The ancient city of Rome
Rome is perhaps the most compelling of all Italy's historic cities. There's arguably more to see here than in any other city in the world with the remains of a two thousand year past superimposed upon a modern European capital.
There are of course the Classical features of the old empire alongside relics from the early Christian period in ancient basilicas. The fountains and churches of the Baroque period go a long way towards determining the appearance of the city centre, most notably in the work of Bernini, but it really is hard to know which way to look. Renaissance palazzi and Rococco fountains crowd atop medieval churches, houses and apartment blocks incorporate fragments of eroded Roman columns and the cobbled streets follow the lines of ancient stadiums and amphitheatres.
The city centre is divided into distinct blocks. The warren of streets that makes up the centro storico occupies the hook of land on the left bank of the Tiber, bordered to the east by Via del Corso and to the north and south by water. From here, Rome's central core spreads east: across Via del Corso to the major shopping streets and alleys around the Spanish steps down to Via Nazionale. To the south lie the major sites of the ancient city and the huge expanse of the Villa Borghese park extends northwards from the city centre. The left bank of the river is oddly distanced from the main hum of this part of the city, home to the Vatican and Saint Peter's, and to the south of these, Trastevere - the focus for the city's night life. Most of the city is easily accessible on foot though you may need to hop on a bus for he more scattered sights such as the catacombs.
Coleseum
The Colosseum is the most famous monument of Ancient Rome. Its original name is Flavian Amphitheatre. It was started by the Emperor Vespasian between 70 and 76 AD, and completed by his son Titus in 80 AD. The Colosseum was dedicated the year after Vespasian's death by Titus. They celebrated the opening by holding 100 days worth of games there. It was built on the site where Nero had had a huge villa for himself. Vespasian wanted to build something for the people rather than for himself. It got its popular name, the Colosseum, because it was built near where Nero had erected a huge statue, or colossus of himself. It showed him as the god of the sun. It was 100 feet high, and it was the largest gilded bronze statue in antiquity. It was later moved away. It took 24 elephants to move it!
All over the empire, Romans enjoyed going to the theater to see concerts and plays, and to the stadium to watch chariot races and the amphitheater to watch bloody sports. Going to the amphitheater (Colosseum) was probably the most popular. Gladiatorial combats, fights with beasts and other fights were held in the Colosseum. The Colosseum was big enough to hold the whole population of a town--as many as 50,000 people would sometimes spend the whole day there watching sports. The games were really bloody and for four centuries, men died as an entertainment for the crowd. Gladiators went to training schools; most of them were slaves and criminals. At first there were fights to the death between wild animals: bear against buffalo, buffalo against elephant, and elephant against rhinoceros. Sometimes there would even be fights between men and tame beasts. These fights were called venationes.
The Amphitheater is built of travertine outside, and of tufa and brick in the interior. It had Greek columns decorating the outside, but these did not support the architecture. The Colosseum had a circumference of 527m and it was 50m high. There were 80 entrances, all numbered except for the four main entrances which were wider than the others and were reserved for the Emperor. It was designed so that the crowd could get out in five minutes. The interior was divided into three parts: the arena, the podium, and the cavea. Now more than two-thirds of the original building has been removed and the rows of the seats in the cavea are missing. It is very similar to other amphitheaters except this one is much bigger.
Pantheon
The Pantheon is one of the great spiritual buildings of the world. It was built as a Roman temple and later consecrated as a Catholic Church. Its monumental porch originally faced a rectangular colonnaded temple courtyard and now enfronts the smaller Piazza della Rotonda. Through great bronze doors, one enters one great circular room. The interior volume is a cylinder above which rises the hemispherical dome. Opposite the door is a recessed semicircular apse, and on each side are three additional recesses, alternately rectangular and semicircular, separated from the space under the dome by paired monolithic columns. The only natural light enters through an unglazed oculus at the center of the dome and through the bronze doors to the portico. As the sun moves, striking patterns of light illuminate the walls and floors of porphyry, granite and yellow marbles.
