The emperors of the Flavia family built this large amphitheater for gladiatorial shows and hunts of wild animals, which in the following centuries became the symbol of the Eternal City. The building, called Colosseum starting from the Middle Ages...
Details
By tradition the apostle Peter was buried in a cemetery near Nero’s circus where he had been martyred. Emperor Constantine built the original Basilica of Saint Peter on that spot around the year 320. The building was comparable with the current...
The fountain constitutes the terminal fountain of the Acqua Vergine, the aqueduct built by Agrippa – general, son in law and collaborator of Augustus – to feed his thermae at the Pantheon, inaugurated in 19 BC. According to a legend handed on by...
The first core of the Vatican Museums and Galleries was a collection of ancient sculptures created by Jules the Second (1503-13). The idea of the Museum was conceived by Clement the Thirteenth (1758-69), who set up the Profane Museum with the...
The Pantheon is without any doubt one of the best preserved ancient monuments in Rome. It is a wonderful example of the reutilization from a Christian perspective of a sacred building consecrated to all Gods. It stands in the heart of the ancient...
One of the spectacular and typical urban complexes of Baroque Rome. The buildings built on the ruins of the Domitian stadium – of which the square preserves its shape and dimensions – mark its boundary. Festivals, races and jousts took place...
Piazza del Popolo is a large urban square in Rome. The name in modern Italian literally means "People's Square", but historically it derives from the poplars (populus in Latin, pioppo in Italian) after which the church of Santa Maria del Popolo,...
The origin of the Capitoline Museums dates back to the donation of the Lateran Bronzes by Pope Sixtus the Fifth in 1471 to the Roman People. Other ancient findings coming from urban excavations and in the second half of the sixteenth century a...
Villa Borghese Park covers a vast area in the heart of Rome. It lies between the stretch of the Aurelian Walls that joins Porta Pinciana to Piazzale Flaminio and the new districts of Salario and Pinciano that were created in the early twentieth...
The splendid small palace that hosts the Borghese Gallery was built at the beginning of the seventeenth century as the private residence and for public representation of the Borghese family. From the very beginning it housed the collection of...
This extensive network of galleries began in the private cemetery of Domitilla, whose uncle, the emperor Domitian (81-96), belonged to the rich Flavian family. In 95 Domitilla’s husband, Flavius Clemens was denounced as a Christian and executed...
The National Etruscan Museum in Villa Giulia is considered the most representative Italian Museum of the Etruscan civilization and is located within Villa Giulia, the suburban residence of Pope Jules the Second (1550-55), designed by Vignola and...
The Doria-Pamphilj Gallery is situated in the Palace with the same name, built between the middle of the fifteenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century, that previously belonged to the Della Rovere family, then became property of the...
MAXXI is the first National museum dedicated to contemporary art. It’s a great architectural work of art, characterized by the innovative and fantastic forms, designed by Zhaha Hadid. Thought as a great centre for culture, MAXXI was...
The Forum Romanum is situated in the valley between the Palatine Hill and the Capitol and consists of an almost trapezoid-shaped square that stands between the Regia and the Rostra on the short sides and the Basilica Aemilia and the Basilica...
The basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (Saint Mary Major) is the most important of the Roman churches dedicated to the Madonna. It rises on top of the Cispio (the highest of the three ramifications that make the Esquiline Hill) on the ruins...
The mausoleum was started around the year 130 A.D. and completed in 139, one year after the death of Emperor Hadrian (117-138 A.D.). It stood on the right bank of the Tiber and could be accessed from Campus Martius through Ponte Elio (Pons...
One of the most beautiful in the world. The first basilica of St Peter had been built by order of emperor Constantine on the spot of Peter’s tomb, near the circus of Nero where he had been martyrized. Began in 315, overcoming great technical...
The extended name of the church cathedral of Rome is Arcibasilica Papale e Cattedrale del Santissimo Salvatore e dei Santi Giovanni Battista ed Evangelista in Laterano (Patriarchal Arcibasilica and Cathedral of the Holy Saviour and of the Saints...
Built by Caracalla between 212 and 217 AD, they are still well preserved. The thermal baths, that had a capacity of more than 1500 people, were restored by Aureliano, Diocleziano and Teodorico. They stopped to work after 537 following the siege...
