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Welcome to the premiere of Rome Unveiled! In future episodes, we will tackle Roman cuisine and Baroque architecture, but today, we start where it all began: the mud.

Before the marble, there was a swamp.

What if the heart of ancient Rome was once a forgotten marshland? Join Sarah and local guide Giovanni as they step back 2,800 years, leaving the iconic Roman Forum behind to uncover the Rome that existed before emperors, before the Republic, and even before the stones were laid.

Imagine the air thick with damp earth and woodsmoke, the bleating of sheep, and the rhythmic thud of wooden hammers. This is the Rome of struggling villages on defensible hilltops, using a marshy valley as their cemetery and a strategic river crossing as their gateway to opportunity.

In this episode, we uncover:

• The Swampy Origins: The surprising reasons why early settlers chose an "awful place" for their homes.
• Life & Death: The "hut urns" and the intimate glimpse they offer into the lives of Rome's earliest inhabitants.
• Myth vs. Memory: How the legend of Romulus and Remus and the Rape of the Sabine Women are encoded memories of true origins.
• The First Transformation: How a simple salt road turned a graveyard into the Roman Forum.
• The Etruscan Connection: The profound influence that shaped Rome's politics, architecture, and gods.

Prepare to see the Eternal City through entirely new eyes. Rome wasn't built by conquest alone, but by a project of collective will.

Planning a trip to Rome?Visit romeunveiled.com to preview our tours, maps, and curated guides before the app drops.