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19/06/2024

The square of Saint Ignatius owes its configuration to the architect Filippo Raguzzini, who created it around 1727-1728.

The final arrangement of the space in front of the church was achieved by building normal residential houses instead of public buildings, as was customary.

The whole area is characterized by an extraordinary and original compositional unity. The geometric layout is derived from the combination of three ovals.

The architect juxtaposed some concave-shaped buildings against the extended facade of the church: among these, the central palace, now the headquarters of the Carabinieri Command for the protection of cultural heritage, has an unusual triangular plan, while the concave facade, on four levels, is adorned with balconies and wrought iron railings.

The configuration of the square aims to impress passers-by, enhancing the contrasts in size between the modest houses and the massive travertine facade of the church.

Discover this hidden gem of Rome, just few steps from the Pantheon, with our city stroll tour!

03/04/2024

The Hercules Mastai was discovered by chance in 1864 by workers during the renovation of Palazzo Pio Righetti, near Campo dei Fiori.

Suddenly, an enormous finger emerged from the ground, believed to be part of a gigantic statue. The construction work was halted, and excavation began, revealing the most astonishing golden statue from antiquity.

Thirteen feet tall, the Hercules Mastai is a copy of an original Greek sculpture from the 4th century BC, possibly dating back to the 3rd century AD.

The statue has survived through the centuries because it was struck by lightning and, according to Roman ritual, which considered it a divine sign from Jupiter, it was buried under travertine slabs.

Recently restored by a team of experts from the Vatican Museums, who carefully removed the accumulated wax over the years, the statue can now be admired in all its splendor in the Rotunda Hall.

04/02/2024

The statuary group depicting the death of Laocoön and his two sons, Antiphates and Tymbreus, while they are crushed by two sea serpents, as narrated in the epic cycle of the Trojan War.

The episode mentions the revenge of Athena, who desired the victory of the Achaeans on the Trojan priest of Apollo, who tried to oppose the entry of the Trojan horse into the city.

When the sculptural group was discovered, although in a good state of preservation, it showed the father and the younger son both missing their right arms.

Although some clues showed that the right arm was originally bent behind Laocoön’s shoulder, the opinion that hypothesized the arm was extended outward, in a heroic and highly dynamic gesture, prevailed. The integration was carried out in terracotta by Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli.

In 1906 the archaeologist Ludwig Pollak fortuitously found the original right arm of Laocoön the workshop of a Roman stonemason, which was bent, as Michelangelo had imagined: the limb, purchased by the archaeologist himself, was donated shortly afterwards to the Vatican and relocated to the shoulder only in 1959, by Filippo Magi, who removed all non-original additions, according to the principles of modern restoration.

With Roma Experience key master’s tour you have the incredible chance to admire the back of the statue, where is preserved the old additional arm.

18/12/2023

A few meters from Piazza Navona is the church of Santa Maria della Pace, where you can admire Raphael’s beautiful sibyls, painted in 1514 and restored in 2020 by the master Antonio Forcellino, who returned them to the public in all their splendor.

Agostino Chigi, originally from Siena, the most important banker in Europe, treasurer of the Apostolic Chamber, chooses to entrust the decoration of the family chapel to what he believes to be the most talented living artist, namely Raphael.
Thanks to his immense power, he manages to obtain from the Pope the possibility of Raphael working for him, although only in some specific moments.

The wonderful creatures painted by the artist from Urbino, express all their grace through a slow and silent conversation, full of symbolic gestures.
They are treated with great care by the painter who focuses on a few precious details, such as the angels’ wings, the turbans, the raised sleeves, the transparencies and the very iridescent fabrics, the carefully drawn hair and the different hairstyles.

Each figure moves freely in space and exhibits a feeling, a mood, with clear references to the monumental art of Michelangelo, but with an unprecedented and passionate classicism of Raphaelesque origin.

Michelangelo’s figures in the Sistine Chapel are powerful and plastically define their inner strength. Raphael’s are elegant and lyrical, soft and harmonious like those of all his paintings.

Color is one of the most astonishing aspects of the work, because Raphael manages, through a daring work of color combinations, to replicate the effect of transparency of the glazes typical of the oil technique, demonstrating an uncommon skill.

