eternallycool.net

On March 2nd 2008, four frescoed rooms in the house of Rome’s first emperor, Augustus, will be open to the public for the first time.

Those who would like to enjoy the paintings will be required to purchase a new “single ticket” providing access to the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, and the Palatine (this ticket also a new development in the Eterna in early 2008) and to view the rooms on a guided tour.

The four rooms on the lower level of the Imperial residence, as well as a small study above them, were found in the 1970s. They were in a particularly fragile condition and have only now been restored to their original state, Bottini said.

Experts believe they were part of a smaller house below the ruins of Augustus’ sprawling imperial palace – the house he established when he was still just Julius Caesar’s adoptive son Octavian and not Rome’s first emperor.

Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli called the opening of the rooms ”an extraordinary event, the fruit of decades of work which has been possible thanks to state funds but also funding from private bodies like the World Monument Fund”.