The unmissable places

It was build in 8 years by more than 50.000 worker (most of them was slaves) and there were used 3.500.000 blocks of stone cut and finished by hand according to the instructions of the architects of the time.
The construction was begun by Vespasian and finished by his son Titus with a grand opening that lasted almost three months and saw the death of about 2000 gladiators and 9000 animals.

Its construction began in 1505, when Pope Julius II della Rovere started the reconstruction of the ancient and centuries-old Basilica of Constantine that was falling apart.
For over a century there have worked the best artists of the Renaissance including Bramante, Raffaello, Bernini and Michelangelo.

In 1762 (after 30 years of interruptions, changes and vicissitudes) it was inaugurated in the version that we can still admire.
The fountain, in Rococo style, represents Ocean (Greek mythological figure) on a shell-shaped chariot drawn by two horses winged, one upset and one placid as can be the sea at different moments.
In the niches next to Ocean we find on the left the statue of Abundance and on the right Salubrity.
In the bas-reliefs above the statues there is on the left Agrippa approving the construction of the Virgin aqueduct (the aqueduct inaugurated on 19 BC which still supplies the fountain) and on the right the girl who, according to tradition, would have indicated to the soldiers the whereabouts of the headwaters.

The museums were opened to the public in 1771 and are composed by many museums, galleries, chapels and rooms that wind their way along a path of 7 km (4 miles).
Among the many masterpieces there are the Sistine Chapel, the rooms and the loggia of Raphael, Gregorian Egyptian Museum and the Borgia apartment.

Finished in 440 AD it was build over another church that, according to tradition, was erected in a place where the Virgin Mary, appeared in a dream to Pope Liberius, predicted that there would have been a miracle.
The following day a sprinkling of snow fell on the Esquiline Hill, was on August 5th.

Thanks to the consecration to Christian church that took place in 609, the building remained unchanged over the centuries and you can see floors, marble, decorations and original statues of the period of the Roman Empire.

Its shape originates from the ancient stadium of Domitian 85 AD on which it was built, behind the square (in Tor Sanguigna square ) you can still see the remains.
In the middle of the square there's the Fountain of the Four Rivers realized by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1650 and in front of this the church of St. Agnes in Agone of Borromini (1657).

The fountain in the square was created in 1629 by Pietro Bernini and his son Gian Lorenzo and takes its shape for the memory of a boat that ran aground in that point after a flood of the Tiber a short time before.