Quick overview: This tour allows you to discover enchanting places and secrets of the city, from its origins through the first centuries of the Middle Ages (4th – 6th). This period of progressive decline of the city’s economic and political situation also witnessed the transformation of its houses and pagan temples into splendid churches. The tour includes four particularly interesting underground areas. The construction of the beautiful medieval church of Saint Mary in Cosmedin (8th century) with its stunning interior and its beautiful bell tower incorporated the structure and columns of a great public hall of the first century AD while the crypt was built with materials from the Temple of Hercules (2nd century BC). The great valley of the Circus Maximus echoed with the shouts of the fans who cheered on the four-horse chariots, of their favourite teams. Four teams competed in each race, each one adopting a different color. The crowd watched excitedly from the stands of the stadium, which was greatly expanded in the imperial period and could seat well over 250,000 people. The majestic Temple of Hercules the Victor, the impressive Temple of the Portunus, and the massive Arch of Janus allow us to follow the evolution of ancient architecture across time. The church of St. Nicholas in Prison has no equal. The seven enormous columns, emerging from the lateral wall, strike us immediately; the entranceway into the church and the subterranean areas are simply astounding. Beneath the church we find ourselves among the remains of three enormous Roman temples, dating from the 3rd and the 2nd centuries before Christ. In the passageways between them, we can almost smell the sacrificed animals, transporting us to a different time. The Jewish Ghetto has its own particular history. Marked by the monumental remains of the Portico of Octavia (2nd century BC), later absorbed into the church of St. Angel in Pescheria, the Ghetto still bears the scars of the Jews gated in here in 1555 and the much more recent deportations of the Fascist era. Crossing the ancient bridges of Tiberina Island, we are awed by the magnificent views along the riverfront and are reminded of the myths of the Greeks and of Esculapio, the god of medicine, and his great serpent, which miraculously indicated where the god’s temple was to be built. Once on the opposite bank, we enter the timeless streets and passageways of Trastevere. Next to the church of St. Francis a Ripa is Bernini’s statue of the Blessed Ludovica Albertoni, with the intense physical expression of a spiritual experience, vividly recalling the great passions of the Baroque and of the scandal that led to the creation and display of the statue. The basilica of St. Cecilia in Trastevere, on the contrary, is a hidden treasure: a large courtyard, a portico with medieval decorations, a spacious interior, and Maderno’s moving statue of St. Cecilia (1600), martyred in the 2nd century. The work reflects how the artist saw the body when the sarcophagus was opened in 1599. The tabernacle on the high altar is by Arnolfo di Cambio (1293) and is a work of great intimacy, marking an important development in medieval sculpture. The underground zone is made up of various and distinct areas (1st century BC to 4th century AD), including a great hall used for thermal treatments. It was here that the saint was martyred. The church of St. Crysogonus (12th century) is built on a vast pre-existing basilica from the 5th century. The subterranean basilica is completely accessible, displaying its frescoes, its apse, and its baptismal pool. The basilica of St. Mary in Trastevere brings us to the very heart of the neighbourhood. Swathed in legend, the basilica presents a magnificent spectacle with its mosaic façade and its imposing Romanesque belltower. This holy place has the same power to move us now as it did in the Middle Ages, accompanied by the songs of the bells and the sublime chanting of the angels. Inside the basilica, mosaics by Calvini tell us the story of the Virgin (1291), already revealing aspects of the new art that was to become the Renaissance style, and the Madonna of Clemency (6th century) painted in wood with colors diluted by melted wax. All in all, a timeless voyage through art and history, from pagan to Christian, as life served to inspire bold, new works of art.

Some Themes: As the city grew up around the island in the river, what kinds of goods and merchandise were traded? Why were the first temples to appear along the riverfront dedicated to Hercules? What legends were behind them? When was the immense Circus Maximus built and when was it reconstructed in stone and marble? How did they count the laps and what purpose was served by the seven great eggs and dolphins that stood on the central spine of the racetrack? Is this where the ancient Egyptian obelisks were found at the end of the 16th century? How did the lives of the people change as the city passed through the prosperous period of the Empire to the dark days following the collapse of the Roman administration in the West? Is it true that the population fell from a height of well over a million souls during the 1st century to just 20,000 in the 10th century? is it true that an economy and a culture that extended across continents disintegrated, becoming predominantly local in nature during the early medieval period? How did laws, policies, and daily life change? What survived from the past? When did the remains of Imperial Rome begin to be recycled and reused? And how was it that churches came to be built on ground stained by pagan worship? How did Christianity grow and spread, and how was the development of early ecclesiastical architecture related to the design of the first Christian basilicas? When were bells invented? When did the first belltowers begin to appear in Rome? How did Rome change during the cultural and demographic expansion of the Renaissance and the Baroque?