peeky

When I go to Rome should I climb up the seven hills? Is that what people do in Rome? Are they just regular hills with buildings on them or are the preserved specially?
Are they all named?

I have heard of the Seven Hills all of my life but I never read of anyone actually going to them. Thanks.

Huitres

You can find this information in any Roman history or Italian travel book.....

They are not "hills" like San Francisco per se, but rather slightly raised areas of terrain. I, too, thought I would see actual hills when I first went to Rome years ago and was very surprised to see a relatively even, flat landscape (with the more obvious exception by Circus Maximus and the Palatine Hill). They are completely walkable. I am sure when Rome was first founded that these hills were much more prominent and so named.

The Seven Hills of Rome are as follows:

Palatine Hill
Aventine Hill
Capitoline Hill
Quirinal Hill
Viminal Hill
Esquiline Hill
Caelian Hill

Five of them (Aventino, Celio, Esquilino, Quirinale, Viminale) are populated areas with monuments, buildings and parks; the Campidoglio (Capitoline Hill) now hosts the Municipality of Rome; the Palatine is an archaeological area (Circus Maximus, etc).

peeky

No, you have given me more information on the hills than I have found in the books I have. Thank you. I thought that they would be defined hills too, like in SFO.

claret

I grew up in a suburb in Brisbane Australia called Seven Hills and it was named after the Seven Hills of Rome. We lived on Aventine. I believe that the developer (way back in the 50's or thereabouts) went to a great deal of trouble to replicate the hills as they are in Rome - matching the streets that lead up to the hills as well.
This is just a bit of useless information but thought I would pass it on as I liked growing up in a suburb that had a bit of a story and history to it.

bo_jack

As a mildly interesting aside: two other cities that I have been in (Kiev and Istambul) also claim in some tourist guides to be "build on seven hills -- like Rome." Do any other major cities make a similar claim?

Dr_DoGood

Sheffield is also built on seven hills - but that's about the sum of its classical aspirations.

Dr D.

RufusTFirefly

Is Rome really the Venice of west-central Italy?

ron

Lisbon and Pittsburgh also claim to be built on seven hills.

indytravel

During my trip to Rome in '94 a local fast food chain had a promotion going.

It was "7 Burgers for 7 Hills." The billboard had a different style burger sitting atop each of the seven hills of Rome.

More useless info, but a trip down memory lane for me...

peeky

You are all so funny Now I know that cities have copied the seven hills but that Rome itself pretty much ignores the real thing, am I right? I pictured distinct hills with ruins or temples on them left over from the Roman times. Oh well is just goes to show that what a tourist has pictured isn't necessarily what is really there.

Fairhope

"Oh well is just goes to show that what a tourist has pictured isn't necessarily what is really there."
They are there-- they are just covered with a bunch of old buildings - lol
Seriously I think another reason that the hills are not so apparent is that there has been extensive build up of the banks of the river to avoid flooding.

peeky

From the pictures I have seen the river is in a very deep trench with concrete walls on the sides. Then I read here I think that the river was overlapping the banks and going on to the walking paths. That seems like quite a flood. It is so hard to picture Rome in my mind from the tour guides. I thought that it had ancient sites prominently on raised hills like the Acropolis in Greece.