Rome was built on seven hills, and the Palatine Hill is the central hill as well as the site for one of the oldest parts of the city. According to the legend Palatine Hill is the place where two brothers Romulus and Remus grew in a cave fed by a she-wolf, and then the omen determined the location and the first king of Rome."The twins had agreed to gather the country people together and found a walled city: it was still in doubt which of the two should be the founder. Then Romulus spoke, "No need for great contention. Much trust is put in the birds: let us try them." So it was agreed. Romulus went to the rocks of the wooded Palatine, Remus, at morning, to the top of the Aventine. Remus saw six birds, Romulus, twelve, one after the other. They observed their pact, and Romulus was given rule over the city." Ovid, Fasti, iv.811-18. Somewhere around 800 BC a band of shepherds from the Alban Hills must have brought their flocks across the Campagna to this hill. They built timber huts and buried their dead in the cemetery in the Roman Forum. This shepherd's village attracted to itlelf the legends of Evander and his Arcadians, of the coming of Aeneas, of Romulus and Remus and the ritual foundation of the city of Rome. Today, as in ancient times, the birthday of Rome is celebrated on 21st of April, the festival of Pales, the divinity who looks after flocks and herds.

At the top of the hill, overlooking the Forum, are the Farnese Gardens. Designed by the Renaissance architect Vignola, the Farnese Gardens, in Italian Horti Farnesiani, were created for a member of one of the great papal families, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese.  The gardens contain many varieties of plants including , boxwoods, orange trees, rose bushes, and oleanders. Once the Farneses died out, most of the villa was dismantled and the gardens fell into disrepair.