Roma Attractions, Italy

Colosseum
The Colosseum, or Flavian Amphitheatre, is the largest structure left to us by Roman antiquity, and has provided the model for sports areas right down to modern times; the football stadia of the present day have basically the same form as this monument created by the architects of the Flavian Emperors, Vespasian and Titus. The object of the Emperors in raising the Colosseum was to satisfy the appetite of the Roman populace for circenses (games), and there is no doubt that they achieved their aim.

National Museum
The Museo Nazionale Romano, housed in part of the Baths of Diocletian, has the largest collection of ancient art in Rome after that of the Vatican museums. On the first floor of the Museum are a collection of mosaics, stucco work and frescoes and wall paintings from the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta.

Palatine Hill
The Palatine occupies a leading place among the seven hills of Rome. It is associated with the legend of the foundation of the city, and has yielded evidence of the earliest settlement in the area, strategically situated 50m/165ft above the Tiber, near the Isola Tiberina. Under the Empire palaces (the very word "palace" comes from the Palatine) were built here by the Emperors and great aristocratic families of Rome; and although the remains of these buildings give only a very inadequate impression of their former magnificence, a walk over the Palatine nevertheless takes us into the heart of Roman history.

Pantheon
The architectural form of the Pantheon, the largest and best preserved monument of Roman antiquity, is so simple that the structure has survived the hazards of the centuries almost intact. The name of its builder is inscribed above the entrance: Marcus Agrippa, son-in-law of the Emperor Augustus, who dedicated it to the "most holy" (Greek pantheon) planetary gods - hence the dome, representing the firmament, with its opening for the sun - and not to all the gods as the name seems to imply.
The Pantheon is the place of burial of the Italian kings (Victor Emmanuel II, second niche on right; Umberto I, second niche on left); the greatest Cardinal Secretary of State of modern times, Consalvi (tomb by Thorvaldsen, 1824, third niche on left) and the great Renaissance painter Raphael (between second and third niches on left) are also buried here.

Roman Forum
No other site in Europe is so pregnant with history as the Roman Forum. Although the surviving remains give only a very inadequate impression of the splendor of the Forum in ancient times, this area at the foot of the Capitol and the Palatine, with its columns still standing erect or lying tumbled on the ground, its triumphal arches and its remains of walls, still have the power to impress, for it was here during many centuries that the fate of Europe was decided.
It needs a good deal of imagination (and small-scale plaster models) to summon up a picture of the Forum in Imperial times; but the site, even in its state of ruin, still retains a powerful evocative force. The entire area, however, suffers from heavy traffic surging around it, and plans are being made to impose traffic restrictions around the site and in the nearby Via dei Fori Imperiali.

Villa Farnesina
The Villa Farnesina, which now belongs to the State and houses the National Print Cabinet (Gabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe; viewing by appointment only), was built in the 16th century with all the lavishness and splendor of the period. This Renaissance palace was designed by Baldassare Peruzzi (1508-22) for the banker Agostino Chigi and decorated by famous artists, including Raphael, Giulio Romano, Sebastiano del Piombo, Peruzzi himself and Sodoma. Here Popes, cardinals, princes, diplomats, artists and men of letters were entertained in princely fashion. Illustrious guests were given silver dishes bearing their own coat-of-arms, which they threw into the nearby Tiber after the banquet (though a net spread in the river enabled them to be recovered afterwards). The palace was acquired by the Farnese family in 1580, and in the 18th century it passed to the Bourbons of Naples.

Basilica of St Mary Major
Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome is the largest of the 80 Roman churches dedicated to the Virgin. It is also one of the four patriarchal basilicas (coming after San Giovanni in Laterano, San Pietro in Vaticano and San Paolo fuori le Mura) and one of the seven pilgrimage churches (the patriarchal churches together with Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, San Lorenzo fuori le Mura and San Sebastiano). It is the only church in Rome in which mass has been celebrated every day without interruption since the fifth century.
From the square with the obelisk (14.80m/49ft high) from the Mausoleum of Augustus an imposing flight of steps leads up to the entrance at the chancel end of the church. The main entrance (facade by Ferdinando Fuga, 1743) is reached by way of the column from the Basilica of Maxentius, now crowned by a figure of the Virgin.
This principal basilica was built by Pope Liberius who had a vision of Our Lady during a miraculous snowstorm that took place in the height of summer. The triumphal arch and facade were built in the 18th century. The Pauline Chapel and Sistine Chapel were beautifully built by Flaminio Ponzio and Domenico Fontana.