Piazza del Popolo
The square was designed by Valadier in XVIII c. and is considered once of the best urbanistic realizations of the city. In the centre of the big square there is the second biggest obelisk of Rome, carried from Egypt by Augusto emperor, lift up by Fontana during SistoV ages. Down from Terrazza del Pincio, where you can enjoy a splendid view , there is the Church of Sta Maria del Popolo, built during the Renaissance.Inside you can find many works of Pinturicchio and Caravaggio.The second aisle on the left hosts the "Cappella Chigi" designed by Raffaello during the Reinassance. The two twin-churchs "Sta Maria in Montesanto" and "S.ta Maria dei Miracoli", that is spite of their similarity have a lot of differentes, are also on the p.zza del Popolo. Another important element is Porta del Popolo which has been the main entrance to Rome from the consolar road Flaminia.
Piazza Navona
"This piazza, which follows the plan of an ancient circus, was built in monumental style by the family of Pope Innocent X (Pamphili). It sums up the Roman style of the 17th century. The church of Sant' Agnese was designed by Borromini and Rainaldi, the two fountains are by Bernini, and Pietro da Cortona painted the gallery in the Pamphili palace."
Roman Forum
The foreground is occupied by a paved square with monuments to famous people. The temple to the Divine Julius, dedicated in 29BC to the deified Caesar (the first case of political deification in Rome), built in a Hellenistic style, is located in the background on the left; to the right is the temple of Vesta and the house of the Vestal Virgins, guardians of the everlasting flame (the only priestesses in Rome); further to the right is the temple of the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux (Greek gods whose cult was brought to Rome in the 5th century BC) dedicated in 6 A.D. Here the office of weights and measures was situated. The podiums of the temples of Caesar and the Dioscuri were often used as orators' platforms and it is in this part of the Forum that the meetings of the comitia took place. On the far right is the Basilica Julia built by Caesar in 54 B.C. Its long faade (101 metres/110 yards) occupies the entire south side of the Forum."
The Roman Forum was not simply the core of an ancient city; for many it was the center of the universe. From the birth of the empire under Augustus in 31 B.C., and for nearly five hundred years thereafter, Rome ruled-with lacunae-most of what we call the civilized world. From Scotland to the Sahara, and from Gibraltar to the Euphrates, the Roman Empire was in control. Moreover, Rome was the handmaiden of our alphabet, a bellwether of urban organization and its legal institutions, and the creator of startling new horizons in architecture."
St. Peter's Basilica
The Basilica of St. Peter is traditionally believed to have been erected over the spot where St. Peter was buried after his martyrdom in Rome around 64 CE. That he was indeed martyred, that it took place in Rome, and where it took place, remain controversial questions. Some scholars support the tradition that St. Peter was buried Ad Catacumbas (i.e. at the catacombs of San Sebastiano) on the Via Appia.
Over two hundred years later, in the early 4th century, the emperor Constantine (died 337 CE) erected a basilica dedicated to St. Peter on the Vatican Hill on the south side of the River. The basilica was erected with difficulty on the sloping side of Vatican Hill, the floor built out from the hill and over an earlier Roman cemetery. The fact that this awkward site was chosen, instead of level ground to the south, has convinced some that it was Constantine's intention to mark the site of the apostle's tomb. However, the site may also have been chosen to both mark the cemetery which may otherwise have been a sacred place, and, in more practical terms, to remove the building from the poorly-drained, swampy ground near the river.
Excavations undertaken in 1939 underneath the floor of St. Peter's uncovered a Roman cemetery. At a spot located directly beneath the main altar of the basilica was discovered a small Aedicula (shrine for small statue). Although there was no indication other than location, it was claimed by some that the shrine was dedicated to St. Peter.
Besides trying to identify the presumed burial spot, or shrine, of St. Peter under the basilica, it was the burden of the excavators also to prove that Constantine himself was not mistaken about the location of St. Peter's tomb.
The Roman cemetery on Vatican Hill was evidently located next to the Circus of Nero. It is conjectured by some that St. Peter was first martyred (by being crucified upside down) in the circus, and then buried in the neighboring cemetery.