Romantic centre of 19th Rome, already in the 15th century took a very important business role for the presence of hotels and houses inhabited by foreigners, attracted in this area for the presence of Spanish and French delegations. The...
The imposing 135-step staircase was inaugurated by Pope Benedict XIII during the 1725 Jubilee; it was released (thanks to French loans granted in 1721–1725) in order to connect the Bourbon Spanish embassy (from which the square takes its name) to...
After his first residence on the Palatine Hill was destroyed by the big fire that broke out in the year 64 AD, Nero built the Domus Aurea. It was the largest and most sumptuous of the imperial residences extending from the Palatine Hill as far as...
For its solemnity and its majestic proportions the palace is one of the most sumptuous of the city. It is called “harpsichord” for its shape and its “keyboard” should be the short side with two balconies looking towards the Tiber. Began in 1560,...
Piazza Venezia is the central hub of Rome, Italy, in which several thoroughfares intersect, including the Via dei Fori Imperiali and the Via del Corso. It takes its name from the Palazzo Venezia, built by the Venetian Cardinal, Pietro Barbo...
Circo Massimo (Circus Maximus), is the biggest building for shows of all times, it is 600 meters long and 140 meters wide; it is by the legend connected to the origins of the city: in fact during the games in honour of Conso, the rape of the...
In 1578 Pope Gregory XII Boncompagni charged the architect Martino Longhi first, and Ottaviano Mascherino afterward, with constructing a summer villa on top of the Quirinale hill which would incorporate the existing villa belonging to the Carafa...
Along the Via Ostiense onthe spot were by tradition the Apostle of the peoples was buried, the early Christians built a burial chapel (cella memoriae) that was later transformed into a basilica by Constantine. Always by tradition the basilica was...
The Arch of Constantine is the largest ofthe three triumphal arches in a good state of preservation in Rome (69 feet inheight). It was erected in the year 315 AD to celebrate the victory of Constantine over Maxentius at the battle of the...
The famous fountain dei Fiumi (of the rivers) is situated at the centre of the square that in the ancient times was occupied by the Stadium of Domitian. It is fed by the Acqua Paola and was inaugurated on 12 June 1651 by Innocent the Tenth...
Legend has it that the Tiber island was created in a peculiar way: after driving out king Tarquinius Superbus and as a mark of their hatred towards the tyrant, the Roman populace cast all his crops into the Tiber and the mud that accumulated on...
The basilica was probably the first official christian cult place in Rome. According to the legend, it was ordered by Pope Callisto I during C.III and completed by the hand of San Giulio. It was the rebuilt under Innocenzo II and then underwent...
During the Republican Age, when Rome had already become the capitol of an enormous empire that extended from Gallia to Asia Minor, the ancient Forum Romanum became insufficient for the functions of administrative and monumental center of the...
A brief overview of the panoramic points in Rome should start from the Campidoglio or Capitol hill, the ideal centre of the city and the symbol of its life. There are different places from where you can enjoy wonderful views of the city.Once...
A walk along the Janiculum enables us to enjoy a series of wonderful views. Let’s start from piazza San Pietro in Montorio, were the Aventine with its churches, the ruins of the Palatine and, on the left, the Renaissance Palazzo Farnese stand...
Once a simple meadow, today is a square and one of the most characteristic places of the city. A jewel among jewels, piazza Campo de' Fiori is placed between piazza Navona and piazza Farnese and is the typical scenario of old Rome. The...
Palazzo Barberini was built by will of Maffeo Barberini, the future pope Urban the Eighth (1623-44). It was designed by Carlo Maderno and built on the preexisting Villa Sforza. At Maderno’s death, the supervision of the works was assigned to Gian...
The Museo dei Fori Imperiali located in Mercati di Traiano is topographically and conceptually linked to the greater urban system of the Imperial Forums, that of Caesar (46 B.C.), Augustus (2 B.C.), Templum Pacis, (75 A.D.), Nerva (97 A.D.) and...
Bioparco di Roma is a 17-hectare (42-acre) zoological garden located on part of the original Villa Borghese estate in Rome. There are 1,114 animals of 222 species maintained.The zoo was conceived in 1908 to hold exotic animal species for...
The present seat of the Chamber of Deputies stands on an area occupied by the 15th century Palazzo Gaddi. The building was entrusted in 1653 to Gianlorenzo Bernini by Innocent X Pamphilij, who wanted to give it to the Ludovisi family. In 1694...