Baths of Caracalla
The Baths of Caracalla to the south of Rome, begun by Septimus Severus in A.D. 206 and completed by Caracalla in 216, were much more than public baths. Nowadays they would be called a "leisure center", containing as they did a whole system of baths (hot and cold baths, a swimming pool, sweat baths with both dry and damp heat), facilities for gymnastics and sport, pleasant rooms for social intercourse, gardens to walk in, lecture rooms and libraries, hairdressers and shops. These various needs were met in a massively imposing structure covering an area 300m/1,100ft square, a complex of gigantic halls with huge columns and piers, domes and semi-domes, barrel vaulting and cross vaulting, which could accommodate some 1,500 people at a time. The floors and walls were covered with marbles, mosaics and frescoes. The leisure needs of the population have never been catered for with such magnificence as in the Roman baths; even in ruin their splendor is still apparent.

Catacombs of St Calixtus
The Catacombs of St Calixtus were called by Pope John XXIII "the sublimest and most famous in Rome". These underground burial places in the Via Appia Antica extend over an area of 300x400m/330x440yd, with an intricate network of passages and chambers hewn from the soft Roman tufa on four levels. Some 20km/12.5mi of passages have so far been explored, and the total number of burials is estimated at around 170,000. In six sacramental chapels, constructed between A.D. 290 and 310, are both pagan and early Christian wall paintings. In the "Papal Crypt", to which visitors descend by a flight of 35 steps, are the tombs of most of the martyred Popes of the third century identified by Greek inscriptions (Urban I, Pontius, Antherus, Fabian, Lucius, Eutychianus). To the left of the Papal Crypt is the tomb of St Cecilia, with wall paintings; the saint's remains are now in the church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. Also of interest are tombs of Pope Eusebius (309-311) and Pope Cornelius (251-253) and Lucina crypt with wall paintings dating from second century.

Palazzo Borghese
Like other noble Roman families, the Borghese family, to which Pope Paul V (1605-21) belonged, had to have both a palace in the city and a summer or "weekend" residence in the country. Cardinal Camillo Borghese accordingly bought a palace near the Tiber and on becoming Pope as Paul V presented it to his brothers Orazio and Francesco. The palace, begun by the architect Martino Lunghi, was completed for the Borghese family by Flaminio Ponzio to a plan which earned it the name of "Cembalo" (harpsichord), with the "keyboard" towards the Tiber. The sumptuous appointments of the palace reflected all the magnificence of a Papal family. The courtyard with its double row of arcades, its ancient statues, its garlands, its figures of youths and putti is a haven of peace for the visitor coming in from the noise and bustle of the streets. Opposite the Palazzo, where once the carriages stood, are the servants quarters.

Castel Sant'Angelo
The Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (now a museum) is one of the most imposing buildings to survive from antiquity. It was originally a mausoleum, begun by Hadrian (A.D. 117-138) in the closing years of his reign to provide a last resting-place for himself and his successors, and completed by Septimus Severus (A.D. 193). When Rome was endangered by Germanic raiders from the north and was surrounded by Aurelius with a new circuit of walls the mausoleum, strategically situated, was incorporated in the defenses and became the strongest fortress in Rome.

National Monument to Victor Emmanuel II
The National Monument to Victor Emmanuel II - a memorial to which there are varying reactions, of approval or disapproval - was built between 1885 and 1911 to celebrate the winning of Italian unity in 1870 and to commemorate the first king of united Italy, Victor Emmanuel II (d. 1878). The monument is 135m/440ft long by 130m/425ft deep and rears up to a height of 70m/230ft. Half-way up are the "Altar of the Fatherland" (Altare della Patria) and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which regularly feature in city tours.
The east part of the Monument houses the Museo Centrale del Risorgimento (museum of Italian independence; tel. 6 79 35 98) and the Museo Sacrano delle Bandiere della Marina Militare (museum of flags; closed for restoration).

Trevi Fountain
Rome's largest fountain, the Fontana di Trevi, stands in a small square closely hemmed in by buildings. It is supplied by an aqueduct originally constructed by Agrippa, the great art patron of the first century B.C., to bring water to his baths, and later restored by the Popes. The fountain was created for Pope Clement XII between 1732 and 1751 by Nicolò Salvi, whose masterpiece it is. The fountain, 20m/65ft wide and 26m/85ft high, is built against the rear wall of the palace of the Dukes of Poli. It depicts the "kingdom of Ocean" - the sea god Oceanus (Neptune), with horses (one wild, the other quiet), tritons and shells. The water swirls round the figures and the artificial rocks and collects in a large basin. In the basin can be seen the coins thrown into it by visitors, in virtue of the old tradition that if you throw a coin into the Trevi Fountain you will one day return to Rome.

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