the Villa Farnesina designed by Baldassare Peruzzi for Agostino Chigi: a jewel box of Renaissance art

Renaissance Splendor: The Villa Farnesina, A Millionaire’s Mini-Mansion

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Meet Agostino Chigi, Renaissance banking tycoon extraordinaire! Then revel in the beauty of his summer home in Trastevere. In the early 1500s, he hired Architect Baldassare Peruzzi to build the villa. Peruzzi, who loved ancient Roman architecture, applied its grandeur to his assignment. Then some of the most talented artists that money could buy (namely Raphael, his students, Peruzzi, and Sodoma) frescoed the villa. Nowhere else in Rome will give you such a marvelous glimpse into the rip-roaring early Renaissance and its appreciation of classical antiquity!

Mosaic pavement in the Ancient city of Ostia Antica

Full-Days Near Rome: Ostia Antica

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Ostia is "Rome's Pompeii" and it reveals a lot about daily life in the classical world: we'll stroll from a hotel to the town's center, from apartment buildings, to ritzy villas, from taverns and greasy spoons to artisans' workshops and public baths. When you smell the salt air blowing in from the nearby sea, you'll understand why patricians were enchanted by Ostia and why ancient sailors called it home.

Tour Trastevere in the Middle Ages and visit Santa Maria in Trastevere

The Medieval City: Trastevere in the Middle Ages

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Ready to explore a more unusual corner of Rome? Then let's head to Trastevere! We'll focus on the works of two late Medieval artists, the revolutionary Pietro Cavallini and Arnolfo di Cambio, in the churches of San Giorgio, Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Santa Cecilia, and Santa Maria in Trastevere. As we admire their masterpieces, we will also concentrate on general trends in Medieval architecture, mosaics, and frescoes.

a view into the Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas

Underground Rome: The Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas

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On the Via Latina, near the Sepulcher of the Scipios, is the Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas. Columbarium comes from the Latin columba, which means “dove.”  A columbarium was literally a dovecot, where birds were raised for their eggs and as food.   When cremation burials became common, ash-urns were deposited in small niches that were carved into tombs walls.  The niches produced a dovecot effect, which gave this type of tomb its name.

Roma Barocca, Baroque Rome, is the Borghese Gallery, seen here in the picture

Roma Barocca: The Borghese Gallery and the Capuchin Crypt

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The art-collector Cardinal Scipio Borghese considered himself the luckiest man alive: thanks to his uncle-Pope, he possessed unlimited funds in an era in which talent abounded. He collected his contemporaries' masterpieces (six Caravaggio paintings and four remarkable Bernini sculptures) as well as stunning works from the past (such as Raphael's "Entombment"), not always ethically... Meanwhile, on what was once the property of the neighboring Barberini family, a nondescript Capuchin church boasts a Baroque crypt with an unusual memento mori...

Walking up Monte Testaccio during a tour, the path is made entirely of pot sherds

Special Access Area: Monte Testaccio — Imperial Rome’s Broken Pottery Mountain

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In Imperial Rome, you could do a lot with an amphora, like using it repeatedly to store and transport dry goods. If it broke, you could use it as lightweight filler in concrete. You could grind it down and reform it into new pots -- tedious, but true! And if it were slathered with olive oil that would slowly deteriorate and stink? Well, you could turn it into a mountain by breaking it into pieces and gluing them together with lime (which also acted as a deodorant)!

The Tiber River walking tour explores different assets of the Tiber, like Castel Sant'Angelo and its bridge

Overviews of Rome: Experience the Tiber River Walking Tour!

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If the Tiber River possesses very little charm today, thank poorly thought-out, modern urban planning! When the embankments were built beside the River as flood control in the late 1800s / early 1900s, they segregated it from the town it had always nurtured (and occasionally flooded). We'll discover how the Tiber was once the city's economic backbone, an easy means of transportation, a source of rest and relaxation, and employment for the ferrymen who transported people from one bank to the the other.

Christ in an Early Christian Church Mosaic glittering with gold tessera

The Medieval City: “All That Glitters,” Early Christian Mosaics in Rome from the Late Empire to the XIII century

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What can mosaics tell us about early Christian communities, the concerns of the faithful in the Middle Ages, and the politics of the Church of Rome? Santa Pudentiana (whose mosaics date to the end of the fourth century or the very beginning of the fifth), the imposing Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (with mosaics from the fifth and thirteenth centuries), and the nearby church of Santa Prassede (which sports ninth-century mosaics), will answer those questions (and more).

a detail of the so-called Maritime Theater that we will see during our trip to Hadrian's Villa near Tivoli

Full-Days Near Rome: Hadrian’s Villa Near Tivoli

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Although the Emperor Hadrian’s extensive countryside estate was referred to as a “Villa,” it is better defined as an “administrative city.” Occupying well over a million square meters, the Villa was divided into banqueting halls for foreign ambassadors and palace officials, summer and winter residences, reception areas, offices, terraced gardens, baths for note-worthies and staff, and miles of underground corridors where servants scuttled, unseen by Hadrian and his court.

temple of Hercules in the Forum Boarium, a glimpse into ancient Rome

Ancient and Imperial Rome: The Forum Boarium

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Imperial Rome was a bustling metropolis, by far the largest in Europe in antiquity. It was served by dozens of Forum, or market areas. The Forum Boarium, which humorously translates as “the Meat Market,” functioned, according to some historians, even earlier than the Roman Forum and its monuments are, in many cases, far older than those in the Roman Forum.

