Ancient Rome

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1. Colosseum

Gladiatorial combat and wild beasts

Bust of Vespasian

In AD 72, Emperor Vespasian commissioned the Colosseum, Rome’s first purpose-built blood-sports arena, on the marshy site of a lake in the grounds of the Domus Aurea. Spectacles often began with wild animals performing circus tricks, and the gladiatorial combat would commence with comic battles, after which the real gladiators, in ceremonial helmets and armour, would fight each other to the death. At the opening games in AD 80, 9,000 beasts and scores of gladiators were killed.

Key Features

1. Arena

2. The velarium A vast awning fixed to the upper storey, the velarium could be hoisted to shade spectators from the sun.

3. Colonnade To stop flirting, women were segregated from men behind a colonnade.

4. Internal corridors

5. Entry routes The Colosseum could seat up to 55,000 people. The entry routes to the seats were reached by the staircases that ran through the building.

6. Vomitoria These were the exits from each numbered section of the seating tiers.

7. Network of tunnels

8. Columns Each floor had different columns – plain Doric ones at the bottom, then Ionic (with curled tops) and above that Corinthian, the most ornate, with acanthus-leaf decoration.

9. Arched entrances

Left Interior of the Colosseum Middle Exterior of the Colosseum Right Arched entrance

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Kids’ Corner

Quiz time…

Count the arches – are there really 76?
The exits from the seating area were known as vomitoria – why?
What was a velarium used for?
Do the wide internal corridors have anything in common with a football stadium?
Animals were kept in cages underground – how did they get up to the arena level?

>> Answers

Colossal Colosseum

The Colosseum was named after the colossal golden statue of Emperor Nero that stood outside. When Emperor Hadrian (r.117–138) had it moved into the Forum, he needed 24 elephants to do the job.

Thumbs up or down?

Gladiators were usually slaves, war captives or criminals, and could occasionally be female. Sometimes, if a gladiator was badly wounded, he would raise his hand and place his fate at the mercy of the crowd. “Thumbs up” from the emperor meant he could live, “thumbs down” meant he died.

2. Arch of Constantine

The triumph of stolen goods

The magnificent Arch of Constantine near the Colosseum

A triumphal arch, the Arch of Constantine was one of the last Imperial monuments to be erected in Rome. Shortly after its construction, Emperor Constantine shifted the capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople (now Istanbul). Dedicated in AD 315, the arch commemorates Constantine’s victory over his co-emperor, Maxentius, at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312. He credited this victory to a dream in which he had a vision of the Cross and heard the words “in this sign you shall conquer”. There is nothing particularly Christian about the arch, which was designed to demonstrate Roman supremacy and incorporates reliefs and statues taken from buildings all over the city. The eight figures on top, for example, are Dacians (Romanians), taken from Trajan’s Forum, and the man shown giving bread to the poor is actually Marcus Aurelius.

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Kids’ Corner

Glorious moments

Constantine’s arch celebrates what he thought were the most glorious moments in the history of the Roman Empire. Design an arch that celebrates the best moments in your life. What would you put on it?

Disarmed!

The obelisk in the park of Villa Celimontana comes from the Temple of the Sun in Heliopolis, Egypt. It was moved to the park in the 19th century. While moving it, however, the supports broke and one of the workers had his arm trapped under the obelisk. The arm was amputated, and remains buried under the obelisk even today.

3. Celian Hill

Peacocks, punishments and a playground

Byzantine mosaic in the apse, Santa Maria in Domnica church

Largely undeveloped save for a vast military hospital and a handful of churches, the Celian Hill rises, green and tranquil, across the road from the Palatine Hill. Although it was heavily populated in the latter years of the Empire, the hill was almost abandoned after the Goths sabotaged the aqueducts in AD 530, thereby cutting off its water supply. Jagged fragments of the aqueducts can be seen today.

In the late 19th century, the remains of shops and two Roman houses were discovered under the Church of SS Giovanni e Paolo. The Case Romane del Celio, as they are known, with their beautifully restored frescoes including one showing girls feeding peacocks, ducks and geese, and walls painted to resemble precious marble, are well worth a visit. A small collection of everyday house-hold objects is displayed here: a teaspoon, sewing needles made of bone and a bronze buckle.

Above the church of SS Giovanni e Paolo is the pine-shaded park of Villa Celimontana, the loveliest in central Rome, and a perfect destination for a picnic and games after seeing sights such as the Palatine Hill, Colosseum or San Clemente. The park has a playground with swings, rope-climbing frames, climbing arcs and see-saws, pony rides and a small roller-skating and cycling rink. It also hosts a jazz festival in summer.

Children prone to nightmares should probably not be taken to Santo Stefano Rotondo, whose walls are decorated with gruesome scenes of ghoulish martyrdoms. Opt instead for Santa Maria in Domnica, which has a gorgeous mosaic in the apse. It shows the Madonna surrounded by the Apostles, with Christ depicted as a miniature boy, rather than a baby, sitting on her lap.

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Kids’ Corner

For the steely nerved…

In Santo Stefano Rotondo, look at the wall paintings and their labels and see if you can find…

The saint who was buried alive
The saint who was tied to a wheel
The saint who was tied to two wild bulls
The emperors who seem to have been the most to blame for the martyrdoms

>> Answers

Line drawing

Look carefully at the face of the Madonna in Santa Maria in Domnica and notice how the eyebrows and nose are created with a single black line. Can you draw some people you know in the same style?

4. Rewind Rome

A virtual voyage

Children observing an interactive exhibit at Rewind Rome

A multimedia museum, Rewind Rome was designed to bring aspects of ancient Rome to life. Staff dressed as ancient Romans take visitors into a reproduction of an ancient Roman room and help them find the answers to a multiple-choice quiz. Then there is a 3D film that gives the impression of flying over and through the streets of ancient Rome, after which visitors enter a glass-bottomed lift suspended over a replica of an archaelogical site with a virtual Julius Caesar as their guide. Other installations and activities include a virtual chariot race around the Circus Maximus; a model of the Colosseum where children can learn about ancient Roman building methods; a guide to gladiatorial fighting techniques and weapons; a beauty corner with samples of perfumes popular among the ladies of ancient Rome and an interactive computer programme about ancient Roman hairstyles.

Detail on an ancient column

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5. Palatine Hill

Mirrored walls and rainbow floors

With pine trees covering its slopes and wild flowers surrounding its ruins in spring, the Palatine Hill is one of Rome’s loveliest ancient sites. According to legend, this was the spot where Romulus and Remus founded their first camp. Later, it became home to the glitterati of the late Republic and to the Imperial family. Today, the remains of elaborate fountains, colourful marble floors, fine stone carvings, columns, stuccoes and frescoes can be seen within the magnificent walls of the Imperial palaces.

Key Features

1. House of Livia

2. Cryptoporticus Neroniano A secret passageway, this was built by Nero to link his new palace, the Domus Aurea, with the Palatine.

3. Entrance from the Roman Forum

4. Stadium The curved recess of this sunken oval garden probably held a box from which emperors could watch the wealthy strolling by or riding in sedans and carriages.

5. Domus Augustana

6. Museo Palatino Highlights here include a double-faced statue of Dionysus and a model of the Palatine during the Bronze Age.

7. Domus Flavia

8. House of Augustus

Left Domus Augustana Middle Beautifully preserved fresco, the Houses of Livia and Augustus Right Domus Flavia

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Kids’ Corner

Detective work

Try to imagine or draw the peristyle of the Domus Flavia as it was in the time of the emperors. Look for clues:

What is the colour of the marble that tiled the floor?
What is the shape of the fountain?
What were the columns like?
What kind of capitals did they have?
And what did Emperor Domitian’s biographer Suetonius tell us about the walls?

