Appian Way
Via Appia Antica, 00179 Roma
This road is twenty-three hundred years old, and you can still walk on the original stones.
Aventine Keyhole
Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta, 00153 Roma
There is a green door on the Aventine Hill, at the top of a quiet, orange-tree-scented lane, and if you put your eye to the keyhole you will see one of the most perfectly composed views in the world.
Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore
Piazza di Santa Maria Maggiore, 00100 Roma
Every August fifth, this basilica stages one of Rome's most theatrical annual events: artificial white petals drift down from the ceiling during Mass to commemorate the miraculous snowfall of 358 AD.
Campo de' Fiori
Piazza Campo De’ Fiori, I Municipio, Rome, 00186, Italy
Every morning this piazza fills with market stalls selling tomatoes, artichokes, fresh pasta, dried chillies, and flowers — it has been a market since at least the 1800s, and the name Campo de' Fiori means "field of flowers.
Capitoline Museums
1 Piazza del Campidoglio, I Municipio, Rome, 00186, Italy
This is the oldest public museum in the world.
Castel Sant'Angelo
50 Lungotevere Castello, XVII Municipio, Rome, 00193, Italy
This building has had more career changes than any structure in Rome.
Circus Maximus
1 Via del Circo Massimo, I Municipio, Rome, 00153, Italy
This grassy depression was once the largest stadium in the world, and it was not even close.
Colosseum
1 Piazza del Colosseo, I Municipio, Rome, 00184, Italy
Here is a number that should stop you in your tracks: fifty thousand.
Jewish Ghetto
Via del Portico d'Ottavia, I Municipio, Rome, 00186, Italy
Rome's Jewish community is the oldest in Europe.
Ostia Antica
717 Viale dei Romagnoli, XIII Municipio, Rome, 00119, Italy
If Pompeii had not been buried by a volcano and marketed by centuries of tourism, Ostia Antica would be the most famous Roman ruin in the world.
Palatine Hill
30 Via di San Gregorio, I Municipio, Rome, 00184, Italy
This is where the word palace comes from.
Piazza del Popolo
Piazza del Popolo, I Municipio, Rome, 00187, Italy
For centuries, this was the first thing visitors saw when they arrived in Rome.
Piazza Navona
Piazza Navona, I Municipio, Rome, 00186, Italy
The reason this piazza is shaped like a racetrack is that it was a racetrack.
Protestant Cemetery
6 Via Caio Cestio, I Municipio, Rome, 00153, Italy
Oscar Wilde called this "the holiest place in Rome.
Roman Forum
5 Largo della Salara Vecchia, I Municipio, Rome, 00186, Italy
For about five hundred years, this was the centre of the Western world.
Sistine Chapel
Viale Vaticano, XVII Municipio, Rome, 00192, Italy
Michelangelo did not want this job.
Spanish Steps
I Municipio, Rome, Italy
The name is a lie, or at least a misdirection.
Testaccio
Piazza Testaccio, I Municipio, Rome, 00153, Italy
The neighbourhood of Testaccio is named after a hill that is not a hill.
Trastevere
I Municipio, Rome, Italy
Trastevere means "across the Tiber," and for most of Rome's history, that meant this was the wrong side of the river.
Vatican Museums
Viale Vaticano, XVIII Municipio, Rome, 00165, Italy
The Vatican Museums contain roughly seventy thousand works of art, of which about twenty thousand are on display at any given time.
Explore history in Rome
GPS-guided narration at every landmark. Tap a spot on the map, hear the story. Every fact verified.