The movie theater in the foreground with its red chairs, with the archeological site seen through the window

Underground Rome: Vicus Caprarius

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Around the corner from the Trevi Fountain, is the Cinema Trevi. Faced with excessive humidity, the movie theater's owners probed deeper and deeper to discover the root of the problem. Their explorations led to the birth of an archeological area approximately 27 feet under the modern street level. Referred to as Vicus Caprarius or “Goat Alley” in Latin, the site contains two Imperial Roman apartment buildings and lots of natural running water!

ara pacis imperial mausoleum tour

Ancient and Imperial Rome: the Ara Pacis and Two Imperial Mausoleums

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Everyone knows that Augustus was the first Emperor of Rome. Very few people consider how he was thrust into Rome’s political arena in his late teens and how he struggled to survive a series of civil wars. In his struggles, he would revolutionize Rome’s government. This visit looks at two monuments which Augustus built to introduce Romans to the idea of Imperial succession (the Altar of Peace and his Mausoleum). After which, we focus on the Emperor Hadrian, who built his Mausoleum to continue the idea of political stability, Imperial dynasty and magnificence.

Underground Rome: The Fountain of Via Annibaldi

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"How can a city be built in layers?" you ask. It is common in Rome! Imagine hundreds, if not thousands, of ancient Roman buildings in brick and concrete collapsing... then add the filth and mud of floods... and voila', ground level rises! Incredible examples of this phenomenon can be seen at San Clemente, the Vicus Caprarius, and here at the Nymphaeum (or water feature) under Via Annibaldi...

Medieval art, i.e. a cosmatesque pavement in a chapel at Santi Quattro Coronati

The Medieval City: San Clemente and Santi Quattro Coronati

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During the Middle Ages did artists truly lack inspiration and did the Arts stagnate?  What messages did patrons want to express in the churches and chapels they commissioned?  What did the gestures in medieval frescoes mean to contemporaries?  How did they continue to manifest themselves in Renaissance art (and even in modern culture!)?  We will answer these questions as we concentrate on the upper and lower levels of the church San Clemente and the frescoes in the chapel of San Silvestro at the church of Santi Quattro Coronati.

a view of Roma Barocca's Quirinal Hill meeting place, with the ancient statues and the Baroque summer palace of the popes

Roma Barocca: Bernini and Borromini on the Quirinal Hill

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This Baroque romp takes us from Piazza Quirinale to Santa Maria della Vittoria and back again. The visit starts with two sculptures that were used to decorate an ancient Roman public bath and it ends with the boldest architectural and artistic statements of the Roman Baroque: Bernini's Santa Teresa in Ecstasy, Borromini's spartan San Carlo whose curved lines seem to breath, and Bernini's Sant'Andrea, abounding in sunlight and marble.

villa's d'este's amazing fountains and jets of water

Renaissance Splendor: Villa d’Este, Tivoli

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Ancient aristocrats bought property in the countryside around Rome where they built luxury residences and opulent summer homes. They often had vast grounds terraced and manicured, while water features, fountains, and birdbaths turned their homes into earthly paradises. The Renaissance revived this practice and Villa d’Este outstrips many of the other great Italian villas of the 1500s for the splash and play of its abundant fountains and the cool green beauty of its gardens.

ancient Rome Trajan's imperial Forum and his Column

Ancient and Imperial Rome: The Imperial Forum

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To relieve overcrowding in ancient Rome's downtown, several Roman emperors built new and larger fora (the plural of "forum") to create government offices, magnificent public spaces, and stores. On this visit, you'll explore the remains of the five fora that came after the original Roman Forum, each one more monumental than the last!

Rome's downtown Bernini's river god in front of Borromini's church facade

Roma Barocca: Dueling Geniuses (Bernini and Borromini) in Rome’s Downtown

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Rivalry fueled Bernini and Borromini's genius. Nearly the same age, they had wildly different temperaments: Borromini dressed in an ostentatious (and out-of-fashion) "Spanish style," cultivated his studies ptivately, and unintentionally alienated his patrons. He put an end to his tormented career by committing suicide. Bernini, who lived to a venerable old age, surrounded by family and friends, was a personable mad-hatter with public relations skills in overdrive!