Constantine's basilica was demolished in the 16th century and the present church was built on the same site. The Basilica of St. Peter's is the 'mother-church' of the Roman Catholic faith and has remained a sacred site and a place of pilgrimage for many hundreds of years.
Spanish Steps
The famous Spanish Steps by Francesco De Sanctis (1723-1726) are made up of twelve flights of steps of varying width moving upwards towards the Piazza Trinita dei Monti. At the end of the steps is the scenic Franciscan Church of Trinita dei Monti, which dates from 1503. In front of the church is the Sallustian Obelisk. The name of the steps came from the Spanish Embassy which was located at the foot of the steps.
Trevi Fountain
The largest and most famous fountain in Rome and one of the most extraordinary creations of the 18th century, by N. Salvi (1762). Situated at the intersection of three roads (hence its name) and flanked by Palazzo Poli, its jets of water, rocks and statues are the creation of Pietro Bracci. According to the tradition , if you throw a coin in the fountain on leaving Rome, you will certainly come back.
Vatican Museums
The founding of the Vatican Museums can be traced back to 1503 when the newly-elected Pope, Julius II della Rovere, placed a statue of Apollo in the internal courtyard of the Belvedere Palace built by Innocent VIII; he brought the statue from the garden of his titular church of St. Peter in Chains. In 1506 the Laocoon was added to the collection, after its discovery on the Esquiline Hill before the eyes of Giuliano di Sangallo and Michelangelo Buonarroti.
Scores of artifacts were added throughout the next two centuries and the collections were eventually reorganized under Benedict XIV (1740-1758) and Clement XIII (1758-1769). They founded the Apostolic Library Museums: the Sacred (Museo Sacro - 1756) and the Profane (Museo Profano - 1767). The Christian Museum, comprising finds from the catacombs that could not be conserved in situ, was founded by Pius IX in 1854 in the Lateran Palace and was moved to the Vatican Museums by Pope John XXIII.
Pope Pius XI inaugurated in 1932 the definitive seat of the Vatican Picture Gallery (the Pinacoteca), near the monumental entrance of the Vatican Museums.
Sistine Chapel
Built between 1475 and 1483, in the time of Pope Sixtus IV della Rovere, the Sistine Chapel has originally served as Palatine Chapel. The chapel is rectangular in shape and measures 40.93 meters long by 13.41 meters wide, i.e. the exact dimensions of the Temple of Solomon, as given in the Old Testament. It is 20.70 meters high and is roofed by a flattened barrel vault, with little side vaults over the centered windows. The architectural plans were made by Baccio Pontelli and the construction work was supervised by Giovannino de' Dolci. The first Mass in the Sistine Chapel was celebrated on August 9, 1483.The wall paintings were executed by Pietro Perugino, Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Cosimo Rosselli, Luca Signorelli and their respective workshops, which included Pinturicchio, Piero di Cosimo and Bartolomeo della Gatta.
Michelangelo Buonarroti was commissioned by Pope Julius II della Rovere in 1508 to repaint the ceiling; the work was completed between 1508 and 1512. He painted the Last Judgement over the altar, between 1535 and 1541, being commissioned by Pope Paul III Farnese.
Villa Borghese
This is the most famous villa both for its dimension and tha various ways of access to the city. Cardinal Scipione Borghese wanted it to be built at the beginning ohìf the 17th century between the Flaminio area and the Parioli area where the Lucullo gardens stood. The main building, inspired by 16th century style, was covered on the outside by old sculptures whereas the sober interior hosted great works of art. At the beginning of the 19th century Prince Camillo Borghese set up the art collection of the family in the casino which today is where the gallery and the Borghese museum stand.
It was extended towards the Muro Torto and thus the villa was refurbished to also include an English garden landscape. There are many beautiful items worthwhile noticing: the Italians gardens near the Casino Borghese, the Casino alla Meridiana and around tha aviary; avenues and paths embellished by statues and fountains; the Garden of the Lake, thus called because it stretches around an artificial lake; there is a small temple dedicated to Aesculapius on a islet in the middle of the lake and a 17th century copy of the arch of Septimius Severus.