ANCIENT ROME

Foro Romano (Roman Forum), Campidoglio (Capitoline Hill), Pantheon, Piazza Navona.

3 hours tour by foot.

The Roman Forum was the ancient public centre of Rome, where the holy rites were held inside the temples, the justice was governed, and the Senate ordained its laws.

The Campidoglio (Capitoline Hill) also called Monte Capitolino (from Latin: Mons Capitolinus), is the highest of the seven hills on which Rome was founded.

The Campidoglio owns its actual prospective to the creativity of Michelangelo's project: in the place where there were two heights with an escarpment in the middle, there is now a monumental square with the replica of Marcus Aurelius' equestrian statue. The original is in the Palazzo Nuovo, which, in the Middle Age, was the house of the Senate; nowadays headquarter of the Municipality of Rome

The Palazzo Nuovo (the New Palace) and the Palazzo dei Conservatori (the Palace of the Conservators), respectively at the sides of the square, are the headquarters of the Capitoline Museums.

The Pantheon was built in the 1st century B.C. as a temple consecrated to all the Gods, namely the seven planetary divinities:

1. Apollo: god of light and sun, beauty and music;

2. Diana: Apollo's sister; goddess of the moon, crepuscular beauty as well as goddess of the hunt;

3. Saturn: father of all the gods in the Olympus, whose firstborn was Jupiter, was the founder of the Celestine Latin dynasty.

4. Jupiter: father of the 2nd divine generation and whose common weapons were thunderbolts.

5. Mars: god of the war.

6. Mercury: god of the merchants and thieves.

7. Venus: goddess of the ethereal and carnal beauty.

Piazza Navona: was in the past the Domitian's stadium: the square has been theatre of various changes: later on it was a market and then, in '600, it became the museum with an open sky, due to the decorative masterpieces of the Bernini's fountains.

In the square is located the Palace Pamphili, ex residence of the pope, today Embassy of Brazil. 
Piazza Navona is known nowadays as the square of occasional encounters, where it is possible to taste typical bitter chocolate ice-cream called "Tartufo" (truffle)