There’s no escaping it: Rome means history. There’s layers of the stuff – Etruscan tombs, Republican meeting rooms, Imperial temples, early Christian churches, medieval bell towers, Renaissance palaces and baroque basilicas. In this city a phenomenal concentration of history, legend and monuments coexists with an equally phenomenal concentration of people busily going about their everyday life. It’s hard to say what you’ll find most breathtaking about the eternal city – the arrogant opulence of the Vatican, the timelessness of the Forum, the top speed of a Fiat Bambino or the bill for your caffè latte.
Population: 2.7 million
Country: Italy
Time: GMT/UTC plus one hour (plus two hours in summer)
Telephone area code: 06
Orientation
Rome is halfway down Italy’s western coast, about 20km (12mi) inland. It’s a vast city, but the historic centre is quite small. Most of the major sights are within a reasonable distance of the central railway station, Stazione Termini. It is, for instance, possible to walk from the Colosseum, through the Forum, up to Piazza di Spagna and across to the Vatican in one day, but you wouldn’t really want to. All the major monuments are west of the train station, but make sure you use a map. While it can be enjoyable to get off the beaten track in Rome, it can also be very frustrating and time-consuming.
The Palatine Hill and the Forum are the centre of ancient Rome. Via del Corso runs north from the Forum to Piazza del Popolo, with the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain just to its east. The Vatican is northwest of the Forum, across the River Tiber.
Most of the budget places to stay are clustered around Stazione Termini; this area is rife with pickpockets and gangs of thieving children, so beware – do your best to look like you know where you’re going (pretend you’re John Travolta strutting along to ‘Staying Alive’). It is only slightly more expensive and definitely more enjoyable to stay closer to the city centre. Good-quality, reasonably priced meals can be found in the trattorie around Piazza Navona and in Trastevere.
Fiumicino airport is about 26km (16mi) southwest of the city. Stazione Termini is just northeast of the Palatine Hill and the Forum. The main bus station is just outside Termini.
Italian Schools in Rome
Rome is one of the most beautiful cities of the world and features more than 2600 years of European history and culture.Tourists visit the Vatican, the Forum Romanum and the Trevi Fountain – but often miss the many other sights, which make the whole of Rome a museum. A museum with a population of 3 million, with elegant shopping areas and exciting Italian life style. A fascinating city which also offers relaxation with its coffe shops and parks.
The Scuola Leonardo da Vinci is located in a typical aristocratic house in the centre of the Old City and only a short distance from the Spanish Steps and Piazza Navona.
Attractions
Forum
The commercial, political and religious centre of ancient Rome, the Forum spreads along the valley floor between the Capitoline and Palatine hills. It was constructed over about 900 years, with Republican buildings sitting in juxtaposition with temples from the Imperial era. The site’s disrepair and disintegration into pastureland mirrored the fall of the Roman Empire, and excavations have been underway since the 18th century.
The Forum is entered from the piazza leading from the Colosseum – that house of horrors cum marble quarry, also known as the Flavian Amphitheatre. You immediately enter another world: the past. Columns rise from grassy hillocks, and repositioned pediments and columns aid the work of the imagination. Just some of the many must-sees include the Arch of Septimus Severus, the Temple of Saturn, the House of the Vestals, the Temple of Antoninus & Faustina and the Arch of Titus.
From the Forum, you can climb the Palatino – where the wealthy and powerful built their palaces and personal temples. A layer of medieval churches and Renaissance gardens and villas transformed the hilltop ruins into a magical, ivy- and agapanthus-covered land of grottos and secret vistas. Look out for the House of Livia, the Domus Augustana, the Palace of the Flavians and the ruins of the Baths of Septimus Severus. You can look down on ruins of the Circus Maximus, though not much remains of what was once a chariot racetrack that held more than 200,000 spectators.
Random Roman Relics
Marcus Agrippa’s Pantheon is one of the world’s most sublime architectural creations: a perfectly proportioned floating dome resting on an elegant drum of columns and pediments. It was built in 27 BC, and rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian in 120 AD. The temple has been consistently plundered and damaged over the years; it lost its beautiful gilded bronze roof tiles in Pope Gregory III’s time. Look for the tombs of Raphael and Victor Emmanuel I. The Baths of Caracalla are the best-preserved imperial baths in the city. Covering 10 hectares, the baths could hold up to 1600 people and featured shops, gardens, libraries and gym facilities.
The Appian Way, the more than two-millennia-old road that runs all the way from Rome to Brindisi, is littered with monuments, in particular the Circus of Maxentius, and Roman tombs, such as the Tomb of Cecilia Metella. The route is also known for its catacombs – tunnels carved into the volcanic rock that were the meeting and burial places of Rome’s persecuted early Christians. The atmospheric tunnels are not for the claustrophobic, overweight or chronically unfit.
