Walking the Streets of Rome

 You Don't Need a Tour Guide

The great city of Rome is a vast and complex maze of streets woven through a oh so many world-renowned landmarks and structures. At best current guess Rome is around two and a half thousand years old. This makes it one of the oldest continually inhabited urban centres in the whole of Europe. As the city grew and changed over the centuries new replaced old, but remarkably much of the old remained by being built over, into and around.

Ponte Sant Angelo

Walk around Rome with your guide map and you will wend your way from one famous point to the next. However what is truly fascinating about Rome is the multitude of other structures and ruins - clearly historical - which you will see as well. More often than not, these will be unmentioned on your map - there are simply too many to give detail about each and every one.  On the skyline domes, towers and palaces emerge above surrounding buildings.  Occasionally you will come across a fenced off area and an archaeological dig. The recovery of Rome’s history is an ongoing task which continues on with no possible end date in site.

The one constant in the ever-growing city of Rome is the beautiful River Tiber which arcs its way through the city carving it into its parts. On the West bank is the Vatican City and the huge and imposing Castel de Sant'Angelo. Once a magnificent mausoleum  - a tomb for the emperor Hadrian and his family, -  it has since been a castle, a fort, a prison, and now a museum.

Castel Sant'Angelo

The vibrant and historic Trastevere district is also on the west of the river, and it is to the Trastevere that Romans and visitors alike go to eat, to drink and to play. The cafes and bars of the Trastevere spill out onto the cobbled streets and hum with life into the night. On the east of the Tiber is the Colosseum, and the Roman Forum -  the heart of the original city.

There are many bridges to choose from to cross the Tiber, - some of great age in themselves. The ancient arched stone bridges Ponte Sant'Angelo and Ponte Milvio have provided access across the Tiber for close to a millennium surviving erosion, floods, wars, and  invaders. Yet still they stand.

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