Rome

I have been to Rome many times for tourism, work or in passing. Once, however, I stayed three days in Rome to deepen my visit, seeing again what I had seen in the past and adding to this what I had not yet seen. I was with my partner and a couple of friends and we arrived in the morning by train at Termini station; after taking accommodation in a hotel of a religious institute outside the centre we went to visit the Baths of Caracalla, the mastodonic remains of the ancient Roman baths, which still preserve significant architecture and vaults. You feel small before such grandeur and try to imagine crowded frigidaria and tepidaria. A few hundred metres and you are at the Circus Maximus, a broad grassy space where you glimpse the shape of the structure; we limit ourselves to seeing it from the road.

From here we walk towards the splendid Arch of Constantine that precedes Italy's most famous monument, the Colosseum, whose interior we also visit. We climb the hill that houses the Domus Aurea, unfortunately closed, and return to the Colosseum to walk the Via dei Fori, a spectacular archaeological itinerary immersed in a forest of civic and religious buildings, more or less preserved. There follow one another arches, temples, early-Christian basilicas, law courts and, at the end, where past blends with present, the Capitoline. You reach it from the forum by a staircase; the hill houses Rome's City Hall and the Capitoline Museums, which we visit, plunging into a riot of Roman art among busts of emperors, columns and bas-reliefs.

From the elegant Piazza del Campidoglio, at the centre of which stands the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, a staircase passing alongside the bare Church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli leads near the memorial to King Victor Emmanuel II, an imposing white marble structure bearing the monument to the Unknown Soldier, where an eternal flame burns, guarded by soldiers in full dress. We are in Piazza Venezia, where from the terrace of the palazzo of the same name Benito Mussolini spoke during the Fascist twenty years. From here Via del Corso leads in a short time to the palazzi housing the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Walking along the street you see Piazza Colonna, and with a quick detour you reach the monumental Trevi Fountain, very beautiful.

We then reach the Spanish Steps with the Barcaccia fountain at its centre, from which the spectacular staircase rises to the Church of Trinità dei Monti. From the square begins the famous Via Condotti, near which we take a taxi to our hotel. The next day we devote to visiting the Vatican State (see the relevant itinerary). On our return from Vatican City we walk along the beautiful Via della Conciliazione, from which you see a splendid perspective of St Peter's Square; then we enter the prisons housed in Castel Sant'Angelo, climbing right up to the towers. We continue to the vast Piazza Navona, surrounded by fine buildings, then to the Pantheon, the only Roman monument left almost intact and still in use, where the Savoy tombs are. From here, with a long walk, to the Forum of Trajan, preceded by the fine column.

We do not enter because it is evening, but from the street you can see all the grandeur of these archaeological excavations, which occupy a vast area extending up a neighbouring hill. We then took a taxi; heading towards the hotel we passed in front of the Bocca della Verità and the Theatre of Marcellus. The following day was devoted to visiting the Basilica of St Paul and the exterior of St John Lateran, both reached by metro. From St John's, by taxi along the Via Appia Antica, some stretches of which are cobbled and where archaeological remains are often found, we reached one of the catacombs and visited it. Going down into the tunnels you realise how difficult it must have been for the first Christians to hide in these underground cities. We climb back up the Via Appia Antica, then continue to Termini station, where we return home by train.

Some years later, again with my partner and our little boy, I did another tour of Rome. Being with the child, we focused on attractions that might interest him too. We visited Villa Borghese by pedalo, the Zoo and the Children's Museum. We also returned to St Peter's Square, and I showed my son the tombs of the Kings in the Pantheon. Though very thorough, this journey certainly did not allow me a complete visit of Rome; after all, I already knew many things there. At 18 I had been there for a while and had explored the Trastevere district, the Tiber Island, Piazza del Popolo and the Villa Borghese park. As a boy I had been received, with a delegation of my town, by the President of the Republic Sandro Pertini at the Quirinale. I had worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs inside the Farnesina. I have departed several times by plane from Fiumicino.

I have been received a couple of times at the RAI headquarters in Viale Mazzini and at the one in Via Teulada. I have been inside the palazzi housing the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate (in the latter also in the hemicycle). In general I believe I have seen Rome quite well, even if knowing it thoroughly is practically impossible.