Walks Through Rome's Living History - Private Guided Walking Tours of Rome and Vatican City, Baroque Rome and Jewish Rome

A 4-hour private guided walking tour through Rome's ancient and papal neighborhoods. We start on the Oppian Hill to visit the Church of St Peter in Chains and Michelangelo's Moses statue, a masterpiece in marble. On this walking tour of Ancient Rome we descend the hill to tour the Colosseum, a symbol of Rome for the ages, and walk through the Roman Forum, where the city's culture and history were forged. We walk up to the Capitoline Hill, one of the most important monumental areas of ancient Rome, in its present form Rome's civic center and a testament to Michelangelo's architectural vision. This architectural walking tour through Ancient Rome concludes at the Pantheon, Rome's best-preserved ancient temple and a marvel of architecture in its entirety and in every detail. You will be awed by the Pantheon, which embodies the best the ancient Romans ever created.

A 4-hour private guided walking tour of the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St Peter's Basilica.

For some visitors, the Vatican is the place where Rome's history is most alive.

We start the Vatican itinerary with a tour of the Vatican Museums, no ordinary collections but a dazzling display of history and art from the ancients to our own day. Rome's history - ancient, medieval, Renaissance, Baroque - is preserved here in the Vatican. The Vatican walking tour can include highlights of the ancient sculpture collection. Some of the statues you will see in the Vatican Museums were a source of inspiration for Michelangelo, Bernini and other great artists. On our way to the Sistine Chapel we pass through the Gallery of the Candelabra, with antiquities that will give you insight into ancient Roman life and customs; the Tapestry Gallery, featuring some of the most beautiful tapestries ever made in Europe; the ornate Gallery of the Painted Maps, where you will tour all of Italy from south to north in approximately 100 meters; the Chapel of Nicholas V with Fra Angelico's delicate fresco paintings; the Raphael Rooms, once the pope's residence, painted by Raphael and his school for Pope Julius II and his successors. The highpoint of this Vatican walking tour is the Sistine Chapel, featuring Michelangelo's fresco paintings, creations for the ages. When the Vatican permits, we leave the Sistine Chapel through the exit that takes us directly to St Peter's Basilica, to tour this monument of the Renaissance and Baroque age, including Michelangelo's Pietà, Bernini's papal altar and his Chair of Peter, the tombs and monuments of the popes and beautiful mosaic art.

The Vatican walking tour concludes in St Peter's Square, also designed by Bernini. St Peter's Square is one of the world's most famous urban spaces and offers a glimpse of the papal apartment and the Loggia of the Benedictions, where the Pope imparts his blessing.

A 3-hour private guided walking tour through Baroque Rome. We can start this walking tour in the Piazza di Spagna, famed for the Spanish Steps, laid out along the natural slope of a hill. The herald of springtime in Rome is the sight of myriad azalea plants lining the Spanish Steps all along their gracious curves from top to bottom. At the foot of the Spanish Steps, you will delight in the "Barcaccia," Bernini's little boat fountain, an enchanting creation, but also a reminder of the floods that once devastated the city before the Tiber embankments were built. Today Rome's Spanish Steps are a meeting point for artists, the fashion crowd, young people, dedicated shoppers, for everyone who wants to experience the bustle and beauty of Rome's center. Walking through the streets of Rome where famous Baroque artists lived and worked, we reach the Trevi Fountain, Rome's "wish fountain," where a small coin tossed into the Trevi's waters assures your return to Rome and perhaps something more. The gigantic Trevi Fountain, dominating a tiny square, is a perfect union of architecture, sculpture and water you will delight in. To give us this joyous experience, Nicola Salvi, the Trevi Fountain's architect, ruined his health to realize his vision, a project he called "his only child." From the Trevi Fountain the Baroque Rome walking tour continues along the side streets of Old Rome, the city's historic center, passing in front of the Pantheon. If you have not already visited Rome's Pantheon on the ancient Rome tour, we stop inside to marvel at the concrete dome the ancient Romans poured in the 2nd century AD and the light streaming in through the opening at its center. Seeing the Pantheon for the first time leaves even modern architects amazed at how the ancient Romans built it. The Baroque Rome walking tour concludes in Piazza Navona. Piazza Navona is a splendid example of architectural continuity from ancient Rome through the centuries. Today Piazza Navona is a gathering place for Romans and for the whole world. Justly considered one of the most beautiful squares in all of Europe, Rome's Piazza Navona is built on the site and preserves the form of the Stadium of Domitian, where running races were held in Imperial Rome and carriage races through the water in Baroque Rome. The centerpieces of Piazza Navona are Bernini's Four Rivers Fountain and Borromini's Church of St Agnes. With these two masterpieces standing opposite each other, Bernini and Borromini remain eternal rivals in the Eternal City.

A 3-hour private guided walking tour of the Borghese Gallery, the birthplace of Baroque art. We will visit the edifice built by Cardinal Scipione Borghese in the early 17th century, after his uncle was elected Pope Paul V. The Borghese Gallery was not built as the Cardinal's residence, but to house his magnificent art treasures, once called the "queen of private collections in Europe." Unlike some other important private Roman art collections, Cardinal Borghese's collection is still largely intact and now a national museum. This walking tour of the Borghese Gallery will introduce you to the sculptures of the prodigious Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the creator of the Baroque, exceptional paintings by Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio, Correggio, Bellini, Domenichino and other masters, which are among the contents of a building that is itself a splendid container. The Borghese Gallery was restored to its 17th and 18th century luster only a few years ago after more than a decade of renovation work. Tickets for the Borghese Gallery tour must be reserved in advance. I will be happy to make ticket reservations when you book your tour with me.

A 3-hour private guided walking tour of Jewish Rome spanning ancient, medieval, Renaissance, Baroque and modern history. Rome's Jewish community is the oldest in all of Europe. We start the Jewish Rome walking tour in Trastevere, the old Roman neighborhood "across the Tiber," where the earliest Jewish residents settled in the 2nd century BC. From Trastevere we cross two ancient Roman bridges connecting the charming Tiber Island (crucial to Rome's urban development, and with its memories of Jewish Rome) to the city. Rome's main Jewish Synagogue is situated along the Tiber River opposite Trastevere; the Synagogue was completed in 1904 in the area that was once Rome's Jewish Ghetto, the small enclave where the Roman Jews were compelled to live from 1555 to 1870.

When open, we visit the interior of Rome's main Synagogue and the small Jewish Museum. We walk through the remaining areas of the former Jewish Ghetto and down the old lanes, visiting the charming Turtle Fountain and concluding this Jewish Rome walking tour in Campo de' Fiori, with its animated market. The colorful stalls of Campo de' Fiori's fruit and vegetable vendors displaying their bountiful produce will be a feast for your eyes. A vendor or two may even offer you a taste. The vendor may not speak English, and you may not speak Italian, but you will connect with a smile that comes easy to the Romans. You may also want to pop into Campo de' Fiori's famous bakery ("forno") to sample, stand-up, a slice of the exquisite thin crust Roman pizza fresh from the oven. This guided walking tour of Jewish Rome and its adjacent neighborhoods, Trastevere and Campo de' Fiori, will allow you to savor many hidden corners of Old Rome and the lives of the modern old Romans.