Rome: The Capital City of Italy
Rome is the most populous and extensive city in Italy and one of the largest European capitals for the size of its territory. It is the city with the highest concentration of historical and architectural assets in the world. Its historic centre is bordered by the perimeter of the Aurelian walls and was included in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list. The central and ancient core of the city consists of the historic seven hills: Palatino, Aventino, Campidoglio, Quirinale, Viminale, Esquilino e Celio. THE CLIMATE Rome is hot, dry summer days, with high temperatures often above 24 °C, frequently cooled in the afternoons by the Ponentino, a west wind that rises from the Tyrrhenian Sea. Spring and autumn are the rainiest seasons. The tramontana, a cold, dry wind from the north, is frequent in winter. ROME’S DIFFICULTIES Strange but true, Rome, as beautiful as this city can be like all the cities, have its difficulties. Such as the traffic! If you want to visit it, I strongly suggest doing it on foot, in this way you don’t waste time in a traffic jam. And last but not least… the scooters. There are scooters everywhere in Rome. I know that you’ll be busy taking pictures, but please watch where you walk. Always look ahead of you just in case someone is coming with the scooter.
MONUMENTS The monuments in Rome are the most visited in the world. These are some of the monuments that we are going to visit. Do you recognise them?
Pantheon
Costantino’s Arc
Fontana di Trevi
Colosseum
Piazza San Pietro
Basilica di San Pietro
Piazza Navona
The Spanish Steps
Piazza Navona
Altare della Patria
Piazza San Pietro
Fori Imperiale
The Quirinale is the residence of the President of the Republic and is the symbol of the Italian state. It is called the Quirinale because it takes its name from a temple dedicated to the god: Quirino, the god of agriculture and peace.
This building was built to honour the unification of Italy.
The Fori Imperiali are a series of monuments constructed over one and a half centuries. The fora were the centre of the Roman Republic and of the Roman Empire. These fora were the centres of politics, religion and economy in the ancient Roman Empire. Julius Caesar was the first to build in this section of Rome
During the Roman Empire, the Colosseum was a Amphitheatre accommodating more than 50,000 people. It was where spectators could watch executions, exotic animals, recreations of battles and gladiator fights. It was active for over 500 years until the 6th century.
This square is located behind St. Peter’s Basilica where Sunday mass is celebrated by the pope. It is the centre of the Roman Catholic church. Its style is Baroque and is home to 140 statues of saints.
ROME
•Pantheon •Piazza di Spagna •The Trevi Fountain •Trinità dei Monti •Piazza Navona •Quirinal Palace
The Pantheon The Pantheon is one of the best-preserved monuments of ancient Rome. The structure, was completed around 126-128 A.D., during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. The Pantheon is situated on the site of an earlier structure of the same name, built around 25 B.C. by statesman Marcus Agrippa, and is thought to have been designed as a temple for Roman gods. The Pantheon’s design has influenced countless buildings throughout history, across Europe and throughout the Americas. Today, the Pantheon continues to function as a church, as well as a major tourist destination.
The Trevi Fountain The Trevi fountain is the biggest and the most important fountain of Rome. Anyone who comes to visit the Eternal City does not avoid from the auspicious ritual of throwing coins must be made turning back to the fountain. The history of the Trevi fountain in a way, begins many centuries before his arrival in Rome with the construction of the aqueduct water virgin, wanted by Agrippa to feed the thermal baths near the Pantheon. The name derives from the legend of the same Agrippa, according to which the location of the sources was shown to the soldiers by a young girl, in Latin “Virgo”.
Piazza Navona Piazza Navona was originally a Roman stadium, commissioned by the Emperor Domitian in 85 AD. He loved the Greek athletic games (called Agones) played during the Olympics and therefore asked for a stadium in his city, Rome, as well. The old stadium, which is now about 6 meters below the new square’s pavement, was used to host the Agones.The current name derived from some changes and vulgarizations of this term. Another hypothesis is that the term “Navona” indicates the shape of the square, which resembles a big ship.
Evening Itinerary Piazza di Spagna Piazza di Spagna, at the bottom of the Spanish Steps, is one of the most famous squares of Rome. It owes its name to the Palazzo di Spagna, seat of the Embassy of Spain among the Holy See. In the middle of the square is the famous Fontana della Barcaccia, dating to the beginning of the baroque age, sculpted by Pietro Bernini and his son, the more famous Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
Trinità dei Monti An extraordinary masterpiece of the scenographic taste of the eighteenth century, the staircase of Trinità dei Monti represents the ideal junction between the hill of Pincio and the underlying Spanish Steps, at that time separated by a bare, steep and muddy hill. It was built between 1723 and 1726 by the architect Francesco De Sanctis, to whom it was commissioned by Cardinal Pierre Guérin de Tencin. It was inaugurated on the occasion of the Jubilee of 1725 by Pope Benedict XIII.
The Quirinal Palace The Quirinal Palace is a historic building in Rome, Italy, one of the three current official residences of the President of the Italian Republic. It is located on the Quirinal Hill, the highest of the seven hills of Rome in an area colloquially called Monte Cavallo. It has served as the residence for thirty Popes, four Kings of Italy and twelve Presidents of the Italian Republic.
