Rome
Rome, capital city of Italy, is one of the treasures of Europe and one of the most attractive tourist destinations. The city is a vast open-air museum where the present of the past lives on after more than two-and-a-half millennia.
According to the legend, the city was built on the 21st of April 753 B.C. on the Palatine Hill (one of the seven hills) from where it developed. During the Republican period (509-31 B.C.), Rome established itself as one of the Mediterranean's main and populated cities. In those centuries the city gained that grandness and magnificence still visible nowadays. The most important works are: the Tabularium of the Campidoglio, the Marcellus Theatre, the Imperial Fora - whose building was started by the Emperor Augustus- , the grand imperial Palace on the Palatine wanted by Nero, the Colosseum and the Arch of Titus.
In the II and III century Rome reached its peak. There was an architectural development with the construction of the Imperial Fora by Trajan, the Caracalla's Baths, the Aurelian Walls, the Baths of Diocletian, the Arch of Constantine and the Basilica of Maxentius.
The imperial court's transfer to Byzantium marked the beginning of its decline.
After the Barbarian invasions the city witnessed an increase in the number of churches. Building churches where temples were located was prohibited so the city centre moved from the Fora and Palatine to the Latheran - the Roman bishop's see.
After the sack of the city by the Saracens in 846, Pope Leo IV built St. Angel Castle, which was the birthplace of the so-called "Leonine city". Pope Leo IV affirmed himself as the real Lord of Rome.
The following centuries saw the steady growth of the papal power until the first jubilee's celebration (1300) took place. The city went through a rebirth thanks also to the contribution of many artists, as Giotto.
The following events as the Avignonese captivity, the 1341 plague, the 1349 earthquake and the failure of the Cola Di Rienzo's policy led Rome to a status of poverty and degradation.
The return of the Pope from Avignon changed the situation.
During the Renaissance period several popes succeeded each other and, surrounding themselves with artists, restored the ancient splendour of the city. The construction of Ponte Sisto, St. Peter Cathedral, via Giulia, the Sistine Chapel's frescos and the erection of Marcus Aurelius statue in Piazza del Campidoglio by Michelangelo are only some of the works started in those years.
Many outstanding works were carried out in the following years but only with Pope Sixtus V (1585-90) the city underwent the definitive transformation that gave it the aspect we can admire nowadays.
Alexander II introduced the Baroque style thanks to Bernini's work that built St. Peter's colonnade and Piazza Navona's fountains. Between the seventeenth and the eighteenth century, the stairway of Trinità dei Monti and the Trevi Fountain were completed.
At the end of the century the city was annexed to France, that believed that in the Napoleonic Empire Rome was second only to Paris. This became partially true thanks to the construction of the Pincio and the urban arrangement of Piazza del Popolo and of the Trajan's Column.
In 1815 with Pius VII the city fell again in the obscurantist period.
After the Risorgimento, Rome became capital of the Kingdom of Italy and started an important period of demographic and urban development.
The population increased from 200,000 in 1870 to 1,500,000 at the end of World War II. Many major roads - which are still of vital importance - like via Nazionale, via Cavour and corso Vittorio Emanuele III were made.
Several quarters such as of Esquilino, Testaccio, Prati, Flaminio, Salario, Monteverde, Celio, Cinecittà, the university district and, in the last post-war period, Eur witnessed a rapid development.
Today the city is the political capital of the Italian Republic and the world centre of Christianity, due to the presence of the Supreme Pontiff, who lives in the Vatican.
A visit to Rome can start from the city's geometrical centre that is Piazza Venezia.
The square - which was planned in the fifteenth century - hosts many outstanding works of art, such as Palazzo Venezia, the first Renaissance building, started in 1455 on Leon Battista Alberti's model. During the centuries Palazzo Venezia has been used for different purposes but in the Fascism period it became the meeting place of the Great Council. The palace hosts also the Basilica of St. Mark. Inside the Museum of Palazzo Venezia we can admire important paintings, valuable ivories and jewelleries which are all kept in the Altoviti Hall.
The Complesso del Vittoriano, dedicated to the Italian first king, was started in 1885 by Giuseppe Sacconi and finished in 1911. In 1925 the Altare della Patria (altar of the nation) was raised. The Statue of the Goddess Rome dominates it and we can admire two bas-relieves and the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
The Capitol, placed behind the Vittoriano, was the religious centre and the necropolis of the ancient city, being the heart and the seat of the town government throughout the centuries. It is formed by Piazza del Campidoglio (Capitol square), whose paving and architectural planning were made by Michelangelo. On the sides of the square we find three palaces, Senatorio, dei Conservatori and palazzo Nuovo, and in the centre the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius was placed (from 1981 the original one is in the Capitoline Museums.) Palazzo Senatorio is the seat of Rome's City Hall and was built remodelling the previous Michelangelo's project. Above the palace the bell tower designed by Martino Longhi il Vecchio (1582) rises. The Council Room houses a 1st century B.C statue of Julius Caesar.