>> Answers

Shocking behaviour

Cardinal Alessandro Farnese had some outrageous friends whom he invited to parties on the Palatine Hill. When one of them, Isabella de Luna, was issued a court summons for a debt she refused to pay, she tore it up and pretended to wipe her bottom with it!

Pipe names

One of the ways archaeologists are able to work out who lived in an ancient building is by looking at the lead water pipes, which were often engraved with the names of the owners. In the House of Livia a pipe was found bearing the name IVLIAE AV (Julia Augusta), one of the official names of Augustus’ wife, Livia. It is now on display in the House of Livia.

6. Roman Forum

Sacred flames and game boards

Temple of Vesta, Roman Forum

In the early days of the Republic, the Forum was much like a piazza – an open space where people would shop, eat, pray and exchange news. But by the 2nd century BC, Rome controlled not only Italy, but also Greece, Spain and North Africa, and the need for a more dignified centre arose. Food stalls and street hawkers were replaced with courts of law, business centres and monuments. As the population expanded, the Forum became too small. However, emperors continued to build monuments here and celebrated military victories with parades of war booty and prisoners.

Key Features of the Roman Forum: East

1. Altar of Julius Caesar The spot where Julius Caesar was cremated after his assassination is marked by a round altar.

2. Entrance and Forum West

3. Temple of Romulus

4. Via Sacra The main road through ancient Rome, the Via Sacra, ran from the Capitoline Hill, through the Forum, to the Colosseum. Military victories were usually followed by triumphal processions along the Via Sacra.

5. Santa Francesca Romana

6. Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine A vast, barrel-vaulted basilica, this once held a colossal marble statue of Emperor Constantine, parts of which, including the great hand, are now on display in the Capitoline Museums. In the 7th century AD, the shiny golden tiles that covered the arched vaults of the basilica were stripped off and used to decorate St Peter’s Basilica.

7. Arch of Titus In the 1st century AD, there was a war between Rome and the Jews of Judaea. Eventually the Romans, led by Titus, won, and Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem was sacked. Carved on this arch, which was erected to celebrate the victory, are soldiers carrying the spoils of war.

8. House of the Vestal Virgins

9. Temple of Vesta The temple of the goddess of the hearth was one of ancient Rome’s most sacred. The flame that burned here was tended to by the Vestals, who were expelled from the cult if they let the flame go out.

10. Temple of Castor and Pollux Legend has it that the temple marks the spot where Castor and Pollux appeared to announce the victory of the Romans at the Battle of Regillus (c.498 BC). The three columns supporting a broken slice of entablature – all that is left of the temple – are one of the Forum’s prettiest ruins.

Left Santa Francesca Romana Middle Temple of Romulus Right House of the Vestal Virgins

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Kids’ Corner

Imperial maths

Look out for the 12-m (40-ft) high statue of Constantine inside the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine.

How tall are you?

Can you work out how many times taller the statue of Constantine was?

Keep the flame alight

Special candles encased in protective shells decorated with pictures of saints or the Madonna are sold in most supermarkets and grocery shops in Rome. Take one to the Forum and ask an adult to light it near the Temple of Vesta. See how long you can keep it alight – would you have lasted as a Vestal Virgin?

Sporting church

During the 1960 Olympic Games, wrestling events were staged in the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine!

Build to impress

Buildings like the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine were designed to show ordinary people how powerful emperors were. What kind of building would you build if you were an emperor or empress? Try to draw it, thinking about:

(a) how big it would be?

(b) what you would use to decorate it?

Roman Forum continued

Key Features of the Roman Forum: West

1. Entrance and Forum East

2. Basilica Aemilia A rectangular meeting hall founded in 179 BC, the basilica was where bankers, moneylenders and tax officials traded. The hall was still in use half a century later when the Goths invaded Rome and set the Forum on fire – the pavement is spotted with tiny splashes of rust and verdigris, the remains of coins that melted in the heat.

3. Comitium According to legend, the Comitium was founded by Romulus. It comprised a market, several temples and the Curia – now reconstructed – where the Senate met, and the Lapis Niger, a sacred stone of mysterious significance.

4. Basilica Julia A law court, Basilica Julia had room for four cases to be tried at a time in “courts” divided by curtains. Carved into its steps are game boards – people passed the time between cases by playing games here.

5. Rostrum

6. The Umbilicus A stone mound, this was believed to be the centre, or belly button, of ancient Rome.

7. Temple of Saturn Dedicated to Saturn, god of justice, strength and time, this temple was rebuilt several times. The current ruins date from AD 283, when Emperor Diocletian rebuilt it after a fire.

8. Arch of Septimius Severus

9. Santa Maria Antiqua This church was converted from a 2nd-century AD Roman building in the 6th century. Archaeologists have created digital models of the building in various stages of its life, and have revealed six layers of Byzantine frescoes, one on top of the other.

Left Arch of Septimius Severus Middle Rostrum Right Cloaca Maxima

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Kids’ Corner

Challenge an adult

Below the Lapis Niger is a column inscribed

“etis eht selpmart ohw enoyna no sesruc erid”

The inscription is written in “boustrophedon”. Ask an adult if they know what this is. (Clues: It is a kind of writing. In Greek “bou” means “ox”, and “strophe” means “the act of turning”. One line is written from right to left, and the next from left to right, in the same direction that an ox or a tractor would plough a field!).

Merry Saturnalia

The Temple of Saturn was the focus of the annual Saturnalia winter festival which had much in common with Christmas: schools were closed, a fair and market were held, presents, including woolly socks and slippers, were exchanged, and special dinners were held.

Humbled magician

In the 1st century AD, Simon Magus, a magician, decided to prove that his powers were superior to those of saints Peter and Paul by levitating above the Forum. The SS dropped to their knees and prayed to God to humble him. Simon immediately plummeted to his death.

7. Capitoline Hill

Geometry, symmetry and other trees

Santa Maria in Aracoeli

One of the seven hills of Rome, the Capitoline Hill was first the fortified centre of ancient Rome and later home to its most important temples. The broad flight of steps leading up the hill was designed by Michelangelo, as was the Piazza del Campidoglio at its head. At the centre of the piazza is a gilded bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius, the original of which is in the Capitoline Museums. Legend has it that when the last gold leaf flakes off the statue, the world will end.

Key Sights

1. Palazzo Nuovo

2. Piazza del Campidoglio

3. Palazzo dei Conservatori

4. Tarpeian Rock In ancient Rome, traitors were thrown to their deaths from this cliff, named after Tarpeia, the daughter of a Roman general, who, according to mythology, betrayed Rome to the Sabines.

5. Monte Caprino park

6. Cordonata

7. Aracoeli staircase Literally meaning “stairway to heaven”, the Aracoeli staircase leads to the church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli. Popular belief is that anyone who climbs the staircase on their knees will win the lottery.

8. Statue of Marcus Aurelius

9. Il Vittoriano

10. Santa Maria in Aracoeli The church has a replica of a miraculous figure of baby Jesus, the original of which was stolen in 1994 and was said to have the power to revive the dead.

Left Statues of Castor and Pollux at the Cordonata Middle Roman insula Right Gilded bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius

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Piazza del Campidoglio Q & A

Look carefully at the geometric design on the Piazza del Campidoglio.

