I bought some maps and books on Rome and would read them in the evening, putting the information I thus acquired to use the next day when I toured the city; this way I soon made myself so thoroughly a master of the matter, I could have guided my guide.
– Montaigne, Voyage en Italie, 1581
This book is both for people who have not visited Rome and for those whose efforts to understand it have been frustrated by the city’s sheer complexity. Although good for visits of any length, it is especially helpful for people with only a few days to spend in Rome. A short visit does not mean a short guidebook! On the contrary, a guide rich in easily digestible information can make a short stay much more meaningful. Also, this book is for everybody, from the ignoramus to the connoisseur. This book differs from standard guidebooks in three major ways:
Each section describing sights is preceded by several pages that you may wish to read before you start walking, to add context and enjoyment to your visit. These pages are marked ‘Before Going’ and are set in a single column. The site-by-site descriptions which come next are entitled ‘On the Spot’, and are in two columns. As a whole, the ‘Before Going’ sections form a thorough book on Rome. Read them at your leisure – before departure, on the plane or in your hotel room. Of course, you can also refer to them during the actual visit.
This book consists of ten Walks covering the essentials of Rome. Within each Walk, sections that aren’t essential are marked ‘Detour’ and you can skip them without compromising your aim of mastering ‘basic’ Rome. The Walks and Detours are designed to provide you with in-depth knowledge of the basics in the least possible time: they are compact, with no wasted steps, and have been checked for time length. Particular stress is placed on directions, orientation and transportation, as time wasted on these matters is the main problem for most tourists in this labyrinthine city.
The Walks take from half to a full day each, depending on their length; your speed; the number of open churches and monuments; and whether you take the Detours.
If you omit the Detours, the Walks total roughly 60 hours, or about seven days of intensive sightseeing. If you have less time, take only the first – usually more important – Walk in each section.
If you have more than a week, take one or more of the Detours. Or consider the additional walks described on pp. 278-295 and 601-639. These provide, respectively, a second, more detailed examination of the Forum and the Palatine, and visits to the outlying, ‘Beyond the Walls’ areas of Rome.
Then there are the museums. The Walks in this book include only the Vatican Museums, those unsurpassed displays of art and civilization. But if your stay is long enough, you should certainly spend time in some of Rome’s other important and exciting museums. These are listed and briefly described on pp. 672-680.
Rome is one of the most difficult cities to understand, even for Romans. Paradoxically, the very quality that can take you to the heights of excitement – the city’s extraordinarily rich tangle of 27 centuries of history and architecture – can confuse you to the point of utter frustration. The many layers of visual information can be hard to tease apart. Venerable ruins hide within ordinary modern buildings. Pagan temples live on as Christian churches. Baroque façades conceal ancient Roman columns. Styles, shapes, originals and imitations, old and new, blend so closely as to make some objects hard to see, let alone interpret. But with a bit of determination and the guidance provided in this book you can overcome these difficulties.
We’ve discovered that a good way to untangle Rome is to follow its different layers one by one, focusing separately on each neighbourhood where the evidence of a particular style or time period predominates. Each walk, therefore, concentrates on a single historical or artistic aspect of the city. This will help you put the various elements together to form a coherent picture, not only culturally and historically, but surprisingly, also from the practical standpoint of finding your way around. (There are some unavoidable exceptions to this organization, however. For instance, the Renaissance Rome walks include descriptions of some Ancient Roman sights.)
The ten Walks – two Walks per theme – are:
§ ‘Roma Romantica’. These walks cover the latter part of Roman history: the baroque, the 18th century, the neoclassical period, the Romantic period and the ‘belle époque’ style.
§ ‘Ancient Rome’. These cover Rome before the fall of the Empire in the late 400s.
§ ‘Rome of the Popes’. These cover primarily the Holy See and directly associated sites within and without the Vatican, such as St. Peter’s, the Vatican Museums, the Popes’ ‘Castle of the Holy Angel’, and St. John Lateran.
§ ‘Renaissance Rome’.
§ ‘Trastevere’ (‘Across the Tiber’).
The midpoint of each walk is clearly marked in order to help you measure your progress, decide when to take breaks, or plan an abbreviated sightseeing programme if time is limited.
Practical details such as staying in Rome and the transport system are at the end of the book, together with a comprehensive list of the museums of Rome. There is also a glossary for technical terms (though we have avoided using them where possible) and a biographical index of artists and their works in Rome.
Official schedules and phone numbers, monument and church opening hours, as well as bus numbers and routes are constantly changing in Rome. Given the situation, we debated whether to include schedules, phone numbers and bus routes at all. We have done so, partly because some of it will remain valid, and partly because, even when outdated, it could maintain some value in helping you find your way around. We strongly stress the need to confirm the information in the book before relying on it; use the contact information on page 657.