Sights in Rome
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Colosseum
The Colosseum is the most extraordinary of all Rome’s monuments. It’s not just the amazing completeness of the place, or its size, but the sense of its gory history that resonates: it was here that gladiators met in mortal combat and condemned prisoners fought off hungry lions. Two thousand or so years on, it’s still hauling in the crowds. Don’t let the lengthy queue put you off: just pop down to the Palatine ticket office, buy your combined ticket there, and on returning march straight in.
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Pantheon
Competition is fierce, but the Pantheon is surely ancient Rome’s most astonishing building. This Roman temple has been standing for almost 2000 years, and it’s a unique, unparalleled experience to enter its great doors and have your vision directed upwards, just as it would have been for the ancient Romans. Its current form dates to around AD 120, when the emperor Hadrian built the Pantheon over Marcus Agrippa’s original temple (27 BC). For centuries, historians read the name Agrippa in the inscription on the pediment and thought that Hadrian’s version was the 1st-century-BC original. When excavations in the 19th century revealed traces of the earlier temple, they realise…
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Trevi Fountain
Immortalised by Anita Ekberg’s dip in La Dolce Vita, the Trevi Fountain (Fontana di Trevi) is Rome’s largest and most famous fountain. The flamboyant baroque ensemble was designed by Nicola Salvi in 1732 and depicts Neptune’s chariot being led by Tritons with sea horses – one wild, one docile – representing the moods of the sea. The water comes from the aqua virgo, a 1st-century-BC underground aqueduct, and the name Trevi refers to the tre vie (three roads) that converge at the fountain. The famous custom is to throw a coin into the fountain, thus ensuring your return to the Eternal City. According to the same tradition if you throw in a second coin you’ll fall …
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St Peter’s Basilica
In Vatican City, a city of astounding churches, St Peter’s Basilica outdazzles them all. Awe-inspiringly huge, rich and spectacular, it’s a monument to centuries of artistic genius. On a busy day, around 20,000 visitors pass through here. If you want to be one of them, remember to dress appropriately – no shorts, miniskirts or bare shoulders. If you want to hire an audioguide (€5), they’re available at a desk in the cloakroom to the right of the entrance. Free English-language guided tours of the basilica are run from the Vatican tourist office, the Centro Servizi Pellegrini e Turisti, at 9.45am on Tuesday and Thursday and at 2.15pm every afternoon between Monday and Fr…
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Vatican Museums
Visiting the Vatican Museums is an unforgettable experience that requires strength, stamina and patience. You’ll need to be on top of your game to endure the inevitable queues – if not for a ticket then for the security checks – and enjoy what is undoubtedly one of the world’s great museum complexes.
Founded by Pope Julius II in the early 16th century and enlarged by successive pontiffs, the museums are housed in what is known collectively as the Palazzo Apostolico Vaticano. This massive 5.5-hectare complex consists of two palaces – the Vatican palace nearest St Peter’s and the Belvedere Palace – joined by two long galleries. On the inside are three courtyards: th…
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Chiesa del Gesù
Rome’s most important Jesuit church, the Chiesa del Gesù is a much-copied example of Counter-Reformation architecture. It was built between 1551 and 1584 with money donated by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. Although the façade by Giacomo della Porta is impressive, it is the awesome, interior that is the real attraction. Designed by Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, a pupil of Michelangelo, it’s a shimmering ensemble of gold and marble. Of the art on display, the most astounding is the Trionfo del Nome di Gesù (Triumph of the Name of Jesus), the swirling, hypnotic vault fresco by Giovanni Battista Gaulli (aka Il Baciccia). Baciccia also painted the cupola frescoes and desig…
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Piazza del Popolo
For centuries the sight of public executions, this elegant neoclassical piazza is a superb people-watching spot. It was originally laid out in 1538 to provide a grandiose entrance to the city – at the time, and for centuries before, it was the main northern gateway into the city. Since then it has been extensively altered, most recently by Giuseppe Valadier in 1823. Guarding its southern entrance are Carlo Rainaldi’s twin 17th-century baroque churches, Chiesa di Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Chiesa di Santa Maria in Montesanto, while over on the northern flank is the Porta del Popolo, created by Bernini in 1655. In the centre, the 36m-high Egyptian obelisk was moved he…
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Campo de’ Fiori
Noisy and colourful, ‘Il Campo’ is a major focus of Roman life: by day it hosts a much-loved market, while at night it turns into a raucous open-air pub. For centuries, it was the site of public executions, and in 1600 the philosophising monk Giordano Bruno, immortalised in Ettore Ferrari’s sinister statue, was burned at the stake here for heresy. Many of the streets surrounding Il Campo are named after the artisans who traditionally occupied them: Via dei Cappellari (hatters), Via dei Baullari (trunk makers) and Via dei Chiavari (key makers). Via dei Giubbonari (jacket makers) is still full of clothing shops.