Is it a circle or an oval?
How many points does the star at the centre have?
How many points does the geometric flower at the centre have?
How many steps can you climb up or down from the piazza?

>> Answers

Full house

It is believed that up to 380 people may have lived in the insula by the Aracoeli staircase, which may have had more than six storeys. The poet Horace complained about having to climb 200 steps to get to his top-floor flat.

Dear Santa

Many Roman children write their Christmas letters to Santo Bambino – the statue of the baby Jesus in the chuch of Santa Maria in Aracoeli – instead of Santa Claus. At Christmas time, the statue is placed in a beautiful crib, and on 6 January every year, he is carried down the Aracoeli staircase in a procession attended by thousands of people.

8. Capitoline Museums

Giant body parts and a granite crocodile

Housed within two majestic Renaissance palaces flanking Michelangelo’s trapezoid Piazza del Campidoglio, the Capitoline Museums contain Rome’s finest and most famous collection of Classical sculpture as well as a gallery of Renaissance art.

The collection began back in the mid-15th century, when Pope Sixtus IV donated several bronze statues to the people of Rome, making the Capitoline Museums the oldest public museum in the world.

Palazzo dei Conservatori

The most stunning piece in this museum is the gilded bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, now in a grand glass hall. It is quite unlike any other Roman sculpture: there is a tenderness about the emperor that is a world away from the idealized statues of Constantine and others – it is easy to become convinced that it is breathing. A copy of the statue is in the middle of Piazza del Campidoglio.

While much of the palazzo is given over to ancient sculpture, the art galleries on the second floor hold works by artists such as Caravaggio, Van Dyck and Titian, among others.

The museum also has a section devoted to the piazza in the Iron Age, with interactive computer programmes that may appeal to older children. Several rooms are dedicated to finds from some of the Roman gardens that once graced the Esquiline Hill, including a gory statue of Marsyas, who was flayed alive. The statue was carved from purple-red marble to make it look like raw flesh.

Palazzo Nuovo

A gallery below Piazza del Campidoglio links the Palazzo dei Conservatori to the Palazzo Nuovo. Begin by following signs to the Tabularium, which take visitors past the ruins of the Temple of Veiovis to the foundation of the ancient Roman Public Records Office, from where there are good views out over the Roman Forum.

Once upstairs, start with the Egyptian room just off the main courtyard, which has an interesting array of Egyptian statues found in the streets around the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, where there was an important temple to the Egyptian goddess Isis. Look out for the two monkeys, a granite crocodile and two sphinxes. The main galleries are located on the first floor. Stop by the Hall of the Emperors, which has marble portraits of the Imperial family, and the Hall of the Philosophers, which has portraits of Greek politicians, scientists and literary figures.

Palazzo dei Conservatori

1. Spinario The 1st-century AD bronze statue of a boy trying to remove a thorn from his foot stands in the Hall of Triumphs.

2. She-wolf The Etruscan bronze statue of Lupa, the she-wolf who nursed the legendary twins Romulus and Remus, dates from the early 5th century BC. The twins were added in the 15th century.

3. Statue of Constantine The courtyard contains the colossal marble body parts from the statue of Constantine that once stood in the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine. The statue was around 12 m (40 ft) high, with the nude parts of the body made of marble, and the trunk made of wood and covered with “clothes” made of either gilded bronze or coloured marble.

4. Statue of Marcus Aurelius An entire light-flooded room is dedicated to the marvelous equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius. Standing 11 ft (4 m) high, it is unlike any other Roman sculpture.

5. Temple of the Jupiter Capitolinus On display off the Marcus Aurelius Exedra are the foundations of an Etruscan Temple of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva.

Left Spinario in the Hall of Triumphs Middle The she-wolf who nursed the twins Romulus and Remus Right Statue of Marcus Aurelius

Palazzo Nuovo

6. Room of Doves On one of the walls of this room is a mosaic of doves that once decorated the floors of Villa Adriana, and in the centre is a marble statue of a little girl playing with a pet dove.

7. Capitoline Venus One of the finest works on display in the museum, this statue dates from around AD 100–150 and is a Roman copy of the original carved in the 4th century BC by the Greek sculptor Praxiteles. The statue depicts Venus with an urn of water and a towel; according to legend, the advent of spring was marked by the goddess taking her annual bath.

8. Alexander Severus as Hunter In this 3rd-century AD statue, the emperor’s pose is a pastiche of Perseus holding up the head of Medusa the Gorgon after he had killed her.

9. Discobolus The twisted torso was part of a Greek statue of a discus thrower. An 18th-century French sculptor, Monnot, made the additions that turned him into a wounded warrior.

10. Dying Gaul This Roman copy of a 3rd-century BC Greek work depicting a Gaul with a wound and unruly hair is one of the most famous statues on display in the museum.

Left The marble statue of a little girl playing with a pet dove in the Room of Doves Right Alexander Severus as Hunter

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Kids’ Corner

Can you spot…

In the Palazzo Nuovo’s Hall of the Emperors see if you can spot:

An empress with a striped shawl and black hair
A lady with her hair twisted into pasta-like spirals
A lady with hair like curls of butter
A lady with hair like snails
A lady with ringlets like sausages
A boy with ears that stick out

>> Answers

Snake or dog?

The marble statue of the girl with the dove has a snake curling at the hem of the girl’s skirts. However, the restorers had made a mistake. The “snake” was originally the tail of a dog.

Thorny message

The Spinario is said to be a shepherd boy named Gnaeus Martius, who had to deliver an important message to the Roman Senate. He ran without stopping and, even when he had been pricked by a thorn in his foot, he only stopped to remove it after the message had been delivered. The boy became a symbol of loyalty, and was often known as Fedelino, meaning “little loyal one”.

9. Piazza Venezia

A secret university

View of Piazza Venezia from the terrace of Il Vittoriano

Dominated by Il Vittoriano, Piazza Venezia is the busiest square in central Rome. As the main hub of the city, it was the obvious choice for a metro station and ever since 2001, when the construction work began, the piazza has been buzzing with activity. As engineers and archaeologists dug down, they came across an ancient Roman glass factory and then two flights of staircases that probably belonged to Hadrian’s Athenaeum, an ancient university where intellectuals would meet for debates and readings. Today, the plan is to build a station-cum-museum under the piazza.

On one side of the piazza is Palazzo Venezia, built in the 15th century for Pope Paul II. The palazzo is most famous as the headquarters of the Fascist dictator Mussolini, who had his apartment and offices here and would address the people of Rome from the balcony overlooking the piazza. Today, it houses a museum, which has a rich collection ranging from early Renaissance paintings and painted wedding chests to Neapolitan ceramic figurines although it is most visited when hosting a major exhibition.

Around the back of the palazzo is San Marco, the church of the Venetians, which has some fine 9th-century mosaics on its apse.

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Kids’ Corner

Nasty gossips

Talking statues such as that of Madame Lucrezia outside San Marco were a very useful, though a rather mean and cowardly, Roman invention. Whenever anyone had anything nasty to say about someone else, but was too scared to say it to their face, they wrote a note and stuck it on one of the “talking statues”.

Counting cars

Piazza Venezia is said to be the most traffic-congested piazza in central Rome. Stand on one of the corners and count how many cars go past in one minute. Multiply that by 60, and that is how many go past in an hour!

