Italica

About a half hour's bus ride out of Seville in the suburb of Santiponce, the extensive Roman ruins of Italica are a real must-see for all history buffs. The city was founded in 206BC, but most of what you can see now was built in the 1st and 2nd centuries, in the time of the emperors Trajan and Hadrian, who were both natives of the city. The wide paved streets and tall cypress trees, which no doubt helped the original colonists feel at home, make this a pleasant place to spend an afternoon. Highlights include the amphitheatre, the third largest in the Roman Empire, with seating for 25,000, and the preserved mosaic floors of several of the mansions known as the Planetarium, Neptune and the Birds. Parts of the walls, an aqueduct and cisterns can also be seen.