The group of the four seer sibyls of classical antiquity, who according to the Western Church prophesied the
coming of Christ, is accompanied by seven
angels, three of which in the guise of young winged cherubs.
They are the intermediary spirits between man and God and for this reason they hold the scrolls with the inscriptions read by the Sibyls and referable to the theme of waiting for Christ and his Resurrection.

01/12/2023

Few people know Michelangelo’s last pictorial work: the Pauline Chapel, the most intimate of the places of worship in the Apostolic Palaces and, more than the Sistine Chapel, called to represent the mission and destiny of the universal Church.

In 1541 Michelangelo was entrusted with a further work by the Farnese Pope, Paul III, in a small chapel which was to tell the story of the martyrdom of the two patron saints of the Eternal City, Peter and Paul.

The historical and juridical legitimacy of the Roman pontiffs rests on Peter, while Paul is the cornerstone who both supports and justifies the doctrine of the Church and her ecumenical mandate.

The barren landscape of the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel, finds its continuation in the Michelangelo style of the Pauline Chapel, bringing attention to the crucial moment of the two saints: their martyrdom in Rome.

For health reasons, Michelangelo had to suspend the decoration several times, completing his work in 1550. Here too, the splendid blue composed of lapis lazuli takes us back to the blue of the sky of judgment, the unmistakable signature of the most revolutionary artist of the Renaissance.

Michelangelo was not the only one to decorate the Pauline Chapel: Perin del Vaga, Lorenzo Sabatini and Federico Zuccari also contributed to Pauline. These artists were able to adapt to the Master’s work with respect and discretion, comparing themselves with the absolute genius who had the opportunity to work here, on several occasions for 8 years.

It is impossible not to compare this masterpiece with the Cerasi Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo, painted 50 years after the Paolina: Caravaggio once again looks at Buonarroti with admiration and respect, bringing his immense legacy to his new Baroque art.

07/05/2023

The Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, built in 1280, is the only medieval Gothic church in Rome.

It rises above ancient Roman structures dedicated to Egyptian deities, including Isis and Serapis, as well as to Minerva, hence the name of the Basilica.

Its starry sky refers to the Sistine Chapel, before the vault was decorated by Michelangelo.

Several famous artists took turns in the decoration of the Basilica.
Among the various works, the funeral monument of Clement VII Medici and the chapel of San Tommaso D'Aquino with the splendid cycle by Filippino Lippi are worth mentioning.

Also not to be missed is Michelangelo's Christ the Redeemer, sculpted between 1514 and 1521, with more aids.

The artist, seeing a black vein in the Carrara marble, visible on the face of the Messiah, decided to make a second one, using the cross as a support that gives strength in the Creed.

Originally naked, he was dressed in a bronze drape, as was often used in the Renaissance to cover private parts that should not be shown.

Furthermore, under the main altar is the tomb of Santa Caterina da Siena, patroness of Italy, whose feast is celebrated on April 29th.

27/03/2023

The Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum is one of the honorary arches created to celebrate the memory of a Roman general or emperor’s victory.

It was built by the Senate at the time of his brother Domitian, to celebrate the conquest of Jerusalem and the destruction of Herod's temple perpetuated by Titus in 70 AD.

The representation of the emperor carried by the eagle is an apotheosis scene, which gives us a hint that the emperor Titus was already dead, and did not celebrate a triumph by crossing the arch.

Titus, sent by Vespasian to place his father's statue in the temple, was only a general when he besieged Jerusalem and in triumph brought the Menorah, the silver trumpets and slaves to the city.

The so-called "manubria", war b***y, was given to Vespasian and used for the construction of the Colosseum.

In the arch the Menorah was once covered with gold and, after being kept in the Temple of Peace, it was probably melted down by Alaric, the barbarian, during the sack of Rome in 410 AD (Procopius instead mentions the sack of Genseric, the Vandal, in 455 AD).

One of the reliefs depicts the triumph of Titus, who enters the city on a four-horse chariot, escorted by the genius of the senate and a victory, represented as a winged lady.

Transformed into a tower by the Frangipane family, the arch was used during the opening of the Jewish Ghetto by the governor to ask the rabbi to pay a fee for staying in the ghetto, receiving a kick in the ass in exchange.

The arch appears today heavily restored by Giuseppe Valadier for Pope Pius VII and nowadays it is considered the official entrance to the Roman Forum, where the Via Sacra begins.