10. Il Vittoriano

A typewriter with a point of view

The magnificent white marble building of Il Vittoriano

Officially known as the Altar of the Nation, and unofficially as the typewriter or wedding cake, Il Vittoriano is an enormous white marble building, which opened in 1911 in honour of Vittorio Emanuele II and the unified Italy, of which he was king. It is so immense – the equestrian statue of the king in the centre measures 12 m (40 ft) from the horse’s nose to its tail, which makes it as huge as the statue of Constantine – that it makes the soldiers guarding it and the people visiting it look like ants.

For most of its life the monument has been closed to the public, but it is now open and definitely worth a visit. The views from it are spectacular, whether from the lower levels, the glass elevator or the terrace. The small museums inside are of limited interest, but the building often hosts interesting exhibitions. There is a café with a terrace, and exits and entrances from the monument give direct access onto the Aracoeli staircase and, from the café, via the rooms of Santa Maria in Aracoeli, to the Piazza del Campidoglio.

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Kids’ Corner

The whitest white

The white marble that Il Vittoriano is made from is called botticino and comes from the northern Italian town of Brescia. Unlike Roman travertine, which mellows in the sun, this marble is bleached by the sun, and so gets whiter and whiter – except where traffic fumes make it black!

Dome-a-Roma

Briton Stephen Wiltshire drew a map of Rome from memory after a short helicopter ride (watch this video on www.tinyurl.com/y45nuh). How good is your visual memory? Take paper and a pencil to the top of Il Vittoriano, lean on the terrace wall for one minute and take in all the domes and roofs. See if you can spot St Peter’s dome, the Roman Forum, the Colosseum and Trajan’s Markets. Turn your back to the view and draw the skyline.

11. Crypta Balbi

The story of a rubbish dump

Exhibits at the Crypta Balbi, Museo Nazionale Romano

The newest branch of the Museo Nazionale Romano, the Crypta Balbi tells the story of how the piece of land and buildings directly behind it were used, abused and reused over the centuries. In the 1980s, archaeologists discovered a private theatre built in 13 BC on an abandoned plot of land between two convents. On excavating the esedra (curved part of the theatre), archaeologists found fragments of a marble semi-circle of seats set above a drain – an ancient latrine, which dates back to the 1st century AD and seems to have been designed for the wealthy. By the 3rd century, the area had fallen from grace and blocks of flats for the poor had been built, one of them with a Mithraeum in the basement. It is possible to walk along a series of Roman drains and water cisterns below the museum itself.

Displays in the museum show finds from the site, including fragments of glass from the glassworks and the graves of two children and an adult discovered in the esedra.

Trajan’s Markets were the world’s first shopping mall, a complex of 150 shops laid out on five levels. Built in the 2nd century AD, the markets had shops that sold everything from fish – kept alive in fresh- and salt-water tanks – to spices, fruit, flowers, wine, oil and fabrics. The dour, red-brick complex is well preserved, with a main hall, a paved street with shops opening off it, and a three-storey crescent containing yet more shops. When it opened, it had the same impact on the city as hypermarkets do today – small specialist markets such as the Forum Boarium, selling meat, and Forum Holitarium, selling fruit and vegetables, lost a lot of trade.

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12. Trajan’s Markets

Retail therapy, Roman-style

Key Features

1. The Terrace There are great views over Trajan’s Forum and Column from the terrace.

2. Upper Corridor The shops here were thought to have sold wine and oil, as a number of amphorae (storage jars) were found here.

3. Market Shop

4. Via Biberatica The main street that runs through the market, Via Biberatica (literally “drinking street”) is named after the drinking inns and taverns that once lined it, and is paved with huge basalt cobbles.

5. Concert Halls

6. Main Hall The main hall had two storeys, with shops on either side. On the upper floor were the offices from where the annona (the free corn ration given to Roman men and boys) was shared out.

Concert Halls The two large halls on the lowest level were used for concerts.

Torre delle Milizie For centuries it was believed that this was the tower from which Emperor Nero watched Rome burn. However, investigations proved that this structure, which stands above the markets, was built in the Middle Ages.

Left Roman markets Right Market shop

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Kids’ Corner

Roman shopping list

Imagine that you are the cook’s slave at the elegant house down the road from Trajan’s Markets. The cook asks you to go to the market to buy the following ingredients. Can you guess what might be cooking?

Chopped meat

Pepper

Cumin

Savory

Rue

Parsley

Juniper berries

Garum (fermented fish sauce)

Intestines of pig

>> Answer

But that’s not fair…

Free corn was originally distributed only to grown men, but Trajan, anxious to have a supply of strong, well-fed men to join the army, allowed 5,000 boys to receive it as well. Elsewhere in Italy, Trajan introduced a cash allowance for children, but girls got less than boys, and in one town 300 boys and just 36 girls received money!

A cupboard staple

Romans could not live without garum – just as some people today cannot live without tomato ketchup or mayonnaise. Here is a recipe from a Roman cookery book by Apicius:

“Take the entrails, gills, blood and juice of a tuna, and add salt. Place in a sealed vessel and leave for two months”. Yum…

13. Palazzo Valentini

A virtual house makeover

In 2005, builders at work beneath Palazzo Valentini, the seat of the Province of Rome, discovered what turned out to be the remains of two grand houses that belonged to wealthy patrician families of Imperial Rome. Elegant living rooms, courtyards, baths and kitchens were unearthed, with traces of mosaics, frescoes and coloured marbles.

Computer technology, light- and sound-effects, films and projections have been used to reconstruct the houses, resulting in a museum that brings ancient Rome to life better than anywhere else in the city. Tours take visitors to a caldarium with a Jacuzzi-like hot-tub, a tepidarium (lukewarm-water bath) where bathers could relax over a game of chequers, and a frigidarium (cold-water bath) that opened on to a garden, with a swimming pool and a pool for children. As visitors watch, mosaic floors, marble pavements and walls are “restored” to their former glory, while sound effects re-create an earthquake that buckled the floors in AD 38. During the Renaissance, the area was used as a butto (rubbish dump). This too has been reconstructed in the museum. A sheep’s horn, oyster shells, chicken bones, clam and tortoise shells found here give useful clues about the diet of Renaissance Romans.

A second, shorter itinerary, takes visitors to a newly excavated section of Trajan’s Forum. Here, the musem screens a film that reconstructs the interior of the emperor’s libraries, as well as an intelligent animation of scenes from Trajan’s Column, which is well worth watching.

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Kids’ Corner

Answer these…

In Palazzo Valentini, see if you can find the answers to these questions:

Where can you find an ancient Roman Jacuzzi and a children’s paddling pool?
What made the floors of ancient Rome buckle in AD 38?
When might roast mutton, tortoise soup and oysters have been on the menu?

>> Answers

14. Trajan’s Column

The world’s first cartoon strip?

Elaborate bas relief of figures on Trajan’s Column

Created in AD 113 to celebrate two victorious Roman campaigns in Dacia (present-day Romania), Trajan’s Column, together with its base and pedestal, is 40 m (131 ft) high, precisely the height of the spur of the Quirinal Hill that was cut away to make room for Trajan’s Forum. Spiralling around the column, like one of the scrolls that would have been kept in Trajan’s libraries, are carvings that tell the stories of the campaigns, so full of detail that some archaeologists think they may have been based on Trajan’s own war diary. It is not just battles that are depicted, but the realities of life at war for both Romans and Dacians.

