ROME - ROMA
Top Tourists Attractions
Capitoline Museums
Colosseum
Sistine Chapel
Spanish Steps
Castel Sant’ Angelo
Pantheon
St. Peter’s
Roman Forum
Piazza Navona
Best Churches and Temples
St. Peter’s - At 450feet high, Michelangelo’s dome is the tallest in the world. Sadly, the
artist died before seeing his work completed.
Pantheon – This monumental 2,000 year-old building is one of the largest surviving
temples of ancient Rome.
Sant’ Andrea al Quirinale – Bernini made maximum use of strong, dynamic curves in
this oval interior creating a small masterpiece of the Roman Baroque.
San Clemente - Different archaeological layers lie beneath the 12th century church near
the Colosseum.
Best Museums and Galleries
Vatican Museums - The galleries and long corridors hold priceless artifacts such as a
9th century mosaic showing scenes from the life of Christ.
Galleria Spada – This collection’s strength’s lies in its 17th and 18th century paintings.
Palazzo Corsini - Included here are works by Caravaggio, Rubens and Van Dyck, as
well as a painting of the Baroque sculptor Bernini.
Museo e Galleria Borghese - The ground-floor museum houses ancient Greet and
Roman sculpture as well as early Bernini masterpieces, such as his David (1619).
Upstairs are paintings by Titian, Rubens and other masters.
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Palazzo Venezia - The highlights of Rome’s most important museum of decorative arts
are its Byzantine and medieval collections.
Capitoline Museums: Palazzo dei Conseervatori and Palazzo Nuovo - Many
Baroque sculptures and paintings.
Best Fountains and Obelisks
Piazza San Pietro – Twin fountains give life to the splendid monumental piazza of St.
Peter’s. Maderno designed the one of the Vatican side in 1614; the other was later built
to match.
Piazza del Popolo - Massive 19th century marble lions and fountains surround an
ancient obelisk in the center of the piazza.
Fontana dei Quattro Fuimi - The fountain of the four rivers is the work of Bernini.
The four figures represent the Ganges, the Plate, the Danube and the Nile, the principal
rivers of the four continents then known. Located in the Piazza Navona.
Obelisk of Santa Maria sopra Minerva - The Egytian obelisk, held up by Bernini’s
marble elephant, dates from the 6th century BC.
Fontana delle Tartarughe - One of Rome’s more secret fountains, this jewel of
Renaissance sculpture shows youths helping tortoises into a basin.
Fontana della Barcaccia (leaking boat) - This elegant `627 fountain is probably the
work of Pietro Bernini, father of the more famous Gian Lorenzo.
Trevi Fountain - The Trevi, inspired by Roman triumphal arches, was designed by
Nicola Salvi in 1732. Tradition has it that a coin thrown into the water guarantees a
visitor’s return to Rome. One of the most famous fountains in Rome.
Fontana delle Naiadi - When this fountain was unveiled in 1901, the realistically
sensual bronze nymphs caused a storm of protest.
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Rome -- Area by Area
Capitol - The Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, the southern summit of the Capitoline
Hill, was the center of the Roman world. Reached by a zig-zagging path up from the
Forum, the temple was the scene of all the most sacred religious and political ceremonies.
The hill and its temple cam to symbolize Rome’s authority as caputmundi, head of the
world, and the concept of a “capital” city is derived from the Capitol.
Forum - The Forum was the center of political, commercial and judicial life in ancient
Rome. The largest buildings were the basilicas, where legal cases were heard.
According to the playwright Plautus, the are teemed with “lawyers and litigants, bankers
and brokers, shopkeepers and strumpets, good-for-nothings waiting for a tip from the
rich.” As Rome’s population boomed, the Forum became too small. In 46 BC Julius
Caesar built a new one, setting a precedent that was followed by emperors from Augustus
to Trajan.
Palatine - According to legend, Romulus and Remus were brought up here by a wolf
in a cave. Traces of Iron Age huts, dating from the 9th century BC, have bee found on the
Palatine Hill, providing archaeological support for the area’s legendary links with the
founding of Rome. The Palatine was a very desirable place to live, becoming home to
some of the city’s most famous inhabitants.
Piazza della Rotonda - The Pantheon, one of the great buildings in the history of
European architecture, has stood at the heart of Rome for nearly 2,000 years. The
historic area around it has seen uninterrupted economic and political activity throughout
that time. This is also the main financial district of Rome with baking headquarters and
the stock exchange. Not many people live here, but in the evenings, Romans stroll in the
narrow streets and fill the lively restaurants and cafes that make this a focus for the city’s
social life.
Piazza Navona - The foundations of the buildings surrounding the elongated oval of
Piazza Navona were the ruined grandstands of the vast Stadium of Domitian. The piazza
still provides a dramatic spectacle today with the obelisk of the Fontana dei Quattro
Fiumi in front of the church of Sant’Agnese in Agone as its focal point.
