The Palatine usually plays second fiddle to the Forum and the Capitoline, and wasn't marked as a 'must see' in our guide.

In many ways though it was actually better than the Forum. Not as historically significant I'm sure - but there's actually quite a bit left of the various emperors' palaces.

You get a good idea how lavish the lifesyle of the rulers must have lived - and the hill itself is like a little oasis of greenery and calm in the midst of the bustle of Rome.

We bought the combo ticket for Palatine Hill and the Colosseum and visited the Hill first. We enjoyed the Hill as it had loads of ancient ruins lying around for us to look through and under and around. As usual, bring your own guidebook 'cause there's nothing there to tell you what's what. There are: a grotto, a garden, great views of the surrounds (the Forum, the Colosseum, and Circus Maximus) and the city (you can see St. Peter's Basilica in the distance). There are marble bits lying around, so you can take a rest on a marble column if you're tired. There's a small museum with more interesting bits on show (statues, wall paintings) and it's a great place to cool off from the hot sun. (It's also got a lavatory.) Behind that is the Circus Maximus which is now mostly a grassy area bounded by parked cars.

We liked Palatine Hill, mostly because there's lots of open spaces for kids to run around in, lots of trees, and because of terrific views of Rome around you. In reality, there's actually more to see at Palatine Hill than the Colosseum -- don't miss it!

I like this place coz it didn't disappoint me. I queued for half n hour just for buying tickets to go in, and of coz everyone queuing here just wants to buy tickets faster, then they can go to the coloseum without queuing again. But this place is really worth to see than the coloseum...

We scheduled a private walking tour of Ancient Rome with Through Eternity tours for September of 2006. We booked this tour with them online at . Our guide was Andrew, a young , fun and knowledgeable fellow from Ireland. He met us at our hotel in the morning and we took a cab together over to Palatine Hill. We got our tickets at the Palatine Hill entrance, which is key because the line is so much shorter there than at the Colosseum. Andrew then quickly immersed us into the Ancient Roman world with an accurate and entertaining history lesson that continued throughout the entire tour. Our tour included the Palatine Hill, the Colosseum and the Forum.
At first I thought that we could tour the ruins on our own, but about a week before the trip we decided that we wanted a guide to help us make the best use of our time. I am so glad that we decided to hire a private tour guide. As we traveled I saw large groups struggling to keep together and listening to their leader with headsets. It was nice to be able to chat with Andrew and ask him questions at any time. He allowed us to linger where we wanted to and I am sure he was able to tailor our tour to us based on our reactions and interests.
I would definitely recommend Through Eternity Tours-and ask for Andrew!