Discover with one of our tours the area of the Roman Forum!

06/03/2023

The Farnese Palace in Caprarola is the most perfect example of a villa-castle, a complete expression of the new-feudal ideology that crossed Europe toward the end of the 16th century, defined by Mario Praz the bible of the reach.

Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, a man of manner and culture, had commissioned the palace’s construction and decoration to incredible artists such as Vignola and the Zuccari brothers, to mention a few.

The palace is a brilliant example of use of the perspective as a creative instrument in projecting.

In the flight of stairs, as in the trapezoidal space in front of the palace, you can perceive Michelangelo’s listening but also the symbolism Bernini expresses in St. Peter’s square: you can perceive the withdrawing force is Renaissance and Classicism as well as the upper classe yearning for tre international Gothic style.

The key to understand Caprarola is in the confidence in combining different ideals in one superior discipline and in creating a timeless art.

The best result is the one of the Royal staircase: the passage between the ramps obliqueness to the tambours hexagonal flat division is certainly to be considered a masterpiece and the most difficult thing to reach in architecture.

Even the pictorial program of the palace is a synthesis of mythology, sacred history, the family history of a Prince of the Church, culture and science.

It all converges to the dynasty’s glorification. Heraldic deeds and symbols of triumphs such as fleur-de-lis, unicorns and masks announce the arrival of the Baroque style in its earthly seduction.

Discover one of the most beautiful palaces of the region Latium with Roma Experience!

28/02/2023

The Vatican Museums, are not only a container of works of art, but the testimony of the foresight of the Popes in proving themselves not only patrons, but discoverers of talents.

Passing through the various halls and corridors of the museums leads us to understand the evolution of collecting, the historical facts that led artists to represent the chronicles of their time, sometimes sweetened by personal dislikes for personalities of the papal circle.

Entering the heart of the museums helps us to have a glimpse of an immense history that marked the transition from Paganism to Christianity, between acts of faith and economic interests.

All this combination of factors has led to the creation of the Vatican Museums, not only as an opulent collection but as an encyclopaedic interest in historical moments that have marked the history of Rome, of the papacy and of humanity.

Understanding this heritage helps us to have the key to understanding Western civilization and the importance of works of art.

Educating in beauty is the first act of love for future generations, visiting a museum opens not only the doors of the mind, but also those of the heart and emotions.

What is your favorite artwork in the Vatican Museums and, if you haven't been there yet, what would you like to see and why?

Discover on www.romaexperience.com the Vatican that fit you the most!

10/01/2023

Villa Farnesina, commissioned in 1505 by Agostino Chigi, a very wealthy Sienese banker, to Baldassarre Peruzzi, saw various artists alternating in its decoration: Peruzzi himself, Sodoma, Raphael and Sebastiano del Piombo. All of them contributed to making the villa a triumph of the ancient and a place of “otium”, which must have recalled the great Roman villas that stood in Trastevere.

In particular, Raphael, with the circle of pupils, through the perfect brushstrokes of his pictorial art, consecrates the love of the richest man of the Renaissance, with Francesca Ordeaschi, a very young daughter of a humble merchant.

The marriage was celebrated in 1519 and, after only one year, Agostino died, followed shortly after by his wife.
The beautiful villa was purchased at auction by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, and still today retains the name of its second owner.

One of Raphael's most beautiful frescoes is certainly the Galatea: with her graceful gait, her clothes and hair accompanied by the wind, she forcefully introduces the female presence into the pictorial decoration.

However his pupils, in the lodge of Cupid and Psyche, redeemed the banker's love for a woman of humble origins, finding in the myth the adaptation of his deep feeling.

This jewel set in the Trastevere district will soon be reopened without scaffolding, ready to be discovered with Roma Experience!

06/01/2023

Crossing the first region of Ostia Antica, near the temple of Hercules, stands one of the most beautiful late ancient domus of the city: the house of Cupid and Psyche.

Datable to the end of the 4th century AD, and probably owned by officials of senatorial rank or by one of the priests of the nearby Herculean temple, the house appears at a glance to be one of the most decorated and elegant in the ancient city port.

