The Forum, Rome

Every landscape architect should visit the Agora in Athens and the Forum in Rome: they are the most historically important urban open spaces in Europe. Its site is a natural crossing, between the Palatine Hill and the Capitol. The Sacred Way runs between these features and is fronted by public buildings of the first importance. There could be no more significant exemplification of Bill Hillier's theory of Space Syntax: the Forum was highly integrated into Ancient Rome and, partly because there is no entrance charge, remains highly integrated into the modern tourist circuit.