Celio

The Celio is one of Rome's original seven hills, and though it sits directly behind the Colosseum, it stays notably quieter than the surrounding tourist zone, much of it covered by the shaded Villa Celimontana park. Beneath the Basilica of San Clemente, one of Rome's best hidden layered sites, visitors can descend through a 12th-century church into a 4th-century basilica and further down into a 1st-century Roman house and Mithraic temple. The area also holds the Case Romane del Celio, excavated Roman houses beneath the Basilica of Saints John and Paul. It rewards visitors who want ancient and early Christian Rome without the Colosseum's crowds.