If you still don't know it, or if you want to get lost in its magic, I’ll tell you about Rome, its soul, its colours.
Rome turns from ochre to carmine red, especially when evening falls. Rome is a precious city, but also one made up of narrow streets with ivy-clad windows, small open-air restaurants, artisan workshops, hidden corners and noisy, exuberant stories of everyday life. Admiring it from above is poetry; suffice it to visit the Janiculum or Pincian Hill for a breathtaking view of the eternal city.
Legend has it that the birth of Rome was thanks to Romulus and Remus, the twin sons of Rea Silvia and the god Mars, who were abandoned and suckled by a she-wolf and finally adopted by the shepherd Faustulus and his wife Acca Larentia. Once they became men, the twins decided to found a city: to determine which of them should govern, they relied on the wills of the gods through the flight of augural birds.
From the Aventine, Remus saw six vultures, while Romulus, from the Palatine, saw twelve, thus becoming the first King of Rome in 753 BC.
From the Palatine Hill, the city would later spread to the seven hills we all know today: Palatine, Aventine, Capitoline, Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline and Caelian.
“Seven” represented a historically symbolic number for Rome: the seven hills, the seven kings of Rome, the septemviri: the seven magistrates or priests entrusted with specific functions, the seven courts of the vigiles, the city’s seven main churches, the seven letters making up the Roman numerals.
The Tiber, called the river god in poetic compositions of ancient Rome, was a veritable “road on water”, along which large ports had been developed since Roman times, and ultimately demolished in the second half of the 19th century with the construction of the city walls, to free the city from constant flooding.
Today, the Tiber offers us glimpses of incredible beauty from the many historic bridges such as Ponte Sisto, Ponte Sant’Angelo or Ponte Fabricio, to be crossed either on foot or on a Vespa for the more adventurous.
Rome’s grandiose monuments, hundreds of churches and spectacular fountains trace out its stunning profile, making it the city with the highest concentration of historical, archaeological and architectural heritage in the world, with more than 16% of the world’s cultural heritage and 70% of Italy's.
Since 1980, the historical city centre delimited by the Aurelian walls, together with the extraterritorial properties of the Holy See in the city and the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Together, we will visit the Appian Way Regional Park, as well as suggestive viewpoints over the city including the Orange Garden, the Pincian Hill and the Janiculum, and then Villa Borghese, Villa Doria Pamphilj, Villa Ada Savoia, Villa Torlonia.
“The fountains are enough to justify a trip to Rome", once said the great Romantic poet, P. B. Shelley. And it's true, because water and fountains have always been an important and characteristic part of the city’s artistic and cultural heritage. Whether monumental, scenic or unusual, the capital city boasts more than 2000 fountains: small and large treasures hiding singular stories or legends that we will discover together, regardless of whether you're here for business or pleasure.