Itálica

Two Roman emperors were born in this ruined city just eight kilometres north of Seville, and that fact alone makes Italica one of the most historically significant archaeological sites on the Iberian Peninsula. Trajan, who expanded the Roman Empire to its greatest territorial extent, was born here in 53 AD. His successor Hadrian — the man who built the wall across Britain and the Pantheon in Rome — was born here too, in 76 AD. Italica itself was founded in 206 BC by the Roman general Scipio Africanus as a settlement for veterans wounded in the Battle of Ilipa during the Second Punic War, making it the first Roman city in Hispania.

The star attraction is the amphitheatre, one of the largest in the Roman Empire with a capacity of 25,000 spectators. It was used as a filming location for the fighting pits of Meereen in Game of Thrones, and standing in the center of the oval, surrounded by crumbling tiers of seats and the tunnels where animals and gladiators waited, the scale of Roman entertainment culture hits differently than any textbook could convey.

The residential district — the Nova Urbs, or new city — contains some of the most impressive Roman mosaics still in their original locations. The House of the Birds features a floor depicting 33 different species, each rendered with startling naturalistic detail. The House of Neptune has a massive mosaic of the sea god surrounded by marine creatures. These are not museum pieces behind glass; they are floors you walk alongside in the open air, exactly where they were laid nearly two thousand years ago.

Italica is easy to reach by bus from Seville and is criminally under-visited. On a weekday morning you may have the amphitheatre almost to yourself — an experience that the Colosseum in Rome can never offer.