The Romans are shown arriving in Dacia with their supplies in boats, building a camp, cutting down trees, sinking wells and constructing huts. Battle scenes show the Dacians being attacked, as well as Dacian attacks on the Romans, and even the aftermath of a battle. After the first campaign, the Dacians continued to resist, before the Romans attacked a walled town and set fire to it. The carvings also show a Dacian priest distributing poison to those who prefered to die than be conquered. It is extremely difficult to see these scenes from the ground, which makes one wonder how the Romans would have been able to see it. Standing on the upper floor of the two libraries that flanked the column would have made some of the scenes visible, but there would still have been sections that were out of sight. Today, the best way to see the column in detail is to watch animated films in Palazzo Valentini or take the metro out to EUR in southern Rome to see casts at eye level.

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Kids’ Corner

Invisible weapons

The sculptors of Trajan’s Column had carved weapons for some soldiers, but drilled holes into the hands of others so that metal weapons could be bolted on later. None of these metal weapons have survived, of course. Some soldiers have neither a carved weapon nor a hole in their hands – a sign, perhaps, that the column was created in a bit of a rush.

A perfect script

The carved script on the base of Trajan’s Column is one of the most elegant examples of the Roman alphabet. There is even a modern font based on the script, called Trajan. The Trajan Typeface Animation on www.tinyurl.com/7k922tt is a short cartoon based on the battle scenes on the column with all the figures made out of letters and symbols from the Trajan font. Can you draw a picture of a Roman emperor using only capital letters, numbers and symbols? (Hint – you can use the letters backwards or upside down or any way you like.)

15. Fori Imperiali

Ego alley

Visitors reading an information board outside the Fori Imperiali

As Rome became an international power and the city expanded, the original Forum became too small, and emperors began to build new fora – the Fori Imperiali. Building a new forum was also a very good way for an emperor to demonstrate his importance to the populace and the world. All had temples, were surrounded by walls, were symmetrical and all but one were built to celebrate a victory.

Caesar built his Forum, complete with heated public toilet, to celebrate his conquest over Gaul. He spent a fortune buying up and demolishing houses on the site he had selected, and dedicated a temple to Venus, with statues of himself and Cleopatra inside. Augustus’s Forum celebrated his victory over Caesar’s assassins, Brutus and Cassius, and the temple at its centre was dedicated to Mars the Avenger, whose statue looked suspiciously like Augustus. Domitian’s Forum, of which little remains, celebrated his capture of Jerusalem while Nerva’s was the smallest – little more than a corridor leading to a temple dedicated to the goddess Minerva.

The Forum of Trajan – built after the emperor’s victory over the Dacians – was probably the most ambitious. An entire slice of the Quirinal Hill was dug away to make room for it. Dominated by Trajan’s Column, it included two libraries and was overlooked by Trajan’s Markets. Recent excavations reveal more and more of this forum. All are closed to the public, though visitors can view them from Via dei Fori Imperiali.

4. Auditorium of Maecenas

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San Clemente and around

People on the steps of San Pietro in Vincoli church

The largest and highest of Rome’s seven hills, the Esquiline Hill stretches from the Colosseum and Forum up to Termini station and the busy grid of 19th- and 20th-century streets around Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II. The area is heavily congested with traffic, apart from Colle Oppio, whose ancient sights are far less visited than those in the centre. The area is well connected by metro and bus services. The fashionable Monti area just above Via dei Fori Imperiali, with its appealing restaurants, shops, and hotels can be easily explored on foot.

1. San Clemente

2. Domus Aurea

3. The Baths of Trajan

5. San Pietro in Vincoli

6. Museo Nazionale d’Arte Orientale

7. Santa Prassede & Santa Pudenziana

8. Palazzo Massimo

9. Santa Maria Maggiore

Figurines at the Museo Nazionale d’Arte Orientale

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1. San Clemente

Time to time-travel

Courtyard of San Clemente church

The church of San Clemente gives visitors a chance to travel back in time and also provides an insight into how buildings were modified over the years. At street level is a 12th-century church with decorative elements, some of which, such as the apse mosaic, reflect medieval taste, while others, notably the frescoes of St Catherine of Alexandria, reflect Renaissance style. Below is a 4th-century church built to honour San Clemente, who was martyred by being tied to an anchor and drowned. This was built over a temple dedicated to the cult of Mithras, which in turn was built in a 1st-century AD aristocratic house.

Key Features

1. Upper church

2. The cloister

3. Apse mosaic

4. Schola Cantorum Salvaged from the lower church, the 8th-century schola cantorum was an enclosure where the choir sat.

5. Steps to the lower church

6. Triclinium

7. Temple of Mithras

8. Madonna and Divine Child This fresco was originally that of the Byzantine Empress Theodora. It was converted into a Madonna by adding a baby and a halo.

9. Stairs to the Roman house

10. Lower church This church was filled with rubble so that the new church could be built on top. It took 40 years of shovelling to clear it out.

11. Cappella di Santa Caterina

Left Ceiling of the Capella di Santa Caterina Middle Apse mosaic Right Triclinium inside the Temple of Mithras

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Kids’ Corner

I spy San Clemente!

On the apse mosaic of the upper church can you find: (a) a peacock? (b) a magpie?
In the lower church can you find the piscina or pool where Christians were baptized?
Rome was flooded in the year 1912. Find the plaque that marks the water level as you walk down the stairs of the Mithraeum.

>> Answers

Rites of initiation

The all-male Mithras cult was very popular and rivalled Christianity. Followers, who believed that Mithras had brought life to the world by spilling the blood of a bull, had to undergo scary initiation ceremonies such as trials by ice, fire, starvation and thirst.

Catherine wheel

St Catherine of Alexandria was tortured by being tied to a wheel. According to legend, the wheel collapsed, injuring spectators, so she was untied and beheaded instead. Look carefully at the fresco and you will see the wheel. The saint gave her name to the Catherine Wheel firework.

2. Domus Aurea

Nero in Wonderland?

Interior of the Domus Aurea, the massive palace built by Roman Emperor Nero

Some of the most exciting discoveries in recent times have been made in the Parco del Colle Oppio, the extensive hilly park scattered with red-brick ruins across the road from the Colosseum. The site of splendid gardens in the early days of the Empire, it was here that Nero built his palatial Domus Aurea (Golden House). Built in AD 64, after a fire wiped out much of the ancient city, it stretched over the Esquiline, Palatine and Celian hills.

According to ancient Roman literature, the Domus Aurea’s landscaped grounds had a huge artificial lake, complete with real ships and fake seaside villages, bath complexes, gardens, zoos, woods, parks, grottos, nymphaeums and elegant porticoes. There was also a long secret passage connecting it with the palaces of the Palatine Hill. The palace walls were caked with fine coloured marbles, frescoes, gold and precious stones. One of the rooms had a ceiling painted with stars and planets that revolved to imitate astronomical movements. Nero enjoyed the palace only briefly, for in AD 68 he committed suicide.

Subsequent emperors did everything to erase all trace of Nero’s excesses. Vespasian drained the lake and built the Colosseum on its site, while the luxurious palace rooms were stripped of their decorations, filled with earth and buried beneath the new bath complexes of Titus and Trajan.

In the late 15th century, a Roman boy fell through a cleft on the Colle Oppio and found himself in a cave decorated with exquisite, detailed and weird frescoes. As word spread, several young artists, including Raphael, got themselves lowered into the cave by ropes. What they discovered was one of the original rooms of the Domus Aurea, but it was the word “grotto” that stuck, and the painting style the frescoes inspired became known as “grotesque”.