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Piazza Navona
With its ornate fountains, baroque palazzi and pavement cafés, Piazza Navona is central Rome’s showcase square. Like many of the city’s great landmarks, it sits on the site of an ancient monument, in this case the 1st-century-AD Stadio di Domiziano. This 30,000-seat stadium, remains of which can be seen from Piazza Tor Sanguigna, used to host games – the name Navona is a corruption of the Greek word agon, meaning public games. Inevitably, though, it fell into disrepair and it wasn’t until the 15th century that the crumbling arena was paved over and Rome’s central market transferred here from Campidoglio.
Today interest centres on Bernini’s extravagant Fontana…
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Museo Nazionale Romano: Palazzo Altemps
Just north of Piazza Navona, Palazzo Altemps is a gem. A beautiful, late-15th-century palazzo, it houses the best of the Museo Nazionale Romano’s formidable collection of classical sculpture. Many of the pieces come from the celebrated Ludovisi collection, amassed by Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi in the 17th century. Prize exhibits include the 5th-century Trono Ludovisi (Ludovisi Throne), a carved marble throne depicting Aphrodite being plucked from the sea as a newborn babe. It shares a room with two colossal heads, one of which is the goddess Juno and dates from around 600 BC. The wall frieze (about half of which remains) depicts the 10 plagues of Egypt and the Exodus. E…
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Imperial Forums
The expanse of ruins to the northeast of Via dei Fori Imperiali are known collectively as the Imperial Forums (Fori Imperiali). Constructed between 42 BC and AD 112, they were largely buried in 1933 when Mussolini built Via dei Fori Imperiali. Excavations have since unearthed much of them, but work continues and visits are limited to the Foro di Traiano (Trajan’s Forum), accessible through the Museo dei Fori Imperiali. Little that is recognisable remains of the forum except for some pillars from the Basilica Ulpia and the Colonna di Traiano (Trajan’s Column), whose minutely detailed reliefs celebrate Trajan’s military victories over the Dacians (from modern-day Romania)…
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Piazza di Spagna & the Spanish Steps
Piazza di Spagna and the famous Spanish Steps (Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti) have been a magnet for foreigners since the 18th century. In the late 1700s the area was much loved by English visitors on the Grand Tour and was known to locals as er ghetto de l’inglesi (the English ghetto).
The piazza was named after the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See, although the staircase, designed by the Italian Francesco de Sanctis and built in 1725 with a legacy from the French, leads to the French Chiesa della Trinità dei Monti.
At the foot of the steps, the fountain of a sinking boat, the Barcaccia (1627), is believed to be by Pietro Bernini, father of the more famous Gian Lo…
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Chiesa di Santa Maria Sopra Minerva
Built on the site of an ancient temple to Minerva, the Dominican Chiesa di Santa Maria Sopra Minerva is the only Gothic church in Rome, although little remains of the original 13th-century design. Inside, in the Cappella Carafa (also called the Cappella della Annunciazione), you’ll find two superb 15th-century frescoes by Filippino Lippi and the majestic tomb of Pope Paul IV. Left of the high altar is one of Michelangelo’s lesser-known sculptures, Cristo Risorto (Christ Bearing the Cross; 1520). An altarpiece of the Madonna and Child in the second chapel in the northern transept is attributed to Fra Angelico, the Dominican friar and painter, who is also buried in the …
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Chiesa di San Luigi dei Francesi
Church to Rome’s French community since 1589, this baroque church boasts no less than three canvases by Caravaggio: La Vocazione di San Matteo (The Calling of Saint Matthew), Il Martiro di San Matteo (The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew) and San Matteo e l’Angelo (Saint Matthew and the Angel), together known as the St Matthew cycle. These were among Caravaggio’s earliest religious works, painted between 1600 and 1602, but they are inescapably his, featuring down-to-earth realism and stunning use of chiaroscuro (a three-dimensional effect created with contrasting highlights and dark shading). Before you leave the church, take a moment to enjoy Domenichino’s colourful 17th-c…
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Chiesa del Domine Quo Vadis
This pint-sized church marks the spot where St Peter, while fleeing Rome, met a vision of Jesus going the other way. When Peter asked: ‘Domine, quo vadis?’ (‘Lord, where are you going?’), Jesus replied ‘Venio Roman iterum crucifigi’ (‘I am coming to Rome to be crucified again’). Reluctantly deciding to join him, Peter tramped back into town where he was immediately arrested and executed, as portrayed in Caravaggio’s Crocifissione di San Pietro (Crucifixion of St Peter) in the Chiesa di Santa Maria del Popolo. In the centre of the aisle are copies of two holy footprints supposed to belong to Christ; the originals are up the road in the Basilica di San Seb…
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Trastevere
Although its traditionally proletarian nature is changing as the crumbling palazzi become gentrified, a stroll among the labyrinthine alleys of Trastevere still reaps small gems of a bygone past. Washing strung out from the apartments in best Mama-leone tradition has everyone sighing and reaching for the Kodaks.