Palazzo dei Conservatori was built at the beginning of 1563 by Michelangelo, succeeded by Giacomo della Porta. Michelangelo designed Palazzo Nuovo too. The palace houses the Capitoline Museums created in 1471 when Sixtus IV donated some bronze statues - previously kept in the Lateran - to the city of Rome. In 1773 other works of art and the Albani collection were added. The building also hosts the Conservatori apartment, containing many outstanding works like the statue of Urban VIII, by Bernini, the statue of Innocent X, the Spinario, the portrait of Brutus and the famous She-wolf, emblem of the city, to which the twins were added in the fifteenth century. In the Museum of Palazzo dei Conservatori we can admire other works like the Esquiline Venus, Commodus' bust and the crater of Aristonothos.
Inside the Capitoline Gallery you will find paintings of different schools among which: the Holy Family by Dossi, the Magdalena by Tintoretto, the Baptism of Jesus by Tiziano, some 17th century European painting, several 14th and 15th centuries Umbrian, Tuscan and Aemilian painting and other Italian works of the 17th century.
In the Capitoline Museum's courtyard, in Palazzo Nuovo, there is the original statue of Marcus Aurelius, one of the most rare ancient bronze examples that after a long restoration (1981-90) has been replaced in Piazza del Campidoglio by a replica. The legend says that when the statue's gilding reappears the little owl (the tuft between the horse's ears) will announce the end of the world.
The museum also contains: The area dedicated to eastern creeds and monuments in Rome, the Capitoline Venus, the Galata Morente, Cupid and Psyche and the Resting Satyr. We also have the chance to admire a mosaic of four doves that drink from a vase: This mosaic was had been kept previously in the Hadrian's Villa.
Behind Palazzo Nuovo there is the church of St. Mary in Aracoeli that takes the name from the legend according to which the Virgin had appeared there to Augustus. From 1250 the church has been taken over by Franciscans. In its interiors you will find remarkable Roman works of art, such as the engraved ceiling, the tombstone of Giovanni Crivelli, made by Donatello, some Pinturicchio frescos (St. Bernard fresco among the others), and St. Anthony from Padua, the only Benozzo Bozzoli fresco survived.
From Piazza Venezia we can walk along Via dei Fori imperiali, one of Rome's most charming roads that divides the Imperial Fora, placed on the left, from the Roman Fora. Along the road, we can see the Basilica of Sts. Cosma and Damiano and the church of St. Francesca Romano and, at the end, we will see one of the city's most famous monuments, the city's symbol worldwide: The Colosseum.
Its real name, Flavian Amphitheatre, is due to the Flavians, the emperor family that erected it. In ancient times, it was the centre of fights between wild beasts and gladiators. Its building was started by Vespasian but inaugurated by Titus in 80, with the famous games that lasted 100 days. The Colosseum was heavily damaged by the earthquake and by the raids that went on for centuries.
Nearby we can find the Arch of Constantine, built in 1315 to celebrate the emperor's victory on Maxentius. In the park of the Oppio Hill there is the Domus Aurea, famous villa built under Emperor Nero after the 64 AD devastating fire in Rome in.
Trajan Forum is the widest of the Imperial Fora and was planned by Apollodorus of Damascus in 107. Inside we can still see the Ulpian Basilica and the Trajan Column, called after the name of that emperor. The bas-reliefs round the shaft commemorate only one of his warlike achievements, viz., the conquest of Decebalus and the annexation of the whole of Dacia to the empire as a Roman province, after two difficult and bloody wars. The Roman Forum was the political and economic centre of Rome during the Republic. It is important for the presence of many outstanding ancient buildings such as the Basilica Aemilia, the Curia, the tomb of Romolus, the Julian Basilica, the temple of Saturn, the Arch of Septimus Severus, the Forum's Square, the House of Livia, the temple of the Castores, of Caesar, of Vesta, of Antonine and Faustine, the Basilica of Maxentius, the Flavian's Palace, the Arch of Titus, the Domus Augustana and the Stadium.
This is only a brief description of few places in Rome and just a starting point for your visit.
