens with the seven kings of Rome) at elementary school with the little poem" Campidoglio, Palatino,Aventino, Esquilino, Quirinale, Viminale e Celio" just like this paying attention to putting the Capitol at the beginning and Celius at the end; the other five just came to mind with two simple rhymes. Well, can you imagine the shock when in an archaeological book you finally discover that instead of the originals which were called Septimontium (seven mountains) there were probably others. Instead of them should consider the three tops of Palatinus (Palatium, Cermalus,and Velia) the three of Exqulinus (Oppius, Cispius and Fagutal) and the Celius. "Hmmm" I thought "and what about the others?"A little relief came only when someone told me that after the first centuries of life, Romans spread over all the hills which we were taught about at elementary school. In some way my basic principles were safe! I could keep on visiting my favourite spot, the best view in Rome, still contemplating the heights I had ever contemplated till then. I had chosen the top of the Capitol or as we say "Il Campidoglio" from a strange translation of the Latin word "Capitolinum".In a better way it was translated in to the Italian word Capitale and the english Capital and demonstrates how this hill was, more than any other, the heart of the power which comes from the Gods. Here, long ago, stood the temple of Jupiter optimus maximus (Jove Best and Greatest). A word derived from a hill and its function, just as Palazzo/Palace comes from the name Palatinus for the huge buildings of the emperors. Climbing the cliff from the area of the Imperial Forums you have the most magnificent views of the hills and of the valley below, the very heart of the ancient city. The Curia, the Senate House, the rostra and comitia, the very symbols of the Roman democracy are just below you. We think how many times have Caesar, Cicero or Sulla walked the same stones we see down there. And you have the Palatinus just in front of you, and scattered from the left to the right you can recognise all the other hills: Quirinalis, which took it's name after the temple of the God Quirinus, defied Romulus himself, which once stood there; Oppius which is the southern prominence of the Exquilinus, where the golden house of Nero, the Domus Aurea was on an area stretching from the Palatinus to the Celius (this last named after the ancient warrior Celius Vibenna). To understand how big the complex was, just imagine that the Coliseum was built afterwards on the drained lake of its park. From that point you can't see the Viminalis, once covered in those plants which in Italian are called vimini and give it that yellow colour in springtime; or the Aventinus, not visible from the ruins of the residence of the emperor Diocletian and the other houses of the Palatinus. But it's there, just across the long valley Murcia, quite entirely occupied by the Circus Maximus, you could see the seventh hill where according to the legend, Remus should count the greatest number of vultures. Believe me if you have never been there that balcony is the best place to feel in touch with the Urbs. I've been thinking deeply about this, half with anger and regret for what an astonishing site this had to be around the first century after Christ, half with a sort f gratefullness for what is still here that allows us to be somehow a part of it. I think of what we are not able to see anymore, the Temple of Ianus, with its doors always open during wars and closed in time of peace. I think of those main buildings such as the Iulia and Aemilia basilicas. Only imagination can give me back the hugeness of these administrative palaces when now pretty much nothing remains. For example some pillars or tabulae lusorriae, a kind of game very similar to modern tic tac toe still carved on the floor, or several coin prints liquefied by the big fire exploded during the Barbarian invasion of Alaric in 410 AD. I keep on imagining all the magnificent white marble buildings in the area of the Forum, temples and columns, arches and statues, so crowded that people could hardly walk on the Sacred Way, in the vici and clivi which from here went to other parts of the city. The ambitious Domitian filled Rome with so many triumphal arches until writing appeared on one saying "arci" which means "stop it"! What about Servius Sulpicius, a man who acquired the privelege for him and his descendants to occupy one and a half square meters for public ceremonies, because the number of statues was so high to not allow the common pasage of people in the streets. Somehow we are luckier than the ancient Romans; we can in a look see monuments that are far older than a thousand years. We see the "newest " monument in the Forum, which is the column of Foca, built in 608 AD by Pope Bonifacius IV, to thank him for the donation of the Pantheon to the Church of Rome. At the same time we admire the oldest one, the Lapis Niger, a black stone believed to be the tomb of the founder Romulus. But there's another curiosity; those who could walk along the Sacred Way in the last years of the Republic, could see not only some buildings which are no longer standing but also some geographical spots; a couple of hills are not in their place. First of all the Quirinalis hill spread it's feet to join the Capitolium but when Trajan built in this district he dug in to this mount because there was no more room for his new Forum. How high was this hill? Just look at the height of Trajan's column built there not only to commomorate the emperor's adventures in the conquest of Dacia, but also to show how deep the cut was made in to that portion of the Quirinalis. On the other hand when Via dei Fori Imperiali, the long cobbled road from the Coliseum to Piazza Venezia, was built by Mussolini in 1931, the Velia had the same end. This was a hill joining the Celius to the Palatinus and was almost totally removed so that the Italian dictator could finally see the amphitheatre from Palazzo Venezia, where his headquarters were. Unfortunately something else was destroyed by this work, the basement close to the amphitheatre where once the big bronze statue of Nero stood. In fact the name Coliseum came from this colossal 35 metre high statue; just imagine it as tall as the bell tower of St. Fracesca Romana in the surrounding area in the place where there was the biggest temple in town, the one of Venus and Rome. Nowadays, just a little garden is all that's left to remind us of the original size and position of the statue. Back to our privileged point of view, you can see below, searching amongst the other more famous monuments for some other legendary points; somewhere close to the temple of Dioscures you should find an ancient hole called Lacus Curtius. According to legend, an oracle foretold that a big disaster would befall the city if the dearest thing of Rome was not sacrificed; as a result Marcus Curtius, whom everyone thought of as a hero, threw himself with his horse in to the whole to ensure the safety of the city. Or you could see the Umbelicus Urbi (navel of the city) indicating the symbolic centre of ancient Rome, now looking only like a circle of bricks. Or the Miliarum Aureum, a column of marble covered by bronze, placed there by Augustus to symbolise the starting point of all the consul roads. On it were carved the distances from Rome to the main cities of the empire. Oh... this is history with a capital "H"... just here... do you still have doubts about where is the best place in Rome?