From the Colosseum to the Spanish Steps - free walking tour

In about two hours we walk through some two thousand years of history: the Colosseum, the Fora built by the emperors, the imposing Altare della Patria that dominates Piazza Venezia, the elegant 18th century Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps, whose subtle sophistication still astonishes visitors.

The Colosseum

We begin at the Flavian Amphitheater, better known as The Colosseum, built by Vespasian and his sons Titus and Domitian for the imperial capital following the chaotic and self-indulgent rule of Nero. Built with the profits from the conquest of Jerusalem, this is the most famous monument in the city.  We'll view it from the outside and talk more about why Vespasian constructed it, how it is constructed (another miracle of Roman engineering), where the different social classes were seated, how the gladiator games were conducted, and how over time the site became revered as a sacred place (the Pope still comes here every year on Good Friday).

We'll walk by the Temple of Peace, inaugurated by Vespasian in the year 75. This temple celebrated the stability and peace established by Vespasian.  Here he provided ancient Romans with gardens refreshed by elegant fountains as well as a library and works of art, including plunder from Jerusalem, such as the gold Menorah taken the Temple. 

From here we will continue down through the imperial fora, and look at the Forum of Augustus, which commemorated his victory over the conspirators who killed Julius Caesar and was inaugurated in the year 2 BC.  Augustus bragged that he found Rome brick and left it marble.  We will also look at the ingenious Markets of Trajan and the Forum of Trajan, the largest of the imperial fora, designed by Apollodorus of Damascus and inaugurated in the year 112 AD.  We'll also look at the extraordinary Column of Trajan that visually recounts, with over 2600 figures, Trajan's two wars against the Dacians.  This monument is only meters away from where Michelangelo lived on Via Macel de' Corvi until his death in 1564.

 
We pass through Piazza Venezia, looking at the papal palace made for Paul II in the 1460s. From this balcony the pope watched the finish of the famous Barbary horse Carnival race, and much later Mussolini declared war on France and Great Britain in 1940.  We'll look at the imposing and at times controversial Altare della Patria with its bright botticino marble.  It celebrates Italian unity and freedom as well as the leadership of King Victor Emmanuel II. 

From there we’ll continue to the elegant 18th century Trevi Fountain, designed by Nicola Salvi for Pope Clement XII in the 1730s, and I'll explain its beautiful program of statues and reliefs that celebrates the water flowing from the ancient Roman aqueduct, the Aqua Virgo.  This fountain is one of the most iconic sights in the city and many movies have scenes here, such as Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960) and Woody Allen's To Rome with Love (2012).
 
We’ll then finish at the Spanish Steps, designed by an Italian architect for a French patron but called the Spanish Steps for its proximity to the Spanish embassy.  300 years old, it perfectly fulfils its purpose as an elegant and leisurely transition to the Pincian Hill.  We'll look at the Barcaccia fountain, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. We will see the house where John Keats, celebrated British Romantic poet, died from tuberculosis at the age of twenty-five.