Piazza di Spagna - By the 16th century, the increase in numbers of visiting pilgrims
and ecclesiastics was making life in Rome’s already congested medieval center
unbearable. A new triangle of roads was built (and is still in place today), to help channel
pilgrims as quickly as possible from the city’s north gate, the Porta del Popolo, to the
Vatican. By the 18th century, hotels had strung up throughout the district. Today, this
attractive area offers much more: the superb works of Renaissance and Baroque art,
views of the city from the Spanish Steps and the Pincio Gardens, plus Rome’s most
famous shopping streets, centered around Via Condotti.
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Campo de’ Fiori - Between Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and the Tiber, the city
displays many distinct personalities. The open-air market of Campo de’Fiori preserves
the lively bohemian atmosphere of the medieval inns that once flourished here, while the
area also contains Renaissance palazzi, such as Palazzo Farnese and Palazzo Spada,
where powerful Roman families built their fortresslike houses near the route of papal
processions.
Quirinal - One of the original seven hills of Rome, the Quirinal was mainly residential
area in Imperial times. To the east of the hill were the vbast Baths of Diocletiank, still
standing in front of Rome’s main train station. Abandoned in the Middle Ages, the
district returned to favor in the late 16th century. The popes for Palazzo del Quirnale took
the prime site. Great ruling families had their palazzi lower down the hill. With the end
of papal rule in the 1870, the surrounding area was redeveloped, as the Quirinal became
the residence of kings of Italy, then of the President.
Esquiline - The Esquiline is the largest and highest of Rome’s seven hills. In
Imperial Rome the western slopes over looking the Forum housed the crowded slums of
the Suburra. On the eastern side there were a few villas belonging to wealthy citizens.
Theessential character of the place has persisted throughout two millennia; it is still one
of the poorer quarters of the city. The area is now heavily built up. The area’s main
interest, however, lies in its churches. Many of these were founded on the sites of private
houses where Christians met to worship secretly in the days when the religion was
banned.
Lateran - In the Middle Ages the Lateran Palace was the residence of the popes, and the
basilica of San Giovanni beside it rivaled St. Peter’s in splendor. After the return of the
popes from Avignon at the end of the 14th century, the area declined in importance.
Pilgrims still continued to visit San Giovanni and Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. The area
remained sparsely inhabited until Rome became capital of Italy in 1870 and a network of
residential streets was laid out to house the influx of newcomers.
Caracalla - The Celian Hill overlooking the Colosseum takes its name from Caelius
Vibenna, the legendary hero of Rome’s struggle with the Tarquins. In Imperial Rome,
this was a fashionable place to live, and some of its vanished splendor is still apparent in
the vast ruins of the Baths of Caracalla. Today, thanks to the Archaeological Zone
established at the turn of the century, it is a delightfully peaceful area, a green wedge
stretching from the Aurelian Wall to the heart of the city.
Aventine - This is one of the most peaceful areas within the walls of the city.
Al;though it is largely residential, there are some unique historic sights, Form the top of
the Aventine Hill, there are exceptional views across the river to Trastervere and St.
Peter’s.
Trastervere - The proud and aggressively independent inhabitants of Trastevere, the
area “across the Tiber”, consider themselves the most authentic Romans. In one of the
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most picturesque old quarters of the city, it is still possible to glimpse scenes of everyday
life that seem to belong to bygone centuries.
Janiculum - Overlooking the Tiber on the Trastevere side of the river, the Janiculum
Hill has often played its part in the defense of the city. The last occasion was in 1849,
when Garibaldi held off attacking French troops. The park at the top of the hill is filled
with monuments to Garibaldi and his men. A popular place for walks, the park provides
a welcome escape from the densely packed streets of Trastevere.
Vatican - As the site where St. Peter was martyred and buried, the Vatican became the
residence of the popes who succeeded him. Decisions reached here have shaped the
destiny of Europe, and the great basilica of St. Peter’s draws pilgrims from all over the
Christian world. The papal palaces beside St. Peter’s house the Vatican Museums. With
the added attractions of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel and the Raphael Rooms, their
wonderful collections of Classical sculpture make them the finest museums in Rome.
The Vatican’s position as a state within a state was guaranteed by the Lateran Treaty of
1929, marked by the building of an new road, the Via della Conciliazione. This leads
from St. Peter’s to Castel Sant’ Angelo, a monument to a far grimmer past. Built
originally as the Emperor Hadrian’s mausoleum, this papal fortress and prison has
witnessed many fierce battles for control of the city.
Via Veneto - In Imperial Rome, this was a suburb where rich families owned
luxurious villas and gardens. Ruins from this era can be seen in the excavations in Piazza
Sallustio, named after the most extensive gardens in the area. When Rome became
capital of Italy in 1870, the land was sold for development. By 1900, Via Veneto had
become a street with smart modern hotels and cafes. It featured prominently in Fellini’s
1960 film la Dolce Vita, a scathing satire on the lives of film stars and the idle rich, but
since then it has lost its position as a meeting place of the famous.
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