I’m trying to get a sense for how the ruins transitioned from glorious palaces to the ruins we see today, and how locals thought of them through the ages. I know that in some cases (e.g., the Pantheon) they got repurposed, and in many cases folks stole stones from them, but I’m curious if more is known about what day-to-day life in Rome was during the Middle Ages (or any other period) with huge looming ruins and palaces. Were they cordoned off? Did people visit them like they do today? Repurposed somehow? Did the average person who saw the ruins know about the ancient Romans?

One example I’m curious about in particular is Hadrian’s Villa. It’s massive and monumental and I’m wondering if later emperors continued using it or if some non-emperor moved in later. Presumably it didn’t just fall into ruin immediately after Hadrian died, and I remember seeing some graffiti from hundreds of years ago there, but the timelines are unclear to me. Did folks try to keep it maintained for a while, visit it, maybe write first-hand accounts of seeing parts of it collapse as it fell into disrepair?

I was looking at some Piranesi prints recently showing various Roman ruins in the 17th century that looked fairly overgrown. Is that likely how they looked during that period, or was he embellishing them?

I realize it’s a very broad question that covers a wide range of time periods but I’m mostly just looking for an idea for local attitudes towards the ruins over time.