Rome

Rome extends across hills, valleys and ancient roads through ruins, churches, homes, markets, parks and avenues. An ancient column may form part of a medieval façade and a Baroque plaza may conceal Roman structures beneath the pavement. The city does not preserve its past within one enclosure: it reuses, covers and integrates it into daily life.

The Colosseum, Forum, Vatican, Trastevere, Testaccio, Villa Borghese and twentieth-century districts form a sequence where empire, religion, propaganda and urban life remain closely connected.

The Colosseum

The amphitheatre was built for public spectacles on an immense scale.

Seating, corridors and entrances organised the movement of thousands.

The structure reveals entertainment, violence and imperial authority within one architecture.

Roman Forum

The Forum contained temples, courts, ceremonies and government buildings.

Arches, columns and platforms reveal a political landscape built across centuries.

The ruins turn a civic plaza into a stone archive.

Palatine Hill

The Palatine contains remains of imperial residences on one of the founding hills.

Courtyards, gardens and halls reveal the private and ceremonial scale of authority.

From above, the relationship between palaces, Forum and Circus Maximus becomes visible.

Circus Maximus

The great enclosure hosted chariot races and mass spectacles.

Its long form remains visible within the urban landscape.

The place reveals entertainment and propaganda at metropolitan scale.

Baths of Caracalla

The baths combined pools, gymnasia, gardens and social spaces.

Their scale reveals bathing as service, leisure and imperial representation.

Mosaics and walls preserve part of the richness of the ensemble.

Pantheon

The Pantheon preserves one of antiquity’s great domes.

The oculus introduces light and rain into the interior.

The building reveals a Roman temple transformed into a church and kept in use for centuries.

Piazza Navona

The plaza occupies the form of Domitian’s ancient stadium.

Fountains, palaces and Baroque churches reuse the Roman outline.

The space reveals one urban layer built directly above another.

Trevi Fountain

The fountain marks the arrival of an ancient aqueduct.

Sculpture, water and architecture form a great Baroque scene.

The monument connects Roman engineering with papal representation.

Spanish Steps

The staircase links the plaza with Trinità dei Monti.

Its composition creates a theatrical transition between levels of the city.

The place belongs to Baroque expansion and Rome’s international image.

Capitoline Museums

The museums contain sculpture, painting and objects tied to urban history.

Michelangelo’s plaza organises buildings and views.

Collections connect founding myth, empire and civic memory.

Centrale Montemartini

The former power station preserves industrial machinery beside ancient sculpture.

The contrast between marble and metal creates a distinctive reading of the city.

The institution connects archaeology with industrialisation.

The Vatican

The Vatican contains a basilica, museums, archives and a long history of religious authority.

Saint Peter’s, the Sistine Chapel and collections express faith, patronage and politics.

The ensemble forms a state within Rome.

Saint Peter’s Basilica

The basilica combines architecture, sculpture, ritual and pilgrimage.

Its great dome dominates the western skyline.

The building represents centuries of papal patronage and artistic labour.

Vatican Museums

The collections contain art, archaeology and objects from many regions.

Galleries, frescoes and sculpture reveal the accumulation of heritage by the papacy.

The Sistine Chapel connects painting, liturgy and religious authority.

San Clemente

The basilica allows descent through several historical layers.

Beneath the medieval church lie an earlier basilica and Roman structures.

The ensemble presents Roman history as a vertical section.

Catacombs

The catacombs preserve funerary galleries and early Christian worship spaces.

Inscriptions and paintings reveal communities, memory and religious practice.

Their corridors reveal another city underground.

Trastevere

Trastevere preserves narrow streets, plazas, churches and homes.

The district retains strong urban identity despite tourism pressure.

Santa Maria in Trastevere connects mosaic, devotion and plaza life.

Testaccio

Testaccio is tied to the ancient river port, warehouses and food commerce.

Monte Testaccio formed through amphora fragments accumulated across centuries.

The district connects archaeology, labour and popular culture.

Trajan’s Markets

The complex preserves streets, offices and commercial spaces from the imperial period.

Its architecture adapts to the slope beside Trajan’s Forum.

The place reveals administration and commerce within a major public work.

Ostia Antica

Ostia was Rome’s port beside the mouth of the Tiber.

Streets, homes, baths and warehouses reveal a complete commercial city.

The site broadens Roman history towards workers, merchants and domestic life.

Villa Borghese

The park contains gardens, museums, paths and broad green spaces.

Galleria Borghese preserves sculpture and painting within a former villa.

The ensemble connects aristocratic collecting with urban landscape.

EUR

EUR was conceived under fascism as a monumental district.

Avenues, buildings and plazas express propaganda, authority and a modern reinterpretation of ancient Rome.

The district introduces the twentieth century into a city often associated only with antiquity.

Fosse Ardeatine

The memorial recalls the massacre committed by Nazi forces in 1944.

Underground architecture and graves turn the place into a space of mourning and national memory.

Garbatella

Garbatella preserves courtyards, housing and community planning from the twentieth century.

Stairs, gardens and modest buildings reveal another form of Roman urbanism.

Aqueducts

Aqueducts carried water from distant territories.

Arches and channels supplied fountains, baths and homes.

Their remains reveal infrastructure as the foundation of urban spectacle.

Roman food

Carbonara, amatriciana, cacio e pepe, artichokes, pizza al taglio and gelato belong to the local table.

The cuisine reflects neighbourhoods, markets and popular traditions.

A city living above itself

Rome remains memorable for the relationship between ruin, neighbourhood and water. The Colosseum, Forum, Vatican, Trastevere, Testaccio, Villa Borghese and aqueducts form a city where empire, faith, politics and daily life overlap.

Its singularity lies in the coexistence of historical layers, urban culture and family life.