An excellent and complete guided tour for those who want to know all the facts, history and secrets of the Imparial Rome, through the Roman Forum, Colosseum, Venice Square, and much more.
An absolute must for first time visitors to Rome.
From Venice Sqaure, overshadowed by a monument dedicated to Vittorio Emanuele II that was built also to commemorate Italian unification and that incomrporates the tomb of the unknown soldier, and the 15th century Palazzo Venezia, which was Mussolini’s official residence, we will walk to the Roman Forum, the commercial, political and religious centre of ancient Rome, the forum stands in a valley between the Capitoline and Palatine hills. Each side is dedicated to an emperor, we will visit its temples, monuments and buildings constructed by successive emperors, consuls and senators over a period of 900 years. We’ll walk through the Via Sacra (Holy Road) to admire Tempio di Antonino e Faustina, erected by the Senate in 141 AD and transformed into a church in the 8th century, the Basilica Aemilia, built in 179 BC, the Curia, once the meeting place of the Roman Senate, the Lapis Niger, which legend says covered the grave of Romulus.
We will visit the Arco di Settimio Severo, erected in 203 AD in honour of this emperor and his sons, and is considered one of Italy’s major triumphal arches, the Rostrum, used in ancient times by public speakers and once decorated by the rams of captured ships, the Tempio di Saturno, one of the most important temples in ancient Rome, the Basilica Julia, the ancient seat of justice, the Temple of Julius Caesar, which was erected by Augustus in 29 BC on the site where Caesar’s body was burned and Mark Antony read his famous speech, Tempio dei Castori, built in 489 BC to mark the defeat of the Etruscan Tarquins, the Home fo the virgins Vestals who tended the sacred flame in the adjoining Tempio di Vesta. After a stop by the vast Basilica di Costantino, which its impressive design inspired Renaissance architects, we will pass through the Arco di Tito, built in 81 AD and at the end of the Forum.
We then will descend to the Arch of Costantine, built to honour Constantine, in 312 AD, its decorative reliefs were taken from earlier structures, and finally the Colosseum, the most important building of ancient times, originally known as the Flavian Amphiteatre, its construction was started by Emperor Vespasian in 72 AD in the grounds of Nero’s Golden House, and completed by his son Titus. The massive structure could seat 80.000 and the bloody gladiator combat and wild beast shows, when thousands of wild animals were slashed to death, give some insight into Roman people of the day.
There is a saying in rome: “If the Colosseum stands, Rome stands, if Rome stands, the whole world stands”
You can skip the long waiting lines outside the Colosseum and the Roman Forum in getting this tour with Admission tickets included.