The domus has an “opus sectile” flooring, where precious marbles (precisely those that arrived in Ostia from the provinces of the Empire) give life to arabesques of multiple colors, refined patterns that change from room to room, giving life to the house. Although more stripped of furniture, it had to fill itself with these precious decorations, as well as with statues and nymphaeums that completed its beauty.

The statue that can be admired inside the house (the original is in the Ostiense museum, now closed for restoration) transports us into the atmosphere of the time, a sort of Eden: it must have been the dominus' resting place with the harmonious sound of water, flowing from the fountain.

The reflections produced by the water on the damp slabs had to make the house seem like an ideal place to welcome guests and relax inside.

The domus also had a second floor, usually used by servants. Surely the decoration of the ground floor had to show whoever had access to the house, the important role played by the gentleman who was its owner.

The houses of Ostia Antica are a continuous discovery, come and visit them with our tours: they are just 40 minutes from Rome.

The splendid embrace that binds Cupid and Psyche for eternity is just waiting for you to be contemplated!

27/12/2022

When someone asks me which is my favorite place in Rome, I have no doubts: the Appian Way.

This consular road, built by Appia Claudio Cieco at the end of the 4th century BC, is not only the Regina Viarum (queen of the roads), but also the path to a world made up of prestigious Roman palaces, such as Quintili’s villa, endless meadows, dotted with sepulchres of people who made the history of Rome.
If I had to imagine the Elysian fields for me it would be these.

Over the years, unfortunately, the road has seen building abuses, but with the establishment of the park, a valuable protection has been given to the area.

If you want to fully appreciate this all-Roman charm, you cannot fail to visit Quintili’s Villa, the residence of the two homonymous brothers who, by committing su***de, gave the emperor Commodus the opportunity to take possession of the villa, equipped with a circus, sumptuous rooms and stupendous thermal baths, where it seems that the emperor even allowed himself eight baths a day, just to spend time in the company of his concubines and young boys who frequented his places.

Would you like to discover this jewel of the Appian Way with an archaeologist?
Discover our dedicated tour on www.romaexperience.com or create your own tour of the Appian Way with us!

13/11/2022

, the cosmopolitan city par excellence, offers a rich and varied cross-section of the uses and customs of the Romans, of the construction technique in antiquity and of the flourishing trade that led Rome to have the hegemony in the Mediterranean in the imperial age.

The water and road network, the excellent state of the thermal baths and public and private buildings invite us to get into the heart of Roman culture.

Walking on the ancient paving of the Ostiense, entering the city after having skirted the cemetery, the surrounding walls with which Cicero endowed it, open the entrance to the republican warehouses and the decumanus that leads to the heart of the city.

The theater, the baths, the Capitol, the shops, the warehouses, the laundries, the temples of oriental cults, reveal the international character of this city, where merchants brought spices, exotic perfumes and wheat at will of the citizens of the city, to cover the needs of the most important city of the empire: Rome.

A visit to Ostia will shed light on the Roman world and the infinite facets that archaeologists over the decades, through the excavations of this river city, have returned to the public, leading to an incredible knowledge of the mercantile activities of the past.

Are you ready to set sail for Ostia with Roma Experience? Book a tour and visit one of the most beautiful places in Italy!

https://www.romaexperience.com/ostia-antica-tour

13/10/2022

Among the maze of galleries of the Vatican Museums you can come across masterpieces that will leave you breathless.

One of these is the Niccolina Chapel, located in the tower of Pope Innocent III and commissioned by Pope Nicholas V to definitively settle the power entrusted by Christ to the hands of Peter.

This Pope was in fact the first to enter the crossed keys in the papal coat of arms and to underline how the power conferred on him had been given by God not to the Church, but to the pontiff himself.

In 1447 the Pope called the painter Beato Angelico to seal his pontificate.

Author of these splendid pictorial cycles (not without help), Angelico uses a humanistic, classical, monumental language to pay homage to the rediscovered imperial Rome and the renewed papal court, with a strongly Christian message.

The stories of the two deacons-martyrs, Lorenzo and Stefano, run through the two registers of the chapel walls and want to underline two aspects of the Pope: benevolence and charity.

Stephen is a contemporary of Christ, and Lorenzo is a contemporary of his vicar Sixtus II.
One, direct disciple of the apostles, the other of their successor. Both full of the Holy Spirit, of faith, and of works, testimonies to the point of martyrdom of what to believe in and consequently do good.