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Kids’ Corner

Grotty grotesques

There are examples of grotesques inspired by the Domus Aurea all over Rome: in the Vatican Museums, Castel Sant’Angelo and Villa d’Este. The style is easy to recognize – tiny figures that are half-human, half-abstract swirls and arabesques, also strange mythological winged beasts, as well as cascades of fruit and borders of complex flowers and foliage, all on a pale background.

Lyre liar!

The fire of AD 64 gave Nero an excuse to re-create the centre of Rome. Suspicions were aroused that Nero started the fire himself and the writer Suetonius accused him of playing his lyre while Rome burned. In fact Nero was in his palace at Actium when the fire started.

A grotesque family

Can you turn your family and pets (real or imaginary) into grotesques? Fold a piece of paper in two. If there are an odd number of people in your family, draw the first figure right in the centre, or else arrange them either side of the fold. Don’t give anyone arms, legs or feet. Stop at the waist. Now turn them into grotesques. Give them wings instead of arms, and tails that curl like fronds of bracken, or the scroll of a violin. Then add to the patterns, turning a squiggly line into a candlestick, or a loop into a piece of fruit. Now how about turning your cat into a flying cat-dragon?

3. The Baths of Trajan

Rub a dub dub

Between AD 104 and 109, Emperor Trajan built a complex of baths over the ruins of the Domus Aurea. There were sections for women as well as men, and the baths included a theatre, gym and reading rooms as well as warm, cold and hot pools. Besides these structures, an intricate system of subterranean passageways was also in place to service and maintain the facilities. In 2011, a huge mosaic showing Apollo with the Muses was found beneath the Baths of Trajan, and below that, a huge fresco known as the “painted city”. It was painted high up on the exterior wall of a house, and would have been easily visible to passers-by. It probably dates from the time of Vespasian.

The baths can only be viewed from the Parco del Colle Oppio. Walk along the perimeter to see the high curved walls of the esedra, which probably held a garden with statues, and read the interesting information boards, which will help to make sense of the place.

The water for the baths came from a vast cistern, the Cisterne delle Sette Sale, which could store up to 8 million litres (2 million gallons) of water. Visit by appointment, and go down into the large cistern. It is an evocative experience, especially when it has water in it and the sun’s rays cover the walls with eerie reflections.

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Kids’ Corner

Dirty kids

You may need a bit of a scrub to eat at Os Club, but just think – in ancient Rome children were not allowed into the public baths. So nobody is sure about how they kept clean. Maybe they didn’t!

4. Auditorium of Maecenas

King-size entertainment!

Wall with fragments of a relief, Auditorium of Maecenas

A flamboyant patron of the arts, Maecanas was an advisor to Emperor Augustus. His gardens were elaborate and full of statues, which can now be seen in the Capitoline Museums. On the edge of the Parco del Colle Oppio, on Via Merulana, is the Auditorium of Maecenas, which may have been a cool summer dining room. Some archaeologists think water may have cascaded down the flight of steps at the back. The walls retain traces of beautiful frescoes – fake windows with views of gardens, flowers, birds, ornamental urns and a procession of Dionysus, the god of wine.

The statue of Moses by Michelangelo in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli

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5. San Pietro in Vincoli

Moses and the miraculous chains

According to legend, St Peter was imprisoned twice – first in Jerusalem and then in the Mamertine Prison where he eventually died. The two vincoli (chains) used to shackle him while he was in prison were subsequently taken to Constantinople. In the 5th century, Empress Eudoxia deposited one in a church in Constantinople and sent the other to her daughter (also called Eudoxia) in Rome. She in turn gave hers to Pope Leo I, who had San Pietro in Vincoli built to house it. Some years later, the second chain was brought to Rome, where it linked miraculously with its partner. The chains are now kept in an illuminated gold and glass box below the main altar.

The church is better known for a statue of Moses by Michelangelo, commissioned by Pope Julius II as part of a grand tomb for himself. Michelangelo spent months choosing the marble and produced several designs before the pope settled on a colossal wall-tomb adorned with over 40 statues. But he soon lost interest and forced Michelangelo to abandon the tomb and paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Michelangelo completed just a pair of dying slaves and the central statue of Moses in which he looks angry, aggressive and powerful. The marble from which he is chiselled is warm-toned and gleaming, almost as if he might rise to his feet at any moment and remonstrate with the world in a thunderous voice. The other statues, by followers of Michelangelo, seem dull, lifeless and static by comparison.

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Kids’ Corner

Living marble

Look closely at the statue of Moses in San Pietro in Vincoli. Can you see his muscles and veins? Look carefully at his face. Now try and answer these questions:

Moses looks as if he is about to rise to his feet. How can you tell? (Hint: look at his legs and feet)
What is Moses doing to make it seem that he is deep in thought? And what is he doing with his beard?
What might be written on the stone tablets that Moses is holding?

>> Answers

Holy horns!

If you look carefully you can see that Moses has two horns growing out of his head. According to the Old Testament, a person who had seen God was described as having horns, or rays of light coming from his or her head. Horns were easier to carve than rays of light!

6. Museo Nazionale d’Arte Orientale

East meets West

Rome’s Oriental museum offers a contrast to all the Western Classical art in the city – and a chance to compare styles. There is pre-Islamic, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist and Taoist art from a wide range of countries. While some parts of the museum have been reorganized in contemporary style, in other rooms the presentation is more traditional. The first section of the museum is devoted to Hinduism and Buddhism, with displays that include a Cambodian linga complete with offerings of paper garlands and incense. Also present are several bronzes from Chhattisgarh, India, including numerous Mother and Child statues. Children may like the miniature Han Dynasty models in the Chinese section. Made for tombs, they include a pig in a sty, a granary with a mill and several dancing figures. Also look out for the green- and mustard-glazed figures of a Ming Dynasty funeral procession.

In the Gandharan section are carved friezes with the same sense of drama and narrative as those of Trajan’s Column and statues of the Buddha that have the same fluidity and life about them as the Classical Greek statues in the collections of the Museo Nazionale Romano, the Capitoline Museums and the Vatican Museums.

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Kids’ Corner

A Greek Buddha?

The reason Gandharan art looks so Western is simple. In the 3rd century BC, Alexander the Great invaded Gandhara – present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan – bringing with him Greek culture and art. Influenced by the Europeans, Gandharan artists began to sculpt the Buddha as a man. Before that he had only been represented as a symbol.

7. Santa Prassede & Santa Pudenziana

Cardboard box or jewel box?

Byzantine mosaics in the Cappella di San Zeno, Santa Prassede

Entering the scruffy-looking Santa Prassede is a bit like walking into a cardboard box. To make an impact one family member should go in first with a supply of €1 coins. The rest of the family can then walk in to the gloom before the first one drops a coin into a slot to turn the lights on – turning it into a jewel box.

The church’s apse is covered with sparkling Byzantine mosaics showing haloed figures looking down from heaven, which is depicted as a gold- and-blue-walled city with an angel at each gate and a queue of people waiting to be admitted. Giving the scene the feel of an earthly paradise are spindly-legged lambs, feather-duster-like palm trees and vivid red poppies. In the centre of the apse, saints Prassede and Pudenziana stand with Christ in between them, and SS Peter and Paul beside them. The Cappella di San Zeno is encrusted with dazzling mosaics whose colours shine. The mosaics in the church of Santa Pudenziana are less striking but they are one of the city’s few surviving examples of early Christian mosaics.

Statue on display in the museum

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8. Palazzo Massimo

The painted garden

One of the four branches of the Museo Nazionale Romano, the luminous 19th-century Palazzo Massimo has an exceptional and beautifully displayed collection of exhibits dating from the 2nd century BC to the end of the 4th century AD. The courtyard, with its portico of marble statues dappled with light and shade, is a marvellous place to begin a tour. The highlights of the museum are too many to name; however, the exquisite frescoes from the Villa of Livia are a must-see.

