Archeologists have determined that the first people settled on the Italian peninsula as early as 1,000,000 BC, in the Paleolithic era.  The famous preserved ruins of Pompeii, buried in the 1st century by an eruption from Mt. Vesuvius, enable us to see in extraordinary detail how ancient people lived, and fascinating ruins of Ancient Rome are situated throughout the center and outskirts of an otherwise modern Rome. Extant sights of Ancient Rome include:       

• Pantheon
• Roman Forum
• Palatine Hill
• Colosseum
• Circus Maximus
• Baths of Caracalla and Diocletian
• Excavated churches, temples and obelisks 

While todayâ??s visitors to Italy can still taste that distant past, it is the later epochs of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance that have enriched this land with its greatest treasures.