The message is that of a Church founded on apostolic authority, on the mission of charity and on evangelization.

The chapel, in its triumph of colors, illuminated garments and expressive faces, is the transposition of the triumph of faith: in the imitation of Christ the magisterium of his Church triumphs.

Roma Experience takes you to discover the hidden places of the Vatican, where few are lucky enough to enter, to have your eyes of the wonders of Vatican art.

Write to us to organize your trip to the most beautiful hidden places of the Vatican Museums!

25/09/2022

Palazzo Venezia is not only a splendid Renaissance palace, but for centuries it was the residence of popes, cardinals and ambassadors.

Where does the name Palazzo Venezia come from? From its donation made by Pope Pius IV to the Maritime Republic of Venice in 1564, which took care of the maintenance costs.

Pope Paul II, born Cardinal Barbo, began the construction of this magnificent palace, which became the summer seat of other well-known popes, such as Paolo III Farnese. Of Venetian origin, the pontiff had preferred to live near the adjacent basilica of San Marco, a reference point for the Venetian community, rather than in the Vatican palace. Here he could admire his splendid collection of gems and benefit from the carnival shows from the magnificent loggia, composed with the travertines of the Colosseum.

In the second half of the 19th century it brought the palace to changes, due to the construction of the Vittoriano, designed by Sacconi: the tower of Paul III and the corridor connecting to the building (later rebuilt further back) saw the destruction.

In the rooms of this palace famous meetings and political intertwining have been held for centuries, becoming the main seat of the fascist party and its greatest exponent, Benito Mussolini, in an escalation of violence and sordid meetings that has changed its functions, to adapt to the propaganda of fascist power.

By reserving the Barbo apartment and the famous Sala del Mappamondo, which enclosed the famous balcony that became the pulpit used by Mussolini to address the "ocean crowds", the dictator stripped the palace of its public use.

Finally freed by the dictator, Palazzo Venezia has slowly regained its contact with the city and the citizens, and today the VIVE complex (VIttoriano and Palazzo VEnezia) can be visited in all its splendor.

27/08/2022

The Mausoleum of Saint Elena, mother of Emperor Constantine, in Tor Pignattara (from the pots that decorated the dome of the mausoleum) is one of the most shining examples of the transition between pagan and Christian art.

The famous red porphyry sarcophagus, now preserved in the room of the Greek cross of the Vatican Museums, comes from the brick ambulatory of the imperial mausoleum.

Built along via Labicana, it was erected in the imperial residence ad duas lauros (to the two laurels, probably due to the presence of two laurel trees found in this site), in a strategic way: Constantine despite having granted freedom of worship to Christians, he did not want to antagonize the senatorial aristocracy, still strongly pagan. But the fundamental reason appears to be another: the adjoining funerary basilica necessarily had to rise outside the city walls, to follow the precise rule that prevented, for hygienic reasons, burying the dead inside the walls.

In the lower part of the monument is the splendid catacomb of Saints Marcellino and Pietro, recently restored, and a wonderful example of early Christian themes painted on the wall.

An intricate complex of tunnels, which unfold on different levels, leads to incunambula and arcosoli richly decorated with Christian scenes.

Peacocks, symbols of rebirth and biblical scenes, dear to early Christianity, can be admired in this catacomb that extended below the imperial property.

Roma Experience takes you with its tours to one of the most beautiful places in Rome. Are you ready to explore?!

21/08/2022

The Forum Boarium was the area intended for the livestock market between the Tiber, the Capitol, the Palatine and the Aventine.

According to a legend, Hercules, who arrived in the area of the Forum Boarium with the oxen of Geryon, was robbed of these by the giant Caco, who lived in a cave on the slopes of the Aventine. After killing the giant, Hercules would have been honored as a god by the ancient inhabitants of the Palatine, the Arcadians, who dedicated an altar to him, the Ara Maxima.

This altar, of which the tuff core is preserved, is located inside the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin.

The two temples towards the Tiber date back to the Republican era: the first, older, with a rectangular plan, dedicated to the river divinity of Portunus, and the second, with a circular plan, dedicated to Hercules Victor or Olearius (connected to the trade of the olives).

With the Middle Ages the two temples were transformed into churches and partially incorporated into other buildings, destroyed during the digs of the last century.

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