Key Features

1. Everyday Life Display On show here are ivory dice and needles, tiny spoons for mixing make-up, a set of compasses and a tiny abacus. A computer nearby shows how much items cost in ancient Rome.

2. The Grottarossa Mummy The mummy of an eight-year-old girl and objects that were buried with her – including her doll – are on display here.

3. Ivory Mask of Apollo The mask was discovered in 1995 in northern Rome by illegal excavators. It was part of what is known as a chyselephantine statue. These are extremely rare and were built around wooden frames on which ivory was used to depict the skin, and gold leaf or precious textiles represented the clothing.

4. Bronzes of the Boxer and Prince These bronze statues were made in several parts and then fused together. Different mixtures of metals were used for different effects – a high percentage of copper gives a red hue to the boxer’s lips, nipples and wound.

5. The Discus Throwers Stunningly displayed together are two Roman copies of the Discobolus, a 5th-century BC sculpture by the Greek sculptor Myron.

6. The Boats of Nemi These elaborate bronzes – including a head of Medusa, lions and wolves – decorated two luxury boats that Emperor Caligula used for parties on the Lake of Nemi.

7. Livia’s Garden Four delightful floor-to-ceiling frescoes of a garden, with fruit trees, birds and flowers from the country villa of Emperor Augustus’ wife Livia, adorn the second floor. The lighting is designed to simulate the change of light from dawn till dusk.

8. Mosaics These mosaics belonged to the baths of a private villa. Search for the boy riding a dolphin, and the fragments of a mosaic showing an octopus, moray eel and lobster fighting.

Left Livia’s Garden fresco Middle Mosaic in the Palazzo Massimo Right The Discus Throwers

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Kids’ Corner

Look out for…

A young girl dressed up as a goddess of hunting
Bronze lions and wolves that once went to sea
Stolen goods
A quince, a pomegranate and a cabbage rose
A stolen face, ear, toes and finger

>> Answers

The case of the Missing Statues

Even in Ancient Rome statues such as the Apollo ivory mask were incredibly rare – there were about 70 in the city, but they all vanished when Rome was sacked by barbarians in AD 410.

The anatomy of a boxer

Look very closely at the bronze boxer and you may be able to see the joints where the various parts of the statue were fused together. Can you see that the crown of his head was separate from the rest – like a lid? Also, try to look for a joint between his torso and left leg, one between the feet and the middle toes and one between the forearms and elbows.

9. Santa Maria Maggiore

Mary’s giant church

Sculpture of Pope Sixtus V, Cappella Sistina

The biggest among the 26 churches in Rome dedicated to the Virgin Mary, Santa Maria Maggiore was originally built by Pope Liberius in the 4th century. It was renovated and improved upon by many popes over the centuries, which gave it an unusual mix of different architectural styles, although it still retains its early medieval structure. One of the four papal basilicas – the most important churches in Rome – it has a beautiful interior lined with sparkling mosaics telling stories of the Old Testament.

Key Features

1. Coffered Ceiling This gilded and intricately coffered ceiling was encrusted with gold, said to be the first brought back from America by Columbus.

2. Baldacchino

3. Reliquary of the Holy Crib This fancy crystal container designed by Giuseppe Valadier in the mid-1800s is said to contain a few pieces of ancient wood that were part of baby Jesus’s manger.

4. Cappella Sistina This chapel was built for Pope Sixtus V by Domenico Fontana and houses the pope’s tomb.

5. Cappella Paolina Designed by Flaminio Ponzio for Pope Paul V Borghese, this chapel is packed with spectacular works of art by masters such as Guido Reni and Cavalier d’Arpino.

Left Ceiling mosaics Middle Egyptian obelisk Right Lavish baldacchino

1. Piazza della Bocca della Verità

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Kids’ Corner

Look out for…

Roman columns recycled from an ancient temple
The holy doors. They are locked and sealed at all times except during a Holy Year which comes every 25 years. You will have to wait until 2025 to get a chance to walk through them again
The bronze statue of the Virgin Mary (hint: look up!)
An enormous stone nativity scene

>> Answers

Summer snow!

In AD 356, Pope Liberius had a dream in which the Virgin told him to build a church on the spot where he found snow. When it fell on the Esquiline Hill on the morning of 5 August despite a blistering heatwave, he naturally obeyed. Now every year on 5th August, a blizzard of white rose petals commemorates the miracle.

Pilgrims with sore feet

In the Holy Year of 1600, San Filippo Neri revived the medieval tradition that required pilgrims to visit the seven major churches of the city by foot. The circuit was 20 km (12 miles) and devoted pilgrims did it barefoot! In fact many Romans still make this pilgrimage every year on Good Friday. Santa Maria Maggiore is the last stop on this extra-long walk.

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Piazza della Bocca della Verità and around

The Pyramid of Caius Cestius and the Porta di San Paolo

A fascinating area with a plethora of sights, the Aventine Hill is an unexpected haven in central Rome. At the foot of this verdant hill is the vast Circus Maximus, now a massive multi-laned road with a green space known as Circo Massimo. On the far side of the Aventine Hill is Testaccio, a vibrant and family-friendly neighbourhood. The area is easy to get around and well connected to the centre by bus.

2. Circus Maximus

3. Gardens of the Aventine

4. Santa Sabina

5. Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta

6. Testaccio

7. Pyramid of Caius Cestius

8. Centrale Montemartini

Colourful flowers on display at a stall in Testaccio market

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1. Piazza della Bocca della Verità

A medieval lie detector

Bocca della Verità, Santa Maria in Cosmedin

The wedge-shaped piazza occupies the site of ancient Rome’s first port and its oldest market, the Forum Boarium. It is named after the Bocca della Verità, or “mouth of truth”, a marble medallion at Santa Maria in Cosmedin once thought to be a drain cover. In the Middle Ages, suspected liars had to put their hand in. If they were lying, it would, supposedly, snap shut. If it really did work, the medieval Romans must have been the most honest on earth!

Key Sights

1. Casa dei Crescenzi An 11th-century fortified tower, the Casa dei Crescenzi was built by the powerful Crescenzi family to keep watch over the bridge where they collected a toll. The tower is studded with fragments scavenged from ancient Roman buildings.

2. Temple of Portunus This remarkably well-preserved Republican temple was dedicated to Portunus, the god of rivers and ports.

3. Arco degli Argentieri

4. Arch of Janus

5. Museo della Città di Roma Work has begun on a vast new multimedia museum dedicated to the history of Rome. In the meantime, the Mithraeum below has been opened to the public.

6. Santa Maria in Cosmedin & Bocca della Verità

7. Temple of Hercules Victor A beautiful Republican-era temple dedicated to Hercules, this is often, mistakenly, called the Temple of Vesta because it is circular like the Temple of Vesta in the Roman Forum.

8. Ponte Rotto The “Broken Bridge” is the one remaining arch of an ancient Roman bridge across the Tiber. Originially known as the Pons Aemilius, it dates back to 142 BC and was the first stone bridge in Rome.

Left Santa Maria in Cosmedin Middle Arch of Janus Right Arco degli Argentieri

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Kids’ Corner

Quick quiz

On the Arco degli Argentieri can you see the panel with the bearded head of the Emperor Septimius Severus and the portrait of a boy, his son Caracalla, above him? Who or what is below the bearded emperor?
Who is the most famous Italian liar?

