Tours of Ancient and Baroque Rome

Hotel Caracciolo is pleased to recommend to all its guests two specially designed tours of the most picturesque monuments and streets of Ancient Rome and Baroque Rome.

Ancient Rome

The route begins from no. 100 Via Giolitti, just 200 metres from Hotel Caracciolo, at the Temple of Minerva Medica, which is actually a large nymphaeum from the 6th century A.D. This imposing building is a significant example of late antiquity architecture and a forerunner of the construction techniques of the centrally planned byzantine basilicas. The tour continues on the 70 bus to Piazza Venezia, the location of Trajan's Column, a masterpiece of Roman sculpture.

This is the start of the Via dei Fori Imperiali, an incomparably fascinating  scene, bordered, on the left, by the Forum of Augustus and the Forum of Nerva, with the unmistakable and majestic "Colonnacce" (large columns) to the right, immediately after the imposing remains of the Basilica of Maxentius (or Constantine).

A little further ahead stands the immense symbol of eternal Rome: the Flavian Amphitheatre, which was renamed the Colosseum in the middle ages, due to its majestic dimensions.

Baroque Rome

The route begins from Santa Bibiana, at no. 154 Via Giolitti, just 150 metres from Hotel Caracciolo. This ancient early Christian church was renovated at the start of the 17th century in Baroque style by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the great architect and sculptor, who preserved the original layout from 1200, enhancing it with the addition of the apse and two side chapels. There is a very beautiful statue of the saint, also by Bernini, in the altar niche and splendid frescoes on the left wall of the apse by another baroque master, the painter Pietro da Cortona.

From here, you continue on bus no. 70 towards the heart of the historic centre, getting off in Via Nazionale. Proceeding along via del Quirinale, on the left-hand corner with via delle Quattro Fontane, you will see the Church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, a jewel of baroque architecture designed by another very great architect: Francesco Borromini.

A little further on the left, still in Via del Quirinale, is a church by Bernini dedicated to Saint Andrew. From here the tour turns back a little, turning left along via delle Quattro Fontane as far as piazza Barberini, where the beautiful Triton Fountain by Bernini can be seen. It then continues towards Piazza Navona, passing along via del Caravita to view the illusionary vault painted by Andrea Pozzo in the Church of Sant’Ignazio di Loyola. Piazza Navona is a beautiful square in which Bernini and Borromini confront one another directly, with the Fountain of the Rivers by one, and the Church of Sant’Agnese by the other.