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Rome · History

The Rome of the Caesars, stone by stone

Amphitheatres, triumphal arches, forums and temples: in barely two kilometres you visit the places where emperors put their power on display, and where papal Rome and Mussolini's Rome later wrote over them.

  • 6 stops
  • 2.1 km
  • 1 h 40 min
  • Free
Start with GPS Read about this stop 1
The Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine seen from the Palatine

The route

Stop by stop

  1. 1 The ColosseumThe largest amphitheatre of the Roman world, built over Nero's private lake and plundered for centuries as a quarry.
  2. 2 The Arch of ConstantineThe largest surviving Roman triumphal arch is, to a large extent, a collage of reliefs taken from earlier emperors.
  3. 3 The Forum of Augustus and Via dei Fori ImperialiA temple vowed to avenge Julius Caesar, and a Fascist avenue that cut the forums in two.
  4. 4 Trajan's ColumnTwo hundred metres of spiral relief tell the story of a war, and an emperor's ashes once lay in its base.
  5. 5 Piazza del CampidoglioThe sacred hill of ancient Rome, turned by Michelangelo into a perfect square that still governs the city.
  6. 6 The Theatre of MarcellusA theatre built by Augustus that became a medieval fortress, then a palace, with flats that are still lived in.

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Start with GPS

Guide mode

Walk it with GPS.

Open guide mode on your phone: you’ll see your position and the distance to each stop, and we’ll let you know when you arrive. Then read or listen.

Start with GPS

  1. Turn on your location

  2. Walk to the spot

  3. Check the photo and listen

What you’ll discover

The Rome of the Caesars, stone by stone

The Empire first-hand

Monuments commissioned by Vespasian, Augustus, Trajan and Constantine, and the messages they were meant to send.

Layers of history

Ruins that served as fortresses, quarries, palaces and homes before becoming monuments again.

Details up close

Numbers over doorways, recarved heads, spiral friezes: the things almost nobody stops to look at.

Keep exploring

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