(Clue: his nose grew every time he told a lie.)

>> Answers

Honest Japanese

Many Japanese people queue up to see the Bocca della Verità. It is particularly famous in Japan and the city of Tokaido even has a fortune-telling machine named Bocca della Verità!

Detect a lie

If you don’t think you can rely on the Bocca della Verità as a lie detector, see if you can tell if any of your family members is telling a lie by reading their body language. Here are some signs that people may be lying:

They do not make eye contact.
They touch their face or mouth as they speak.
They scratch their noses or behind their ears.
They lick their lips after saying something.
Their nose starts to grow!

See some good examples on www.tinyurl.com/mbdmzt.

2. Circus Maximus

What a circus!

Circus Maximus, now a grassy esplanade in front of the Palatine Hill

The oldest and most popular mass entertainment arena in ancient Rome and the size of six football pitches, the oval-shaped Circus Maximus could seat 380,000 people – over seven times as many as the Colosseum. It dates back to the 4th century BC, and was in use for over 900 years – the last races were held in AD 549. The stadium was most famous for its chariot races, but other events – wild beast fights, athletic contests and even mock sea battles – were also held here. It was used for public crucifixions, with the crosses set up along a low wall that ran along the centre. The arena was surrounded with arcades where vendors sold snacks and wine, and astrologers read horoscopes and told fortunes.

Today, the Circus Maximus is surrounded by multi-laned highways, but it is a good place to play ball or roll down the slopes.

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Find out more…

Where could seven Colosseums worth of people have poured into an arena the size of six football pitches to watch a chariot race?

>> Answer

Crushed silence

The Consul Pompey had iron barriers erected around the Circus Maximus to protect spectators during a fight between gladiators and wild elephants, but the plan backfired. The terrified animals threw themselves against the barriers in an effort to escape, and the iron collapsed, crushing many members of the audience.

3. Gardens of the Aventine

Ancient roses and aromatic orange trees

Umbrella pine-lined avenue, Parco Savello

The Aventine Hill is one of the seven hills of Rome – lush, leafy and residential, and with three public gardens. One of the few locations in central Rome where the birdsong is louder than the traffic, it is a good place for a quiet picnic after sight-seeing in the ancient centre.

In May and June, make a beeline for the Roseto Comunale, the public Rose Garden, where over 1,200 varieties of roses from all over the world are cultivated. Among them are even primordial species that existed 40 million years ago, and roses that were famous in antiquity, such as the Damascene rose. Every year in May, the gardens host an international Rose Competition, Il Concorso Internazionale Premio Roma.

The Aventine’s other garden, Parco Savello, better known as the Giardino degli Aranci, is planted with orange trees and offers fantastic views over the Tiber to the Vatican City.

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Kids’ Corner

Find out more…

Family Guide

Where is there a rose that has existed for 40 million years?

>> Answer

Floating hill

According to an ancient legend of the Order of the Knights of Malta, the Aventine Hill was an immense ship, sacred to the Knights Templar, that would one day be set loose and sail for the Holy Land. Some people claim that Piranesi’s piazza is the bridge of the ship, and that the obelisks represent masts and the plaques of marble in between them, are the sails.

4. Santa Sabina

Moonstone windows

Founded in the 5th century AD, Santa Sabina is a perfect example of a Roman basilica-style church. Its windows are made of thin slices of selenite, a milky white mirror-like stone, which the Greeks named after Selene, goddess of the moon. The church still retains its original wood-panelled doors carved with scenes from the Bible, including one of the earliest surviving images of the Crucifixion. These are visible from the narthex, the porch-like structure in front of the church. In the nave is the magnificent mosaic tombstone of one of the first leaders of the Dominican Order, Muñoz de Zamora (d.1300).

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Where are there windows made of stone?

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5. Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta

Through the keyhole

A child looking through the famous keyhole at the Priorato di Malta

Decorated with obelisks and military trophies, this ornate walled piazza was designed by the 18th–century artist Piranesi. It is named after the Order of the Knights of Malta (Cavalieri di Malta), a mysterious military religious order that dates back to the Crusades. Located off the piazza is the Priorato di Malta, the residence of the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta. It is famous for its bronze keyhole, through which visitors can see a miniature view of St Peter’s, which seems to be an arm’s length away at the end of a tunnel of trees.

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Where is it not rude to peep through the keyhole?

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6. Testaccio

An offaly interesting neighbourhood

Shoppers at a vegetable stall in Testaccio market

Dominated by two bizarre structures – a pyramid and a gasometer – Testaccio is a gutsy working-class neighbourhood that has become a fashionable place to live, especially for families. For decades, most of the residents of the area worked at the slaughter-house, and Testaccio remains famous throughout Rome for its butchers and trattorie, which specialize in offal and dishes made from offal. The daily food market, which used to be located on Piazza di Santa Maria Liberatrice, is now housed in a building at the end of the Via Volta, and it continues to sell superb delicacies.

The slaughterhouse has been converted into a venue for concerts. It also houses the Testaccio branch of the contemporary art gallery MACRO (Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma). The nearby Monte Testaccio, made up of shards of terracotta, owes its existence to the butter-fingered dockers of ancient Rome, who broke so many amphorae while unloading wine at the nearby docks, that there were enough pottery shards to build a mountain. It was soon discovered that the shard-mountain remained cool all year and caves were hollowed into its sides for storing wine. Today, the caves are occupied by nightclubs and car repair shops.

The area also has good playgrounds, including the one on leafy Piazza Santa Maria Liberatrice.

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From mythology to science!

The entire Ostiense area is being redeveloped. A new, futuristic bridge has been constructed and there are plans to convert the old industrial buildings – including the gasometer and the old general markets – into cultural spaces and a City of Science.

Ancient future

Rome has existed for almost three thousand years since it was founded by Romulus and Remus. Imagine what it will look like in the year 3000. What are the things you like best about Rome? What are the things you like least? What improvements or changes would you make (if you were in charge of urban planning)?

7. Pyramid of Caius Cestius

Egypt in Rome?

Testaccio’s most extraordinary sight is the Pyramid of Caius Cestius, a marble pyramid built in the late 1st century BC by Caius Cestius, whose main job was to organize parties for the emperor. At the time – spurred on by the fame of Cleopatra – all things Egyptian were highly fashionable and Caius decided to build himself a pyramid as a tomb.

Behind the pyramid is the Protestant Cemetery, where Rome’s non-Catholics, mainly English and German, are buried. The most famous grave is that of the English poet John Keats (d.1821), whose epitaph reads: “Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water”.

Across the road is the Porta di San Paolo, whose turreted towers are home to the Museo della Via Ostiense. The museum has displays on the history of Via Ostiense, a road that has connected Rome to the coast since ancient times.

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8. Centrale Montemartini

The power of art

Statues lining a hall at the Centrale Montemartini

In 1997, this enormous early 20th-century thermo-electric power plant was restored and reopened to house part of the collections of the Capitoline Museums. The combination of Classical statues and monumental industrial turbines is stunning, and the displays and information boards are full of fascinating facts and are far more up-to-date than those in the original museums.

The finds from Largo Argentina, including five toes, a finger, an arm and a head from an 8-m (26-ft) high statue of the goddess Fortuna, are on display here. Other highlights include finds from the horti (gardens) of Imperial Rome – the basin of a huge fountain from the Horti Maecenas on Parco del Colle Oppio and mosaics of two hunting scenes from the Horti Liciniani.