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The Pantheon, the Minerva and Piazza Colonna
Galileo before the Inquisition and the Pantheon turned into a church connect religious authority, people and the uses of the ancient city.
Popes, power and punishment in Rome: audio walks
How did the popes rule the city, and whom did they punish?
7 walks with different starting points and stories. Compare their maps, stops and duration, then choose where to begin.
Explore these walks
The popes also governed a city, making decisions that reached squares, castles and neighbourhoods. These walks follow that power and its consequences: how it was displayed, how justice was administered and who felt its limits. They offer a way through Rome centred on the relationship between religious authority, urban life and particular people.
In “Rome's Ghetto and Tiber Island”: Forced sermons and the story of Beatrice Cenci bring the consequences of power into the lives of the neighbourhood.
In “Pantheon, Minerva and Piazza Colonna”: Galileo before the Inquisition and the Pantheon turned into a church connect religious authority, people and the uses of the ancient city.
In “From the Quirinale to Via Veneto”: Twentieth-century Rome, uphill: the palace of popes, kings and presidents, the king who lasted a month, the street where the Resistance struck in 1944 and that has no plaque, and the Via Veneto that Fellini copied on a film set… minus the hill.
Choose from 7 independent walks in Rome. Open the one that interests you to see its map, stops and approximate duration before deciding. You don't need to do them all or follow this selection's order; each walk has its own starting and finishing points.
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Rome's Ghetto and Tiber Island
Forced sermons and the story of Beatrice Cenci bring the consequences of power into the lives of the neighbourhood.
Monti and the Suburra
You walk down Via Panisperna past a joke on a gridiron, a street name that smells of ham and an invisible pig that a pope said had been driven out of a church.
Piazza Navona and Campo de' Fiori
Caravaggio, Pasquino and Giordano Bruno: a painter whose pictures were turned down, a mutilated statue that mocked the popes, and a philosopher who heard his sentence in Navona and died in Campo de' Fiori.
Piazza del Popolo and Via Margutta
You'll see the gate Bernini reworked for a queen without a throne, a memorial stone that argues with the records, two churches pretending to be identical, and the corner where a woman was born who went on to run a revolutionary newspaper in Naples.
From the Quirinale to Via Veneto
Twentieth-century Rome, uphill: the palace of popes, kings and presidents, the king who lasted a month, the street where the Resistance struck in 1944 and that has no plaque, and the Via Veneto that Fellini copied on a film set… minus the hill.
Castel Sant'Angelo and St Peter's Square
In 1527 a pope fled along the passage on top of the wall.
Rome, before you go
Rome calls for a water bottle, reliable shoes and room for a detour. Its squares link up on foot; the hills and sunshine decide how many you will enjoy in a day.
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