DK Travel : Rome : History & Culture

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St Peter

The Apostle (AD 42–67) tapped by Jesus to lead the church. After his martyrdom in Rome the city became the epicentre of Christianity.
St Peter’s Basilica

The capital of Christendom is packed with works by Bernini, statues by Michelangelo and panoramic views from the dome (see Features of St Peter’s Basilica).
St Peter’s Dome

St Peter’s colonnade and Castel Sant’Angelo can be seen from Michelangelo’s dome (see The Dome).
Suetonius

Historian (70–125) who wrote the lives of the Caesars.
Tacitus

Tacitus (55–117) wrote Annals and Histories covering Rome’s early Imperial history; Life of Agricola his father-in-law’s governorship of Britain.
The Bicycle Thieves

The ultimate neo-realist film, Vittorio de Sica’s 1948 work is a recreated documentary of late 1940s Rome. An honest family man struggling to make ends meet in postwar Rome watches everything fall apart when his precious bicycle, so necessary for his livelihood, is stolen and he tries to track it down.
The Colosseum and Imperial Fora

These monuments memorialize Imperial supremacy. The Forum of Trajan was declared a Wonder of the World by contemporaries; the only remnant is Trajan’s Column, considered to represent Roman sculptural art at its peak. The Colosseum embodies the Romans’ passion for brutal entertainment.
The Pantheon

“Simple, erect, severe, austere, sublime” – even Lord Byron struggled to find words to express this marvel of ancient Roman architecture, the only ancient Roman temple to survive the millennia virtually intact.
The Spanish Steps

Views spill down the steps to the tourist-filled piazza (see The Spanish Steps and Piazza di Spagna).
The Spanish Steps and Piazza di Spagna

This elegant, off-centre sweep of a staircase is Rome’s most beloved Rococo monument. It is at its most memorable in May, when it is covered in azaleas, but all year round it is littered with people drinking in la dolce vita (sweet life) and musicians strumming guitars until late into the night. Francesco De Sanctis designed the steps in 1723–6 for King Louis XV, and their true name in Italian is Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti, after the church at the top. The hourglass-shaped Piazza di Spagna, with its Bernini Barcaccia fountain and milling tourists, was named after the Spanish Embassy to the Vatican located nearby.