Rome Travel Guide - 7 Sites Not To Be Missed


by Paul Chandler - Date: 2006-12-15 - Word Count: 1557 Share This!

Many of Rome's key sites are world famous, but there are other gems in the city that are lesser known. As sure as Rome was not built in a day, its sightseeing jewels cannot be rushed. Take your time; it has stood for nearly three millennia and will wait while you do it justice.

Rome, the Città Eterna or eternal city, is so called because its history dates back almost to the beginning of time, at least to 800 years before the birth of Christ. At its height the Roman Empire was the largest in the world, with a population of over a million people. Rome is unique in that it contains two separate sovereign states within the confines of the city.

One is the Holy See, which governs the territory of Vatican City and is home to the pope, the titular head of the Roman Catholic Church worldwide. The second state is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), whose people took refuge in Rome in 1834. The SMOM lost its territory in Malta to Napoleon Bonaparte's invading forces and its legality in Rome is disputed, as it now holds no other territory. Whilst few tourists will look directly at that claim, Rome is such an old city that many of its attractions are ancient, but they along sit alongside the modern.

There is something in Rome for everyone - whatever their history.

1. The Sistine Chapel

The Sistine Chapel contains some of the most priceless artwork ever commissioned. Pope Sixtus IV della Rovere gave his name to the chapel, Cappella Sistina, after persuading Michelangelo to paint the ceiling (between 1477 and 1480). Incredibly Michelangelo refused the work, considering himself a sculptor, but the pope has a few tools of persuasion the rest of us are not privy to, not least of which was the threat of excommunication. In the end, the pope had his own way, and the rest as they say is history. Whether Michelangelo ever regretted the undertaking is not recorded, but not surprisingly it did break his health, he was in his sixties at this time and was to suffer neck and back problems for the rest of his life.

The scope of the Sistine Chapel is beyond the parameters of this article, but between 1981 and 1993 the paintings on the ceiling were restored to remove the centuries of grime in the paint, incredibly taking far longer than the original work.

When a pope dies his body is placed in the Sistine Chapel beneath the fresco of the Last Judgement, so that God can judge his soul. The conclave for electing a new pope is also carried out within the chapel. The complete work depicts the story of humanity and the universe and even non-Catholics cannot fail to be moved by the sheer audacity of the concept.

2. Ostia Antica

Many of the world's museums commemorate the lives or works of the rich and famous, but the common man is frequently ignored, but not here. The museum in Ostia Antica, is dedicated to commemorating how the man in the street contributed to the glory of Rome. The museum is situated in the Ostia district, which was the harbour commercial district, at the mouth of the Tiber, one of Rome's two rivers. The museum is excellent and among the ruins are baths, a theatre, office facilities used by the merchants and also a temple and forum. Some of the area dates back to three hundred years before Christ. The exhibits demonstrate the workings of a city on a commercial and artisan level rather than a Senate or administrative level. We all know of men like Julius Caesar whose audacity gave him power and influence, but what about the man who kept the records of the imports and exports of this great city?

3. Cinecittà

Mussolini founded this film studio in 1937, when his fascist power was at its height.

Cinema was seen as the ideal propaganda medium, and the company was closely associated with Istituto Luce who made many of the newsreels, and documentary evidence, of Il Duce's power. At the time the cinema was a fledgling industry, but today the Cinecittà is synonymous with Italian films and is the biggest studio in Europe. It produced the 1958 version of Ben-Hur, which prior to Titanic was the most successful film of all time.

After the war two separate schools of cinema were emerging in Italy. One was set almost exclusively on Roman streets and the other was based almost entirely on American studio productions. Quo Vadis, Roman Holiday, Three Coins in a Fountain, Farewell to Arms, and Cleopatra, were all produced by this studio.

During the summer months the studio is open to the public and is a must-see for European film buffs.

4. The Spanish Steps

The Spanish Steps consist of twelve flights, comprising 138 individual steps, which are doubly challenging for the leg muscles owing to their differing widths. The steps were built to link the bourbon Spanish Embassy to the Holy See and were named accordingly. The famous Barcaccia fountain, or ugly boat, lies before the steps and features a large boat that gushes water as it sinks.

5. The Catacombs

The Catacombs of Rome were the subterranean Christian cemeteries. As the Romans practiced cremation rites they forbade burials within the confines of the city walls. Ancient Christians forbade cremation believing that the corpse had to be left whole to be resurrected. The problem was that early Christians did not own land individually, and the Church had not had time to amass collective land to allow individual burial plots.

Ingenious subterranean passages were cut into the walls and then often dug four levels deep. This gave plenty of room to lay the bodies out, covered by a shroud. The wealthy had their remains protected by a stone slab, which prevented the animals from scavenging the bones. On this was often chiseled the date of death and sometimes a simple Christian symbol. This presumably was the simple history of the commemorative headstone today.

Not all of those who were buried here originally, had died of natural causes. Many were early Christian martyrs buried here, in what were effectively public graves. This practice continued for hundreds of years until the fifth century, by which time the Church had accumulated land, money and power. Then the practice was revoked, as no longer necessary, people could be buried above ground or at least at ground level. During the eight and ninth centuries when the Goths sacked Rome many of these ancient ossified bones were removed at the request of the popes. This was done to protect the bones of the martyrs who were even then regarded as hallowed. There were over sixty catacombs in Rome with hundreds of miles of galleries in use for nearly five hundred years.

6. The Colosseum or the Flavian amphitheatre.

The Colosseum is aptly named: the colossal amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome. In ancient Rome in excess of fifty thousand people watched the gladiators fight to the death. It was the largest amphitheatre ever built by the Romans and in use for over six hundred years. A monument of that size would have dominated the skyline of ancient Rome. Now many contemporary drama productions are shown here, as well as re-enactments of epic battles. The Romans were aware of the power of propaganda even then. They knew their power was forced, even as they were perceived to be invincible - as indeed they were for nearly a thousand years.

Little of the Colosseum is now left standing, due to severe earthquake damage, but there is enough of it left to remind us of its origins. It has had several uses since it ceased to be an amphitheatre it has been a quarry and a Church as well as a castle. In the seventeenth Century the Roman Catholic Cardinal Altieri gave his permission for it to be used to house bullfights, but the plan was scuppered by public opinion. In recent years the Church has adopted it as a site for early Christuian martyrs, it has been consecrated and now houses the Stations of the Cross.

In the 21st Century it has seen demonstrations against capital punishment and if a death sentence is commuted anywhere in the world the night time illumination is changed from white to gold: a fitting modern perspective given its imperial history.

7. The Roman Forum

The ancient Roman Fora (one forum two fora) is a huge complex of ruined temples, basilicas, and arches, built in all Roman towns. The forum was the imperial Roman equivalent of the centre of town; the place where the Senate met, people socialised, convened for business, gave public speeches and even got an education.

It first began five hundred years before Christ, and its original function was as a market and a social place. Interestingly about the Second Century BC the Romans decided to clean up their act, banished the prostitutes and the food stalls, and concentrated more on the civic side of the proceedings.

The courthouses were also within the walls of the forum. The Curia, or Senate-house, was where public discussions took place pertaining to finance, religion or business. As befitting the splendour of Rome the fora were believed to have housed twenty triumphal arches, but today only five remain.

Whilst this Roman remain is nowhere near the size that it once was, it still clearly demonstrates the power and creativity of ancient Rome.


Related Tags: guide, travel, italy, europe, rome, sightseeing, siteseeing

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