Up the stairs (Cordonata) to Capitoline Hill

This is one of the famous Seven Hills of Rome. The piazza at the top was designed by Michelangelo. When I got home I found it that it had, like everything here, a deeper, darker past. A woman named Tarpeia let the Sabines through the gate to the citadel. She was punished for this deed by execution via hurling off a cliff. That cliff became known as the Tarpeian Rock and a famous execution destination. The Sabines later settled in the area.