You never get bored in Rome!
If the Colosseum, the Palatine, the Vatican, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and the Capitoline Museums are among the flagship visits, exploring the
città eterna
can also take crooked paths and come across a plethora of lesser-known monuments celebrating the rich history - glorious or dark - of
Grande Italia.
Our five favorite walks.
Read also:
48 hours in Rome: a beautiful escape to the Eternal City
Via Appia Antica, an open-air museum
A real leap into Antiquity!
Just south of old Rome, past the
Porta San Sebastiano
, we set off on foot or by bike - in the heart of a charming protected green flow - on the bulging basalt slabs of the Appian Way, which still bear the deep traces. carts.
Bordered by prestigious ruined ancient monuments and impressive Christian catacombs, this section - timeless and preserved in a superb decadent juice - perpetuates under its umbrella pines, the fantasy of eternal and romantic Italy.
Built as early as 312 BC.
AD to link Rome to Capua (Campania), then Brindos (Apulia), the Via Appia - ribbon of 500 km by 4 m wide - remains the oldest road in the West.
Mythical, she saw the Roman legions march on the south of La Botte, cross the rebellious slaves of Spartacus and circulate a quantity of exotic goods from Brindes, the great port of the Orient and pilgrimages to the Holy Land.
Getting there:
by
bus n ° 118
from Piazza Venezia or the Colosseum;
and
number 218
from Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano.
Free access ;
some monuments are chargeable.
Bike rental on site:
ecobikeroma.it.
Parco regionale dell'Appia Antica:
parcoappiaantica.it.
Info for visits to ancient monuments:
parcoarcheologicoappiaantica.it.
Info visits to the Christian catacombs:
Catacombe di San Sebastiano (catacombe.org), Catacombe di San Callisto (catacombe.roma.it) and Catacombe di Santa Domitilla (catacombedomitilla.it).
Read also:
Between great classics and novelties, trendy and timeless Rome in 30 addresses
The Capuchin convent and its fascinating graphic ossuary
The Capuchin Crypt is one of the most unusual and bizarre excursions one can undertake in Rome.
René Mattes / AGF / ROMA CAPITALE
Children and sensitive souls abstain!
Behind the presidential palace of the Quirinal, the
Convento dei Cappuccini
is surmounted by a 17th century church and conceals a crypt preserving the bones of 4000 brothers, coming from a nearby cemetery.
While a few skeletons have been reconstructed and dressed in a bure robe, the walls and vaults are adorned with selected bones - skulls, femurs, pelvis, vertebrae, ribs, etc.
- describing surreal geometric shapes, reminiscent of woodwork and moldings under chandeliers, also in human bones!
"
I have never seen anything more striking
", wrote seriously the Marquis de Sade in 1775, speaking of this immense
memento mori
(
"
Do not forget that you are going to die
" in Latin, Editor's note
), whose representations are very present in transalpine culture ...
Getting there:
via Vittorio Veneto, 27. Access by
metro
(line A), “Barberini” station.
Paid entry.
Visit info:
cappucciniviaveneto.it.
The Basilica of Saint Clement of the Lateran, a thousand-year-old mille-feuille
The cloister of the Basilica of San Clemente.
Mattes Rene / AGF / ROMA CAPITALE
"
La machina del tempo!"
It is between the Colosseum and Saint John Lateran - in the discreet medieval quarter of Rome - that we explore this curious sanctuary with three levels of occupation.
First, the 12th century basilica superiore, with three naves supported by ancient columns and flanked by a small cloister, shines with its “cosmatesque” floor, its colorful frescoes and the superb golden mosaics covering its apse.
Then go down the stairs to the early 4th century Church, where some 9th-11th century frescoes remain, evoking the life of Saint-Clément.
We owe this discovery to the bold parish priest who, in 1857, undertook excavations which led him - even lower in the dark bowels of the monument - to this rustic sanctuary of Mithras, of the 2nd century.
Originally from the Middle East, the cult of this god - born of a rock and linked to the sacrifice of a bull - had many practitioners in the Roman armies ...
Getting there:
piazza di San Clemente.
Access by
metro
(line B), “Colosseo” station.
Paid entry.
Visit info:
basilicasanclemente.com.
The fascist sports facilities of
Foro Italico
Foro Italico
marble stadium
.
Riccardo Sala / AGF / ROMA CAPITALE
A "time capsule" of human madness!
Nestled on the banks of the Tiber, in the north of Rome, it is a sports complex inaugurated in 1932 for male youth and preserved as it is to better show the inconsistency, the bankruptcy of the Mussolini dictatorship.
The entrance is marked by a large obelisk in white Carrara marble, inscribed "Mussolini Dux" and dominating the avenue of the forum, on the floor covered with mosaics celebrating fascist values through allegorical images and maxims, including rhetoric. was not always empty: "
I swear to carry out the orders of the Duce and to serve, with all my strength and blood, the cause of the fascist revolution
".
And other edifying pearls, like “
Duce, we dedicate our youth to you
”, with this repeated war cry everywhere: “
Duce a noi
” (our Duce)!
Further on, the Marble Stadium and the tennis court, built below ground level, are surrounded by Carrara marble statues depicting athletes chiseled according to fascist canons.
Also an indoor swimming pool and a rationalist-inspired fencing hall, and the huge Olympic stadium, modernized to host the 1960 Olympics and contemporary international competitions.
Because this "place of memory", seat of the Italian Olympic Committee and the university of sport-studies, continues to live beyond the controversies which tend to rewrite history.
Getting there:
by
tram n ° 2
from
Piazza del Popolo.
Free entrance.
The
Centrale Montemartini, an
industrial setting for ancient masterpieces
Central Montemartini.
Mattes René / AGF / ROMA CAPITALE
Striking contrast between machines and gods!
Located to the south of the Eternal City, this former power station from 1912 has become the annex of the famous Capitoline Museums (museicapitolini.org) in the heart of Rome.
Between huge oil-fired engines, coupled with dynamos and an interlacing of pipes and electric wires connected to meters and control levers, unfolds a collection of statues of gods in delicate postures, busts of severe emperors , a few gracious satyrs… Two worlds that everything opposes, but united here in an astonishing harmony, born from the contrast between the whiteness of ancient marble and the cold gray of industrial steel!
Getting there:
via Ostiense, 106. Access by
metro
(line B), “Garbatella” station.
Paid entry.
Visit info:
centralemontemartini.org.
Practical information
Go to Rome: Rome's
two
international airports
(adr.it) -
Fiumicino and Ciampino
- are connected to France by many regular and low-cost flights.
Rome Tourist Office
(turismoroma.it).
Several information kiosks in the city center, at Termini station and at both airports.
Italy Tourist Office
(italia.it).