Holy See
Not many religions actually own a country, but Catholicism isn’t just any religion, and the Holy See – or Vatican City – isn’t any ordinary country. Headed up by his holiness, the tiny enclave in the heart of Rome is the administrative and spiritual capital of Roman Catholicism, and the world’s smallest independent state. During the working week, the population increases fivefold as residents of Rome cross the ‘border’ to do the Lord’s work.
Despite its importance to the devout – there are an estimated one billion Catholics worldwide – it’s not all bells and smells at the pope’s house. Scandal and intrigue have accompanied the office of the papacy for almost two millennia, and plenty of that scandal occurred within the Vatican buildings. But even without a dubious relationship with the Nazis, corruption and rumours of Mafia murders, the Vatican would remain a spectacular destination for history buffs, religious types and art-lovers alike. The Vatican is probably per square foot the richest country in the world, making up for their total lack of natural resources with an astonishing collection of priceless art treasures.
Castel Sant’ Angelo
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Reached by one of the world’s most beautiful bridges – Bernini’s billowing, angel-clad Pont Sant’ Angelo – this strange, circular tank of a building was originally constructed as the mausoleum of Emperor Hadrian. It was converted into a papal fortress in the 6th century, and is linked by underground passages to the Vatican palaces. Several popes have felt the need to take advantage of the secret routes in times of threat. The mausoleum is now an interesting museum, and its evocative atmosphere is heightened by the knowledge that it was from here that Puccini’s Tosca plunged to her death.
Christian Rome
Rome is full of very special churches. The Church of Santa Maria Antiqua is the oldest church in the Forum, and the nearby Church of San Pietro in Carcere is on the site of the Mammertime Prison, where St Peter is believed to have been imprisoned and to have created a miraculous stream of baptismal water. On the Aventine Hill, a beautiful yet marginally less visited spot, the 5th-century Church of Santa Sabina has lovely carved wooden doors. Santa Maria Maggiore dates from the 5th century but has a baroque façade and Romanesque bell tower. San Giovanni in Laterano is Rome’s cathedral and home to the preserved heads of Sts Peter & Paul. Santa Croce in Gerusalemme dates from the 4th century but was remodelled in the baroque style; it contains what are thought to be fragments of the true cross. Santa Maria in Cosmedin is one of the finest medieval churches in Rome and is also famous for the Bocca della Verità (Mouth of Truth), an ancient Triton mask set into an exterior wall. Legend has it that if you put your right hand into the mouth while telling a lie, it will snap shut. San Clemente defines just how stratified the city’s history is. The 12th-century church at street level was built over a 4th-century church, which was in turn built over a Roman house containing a temple to Mithras, and the foundations are believed to date from the time of the Republic.
Capitoline Hill
Michelangelo’s Piazza del Campidoglio is the star attraction here. Designed in 1538, the piazza is a classic of Renaissance town planning. It’s bordered by three palaces – the Palazzo dei Conservatori, the Palazzo dei Senatori and the Palazzo Nuovo – and formerly featured a bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius. The Conservatori and Nuovo now house the Museo Capitolino, just bursting with classic statues: Boy with Thorn (‘in his side’), Dying Gaul and the Capitoline Venus. The Capitoline overlooks the Forum, and it was from here that ancient Rome was governed.
Piazzas & Hang-Outs
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Rome’s marvellous collection of piazzas make great resting places on your walks around the city. Vast and beautiful, Piazza Navona was laid out on the ruins of Domitian’s stadium. It’s lined with baroque palaces and holds three fountains, including Bernini’s Fountain of the Rivers. In Renaissance times, the piazza was flooded on festive occasions and used to stage mock naval battles. Perhaps Rome’s most popular spot to hang out and be pickpocketed or hassled is the Piazza di Spagna, at the foot of the Spanish Steps. The Keats-Shelley Memorial House is nearby, and the piazza is graced by Bernini’s boat-shaped Barcaccia fountain. Elegant Via Condotti (shoppers’ heaven) runs into the piazza, and Rome’s oldest café, Caffè Greco, can be found at No 86.
One of the most popular places to hang out isn’t a piazza but a fountain – the Trevi Fountain. It attracts more tourist coins than any other fountain in Rome, due to the clever rumour that a thrown coin will ensure your return to the Eternal City. Piazza del Quirinale offers stunning views of Rome and St Peter’s, while the Piazza Venezia is overshadowed by ‘the Typewriter’, otherwise known as the Victor Emmanuel Monument. Piazza Barberini features the fantastic Triton Fountain. Via Veneto was the place to be in the 1950s and ’60s, when the truly astonishing Swedish import Anita Ekberg personified La Dolce Vita. It’s a shadow of its former self today, but it still has fashionable pretensions. It’s also home to a bizarre attraction that is definitely more morta than vita: the creatively decorated Santa Maria della Concezione dei Capuccini, with rococo decorations and pyramidal stacks created solely from the bones and skulls of the monks’ long-departed fellows. The Campo de’ Fiori is a lively piazza which is home to a daily (except Sunday) flower and vegetable market. The magnificent Renaissance Farnese Palace is just off the piazza.