The lovely Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere is the area's heart. It's a true Roman square - by day peopled by mothers with strollers, chatting locals and guidebook-toting tourists, by night with artisans selling their craft work, young Romans looking for a good time, and the odd homeless person looking for a bed. The streets east of the piazza is where you'll find…
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Museo e Galleria Borghese
Cardinal Scipione Borghese (1579–1633) was the most knowledgeable and ruthless art collector of his day, and his collection, in the Museo e Galleria Borghese is as dazzling as his park. If you only have time (or inclination) for one art gallery in Rome, make it this one, which is not only exquisite, but also provides the perfect introduction to Renaissance and baroque art without being overwhelming. It’s housed in the Casino Borghese, whose neoclassical look is the result of a 17th-century revamp. To limit numbers, visitors are admitted at two-hourly intervals, so you’ll need to call to prebook, and enter at an allotted entry time, but trust us, it’s worth it.
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Chiesa di Sant’agostino
This early Renaissance church is a favourite of soon-to-be mums, who pop in to pay their respects to Jacopo Sansovino’s sculpture of the Virgin Mary, the Madonna del Parto (1521). The Madonna also features in Caravaggio’s Madonna dei Pellegrini (Madonna of the Pilgrims; 1604) in the Cappella Cavalletti. Although harmless to modern eyes, this painting caused uproar when it was unveiled in 1604, thanks to its depiction of Mary as barefoot and her two devoted pilgrims as filthy beggars. Painting almost a century before, Raphael provoked no such scandal with his fresco of Isaiah, visible on the third column in the nave.
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Chiesa di San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane
It might not look it, with its filthy façade and unappealing location, but this tiny church is a masterpiece of Roman baroque. It was Borromini’s first church and bears all the hallmarks of his genius. The elegant curves of the façade, the play of convex and concave surfaces, the dome illuminated by hidden windows, all combine to transform a minuscule space into a light, airy interior. The church, completed in 1641, stands at the road intersection known as the Quattro Fontane, after the late-16th-century fountains on its four corners, representing Fidelity, Strength and the Rivers Arno and Tiber.
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Roman Forum
In ancient Rome, a forum was a covered market, civic centre and religious complex all rolled into one. The centre of public life, it was richly decorated and grandly scaled. Today a sprawl of underlabelled ruins, the Roman Forum is still impressive – overlook it from Palazzo Senatorio behind Piazza del Campidoglio to set your imagination in gear. The oldest and most famous of Rome’s forums, it was originally an Etruscan burial ground, first developed in the 7th century BC and expanding over 900 years to become the gleaming heart of the Roman Republic.
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Museo Carlo Bilotti
The art collection of billionaire cosmetics magnate Carlo Bilotti is stylishly housed in the Orangery of Villa Borghese. It’s a small collection (only 22 pieces), but it’s interesting and well presented with explanatory panels in English and Italian. Paintings range from a Warhol portrait of Bilotti’s wife and daughter to 18 works by Giorgio de Chirico (1888–1978), one of Italy’s most important 20th-century artists. There’s also a fine selection of landscapes by Alessandro Poma (1874–1960).
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Basilica di San Clemente
Architectural time travel awaits at the Basilica di San Clemente, which lies between San Giovanni and the Colosseum. The 12th-century church contains a stunning medieval mosaic in its apse, the Triumph of the Cross, with 12 doves symbolising the apostles. Figures around the cross include the Madonna and St John, as well as St John the Baptist and other saints. Though stunning, it’s eclipsed by the Renaissance frescoes in the Chapel of St Catherine, to the left of the entrance.
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Chiesa di Sant’Andrea al Quirinale
It’s said that in his old age Bernini liked to come and enjoy the peace of this late-17th-century church, regarded by many as one of his greatest. Faced with severe space limitations, he managed to produce a sense of grandeur by designing an elliptical floor plan with a series of chapels opening onto the central area. The opulent interior, decorated with polychrome marble, stucco and gilding, was much appreciated by Pope Alexander VII, who used it while in residence at the Palazzo del Quirinale.
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Chiesa di Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza
Hidden in the porticoed courtyard of Palazzo della Sapienza, the Italian state archive, this tiny church is unique testament to the genius of baroque architect Francesco Borromini. Based on an incredibly complex geometric plan, it combines alternating convex and concave walls with a circular interior topped by a twisted spire. Inside, there’s not a lot to see, but it’s interesting to note how Borromini uses light to create a sense of spaciousness in such a small area.
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St Peter's Square
From above, Piazza San Pietro looks like a giant keyhole. The square's creator, Bernini, described the double colonnade as 'the motherly arms of the church'. He'd planned for the square to gob-smack pilgrims as they emerged from the tangle of medieval streets, an effect spoilt when Mussolini bulldozed Via della Conciliazione through the area. Caligula shipped in the central obelisk from Heliopolis, and it was later used by Christian-culling Nero as a turning post at his chariot-racing circus.
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