Tourists are flocking to see the freshly opened House of Augustus on Rome's Palatine Hill despite heavy rain in the capital on Monday.
The four frescoed rooms, which experts believe were part of a house Augustus lived in while he was still just Julius Caesar's adoptive son Octavian, have opened to the public for the first time since they were discovered in the 1970s below the ruins of Augustus's sprawling imperial palace.
Both Italian and foreign tourists are braving the weather to queue for a peek into the rooms, which because of their small size and the fragility of the frescoes can only be visited by five people at a time.
''We were hoping that with the rain people would stay away,'' said one Italian woman under an umbrella.
The four surviving rooms from the two-storey house are a dining room, a bedroom and a large entrance hall on the ground floor, and a small study on the floor above.
Fragments of the rooms' red, blue and ochre frescoes found by archaeologists on the floor have been painstakingly pieced back together during a 1.5-mln-euro restoration of the house.
''This is a work of unique beauty and elegance,'' said Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli at the inauguration of the house this weekend.
''We should thank all the restorers who have worked for 20 years to reconstruct a very difficult puzzle that retains its singular brilliance and wonderful colours,'' he added.
Guided tours of the house are covered by a new single ticket offering access to the Roman Forums, the Colosseum and the Palatine launched here on Monday.
