Important Venues: Other Recommendations while in ROME

Your time in Rome will be short, especially since during your visit we will literally compress schedules so as to visit three or four "must-see" galleries and collections of masterpieces and decorated spaces, and of course also allowing some time for you to wander around on your own, or to visit one or two venues.  Below find a list of some of those other places which we will not see as a group, some of which do require an entry ticket or reservation, others not.

​

• 
  St. Peter's Basilica and Piazza, the latter designed by Gianlorenzo Bernini (lines may exist, but no ticket is necessary)

  ​Trastevere Neighborhood (restaurants: Da Augusto in Piazza de'Renzi; Da Enzo's at via dei Vascellari 29; Miraggio's at Via della Lungara 16; Osteria Der Belli, near church of Santa Maria in Trastevere)

• CARAVAGGIO (Michealangelo Merisi da Caravaggio): double-checking Opening Hours and relative location with respect to your Hotel della Minerva, you may wish to visit any one of the following Roman churches which still show this intensely innovative painter's master works: 1) Sant'Agostino; 2) San Luigi dei Francesi; 3) Santa Maria del Popolo. Other sites include: 1) Galleria Borghese (which we will visit together); 2) Galleria Doria Pamphilj; 3) Capitoline Museums: PINACOTECA (Painting Gallery); and 4) Palazzo BARBERINI Painting Gallery.  

• Trastevere Churches: Santa Maria in Trastevere (13th century mosaics and wonderful colored wood-carved ceiling); Santa Cecilia; San Chrysogono

•  GNAM: Galleria Nazionale Arte Moderno (works by Cy Twombly, DeChirico, Giacomo Balla,  Umberto Boccioni, and many other Futurists)

• Church of Santa Maria Maddalena (18th-century Roccoco)--one block awayd from the Pantheon

• The Jesuit Church of GESU (near your Hotel della Minerva); incredible "blown-away ceiling" painting by Bacciccia; look at the side chapel where St. Ignatius is buried, designed by Andrea del Pozzo, who painted the ceiling extravaganza of S. Ignazio Church, which we will visit briefly together)

• The area of the BOCCA DELLA VERITA, located in the relatively small church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, next to the two Repubican age temples of HERCULES (179 B.C.) and Portunus (79 B.C.)

• The TIBER ISLAND area on the Tiber River, along the street where the Great Jewish Synagogue is located. Look for the so-called BROKEN BRIDGE near there. Great to sketch, along with the old Roman bridges on either side of the Tiber Island: Ponte Fabrizio and Ponte Celsio). Romans built their first hospital on Tiber Island, and the "modern" Bene Fratelli Hospital there is built on the foundations of one from 400 B.C.

• Stroll in and around the neighborhood of the Parliament of Rome (Montecitorio), visiting the San Lorenzo in Lucina piazza; and the Column of Marcus Aurelius.

• Great pizzas at IL GROTTINO in Rome's Testaccio Neighborhood. Locals savour the best thin-crust pizza pies there, and also fresh "baccalá" or cod-fish filets!)

• Trattoria Perilli is a terrific "Old Rome" trattoria, locaed on Via Marmorata #29, near the same area as IL GROTTINO.   You will enjoy the best "carbonara" pasta and spinach or tiramisú there, plus the old painted murals of street scenes and countryside, along with the elegant yet casual style of the waiters will make you feel at home.

• VOODOO BAR, on Via delle Terme di Traiano 4A; mostly a locals' scene too; for drinks and also dinner. Go early. This bar restaurant is located near the Colosseum.

• Terrace for aperitivos and amazing views at HOTEL FORUM, on the border of the Forum of Augustus, in Rione Monti.

• Best GELATTO these days :  FATAMORGANA (several locations). 

• The COLOSSEUM (single, simple ticket includes entrance to the Roman Forum) www.https://www.coopculture.it/en/products/ticket-colosseum-forum-and-palatine-_24h/

• The Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel (single, simple ticket is best, since you may rent an Audioguide headset; or you may choose to visit accompanied by an in-house guide of the museums) https://m.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani-mobile/it.html

• One of Michelangelo's most powerful sculptures is his MOSES, located in the side chapel where lies buried Pope Julius II della Rovere, the same pontiff who commissioned from him the painted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. This lovely, early Christian basilica is called San Pietro in Vincoli, and is located in the neighborhood of Monti, quite near the Roman Forum.

• The history of Rome is also that of the Christian Catacombs: I recommend you visit that of St. Agnes, located on Via Nomentana, but best to check opening hours, etc. The fabulous round Mausoleum of Santa Costanza is there, with amazing mosaic ceiling decoration from the 4th century A.D. http://www.santagnese.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=39&Itemid=55

• Another unique area of the Eternal City is the "Keyhole" of the Priorate of the Knights of MALTA on Aventine Hill, near the Bocca della Verita site inside the Church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. Take a look through the keyhole and you will see an iconic Roman building situated clear across town, inside the keyhole.

• The Baths of Caracalla, built around 200 A.D., provided areas for exercising and wellness to Romans of all classes, as part of a tradition whose basic idealogy we still refer to, unknowingly, when we use the word SPA--the meaning of this acronym is Salute Per Aqua ( Water for Health ). The grand architecture and even more large-scale hydraulic engineer built to make this particular center provide gallons and gallons of water, at various temperatures, are tied up to the vast network of ACQUEDUCTS built by Roman engineers throughout the Empire, and which you may also wish to visit or learn more about by riding LINE A of Rome's Metro to Subaugusta Station, and then walking to Acqueduct Park.

​