Roman emperor's home opens to visitors

Lavish abode: The restoration of the ancient House of Augustus revealed rooms decorated with vividly coloured frescoes, many in exceptional condition. - AFP photos

Welcome to an open house event — in a 2,000-year-old home.

Lavishly frescoed rooms in the houses of the Roman Emperor Augustus and his wife Livia opened for the first time to the public this month, after years of painstaking restoration. The houses on Rome’s Palatine hill where the emperor lived with his family re-opened after a €2.5mil (RM10.4mil) restoration to mark the 2,000 anniversary of Augustus’s death this year – with previously off-limit chambers on show for the first time.