Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
COLOSSEUM TIPS
Some useful tips to beat the Colosseum queues:
» Buy your ticket from the Palatino entrance (about 250m away at Via di San Gregorio 30) or at the
Roman Forum (Largo della Salara Vecchia).
» Get the Roma Pass.
» Book your ticket online at www.coopculture.it (plus booking fee of €1.50).
» Join an official English-language tour - €5 on top of the regular Colosseum ticket price - and use
the dedicated tours queue.
» Visit in the late afternoon rather than mid-morning.
Historic Makeovers
But out of the ruins of the Middle Ages grew Renaissance Rome. At the behest of the
city's great papal dynasties - the Barberini, Farnese and Pamphilj, among others - the
leading artists of the 15th and 16th centuries were summoned to work on projects such as
the Sistine Chapel and St Peter's Basilica. But the enemy was never far away, and in 1527
the Spanish forces of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V ransacked Rome.
Another rebuild was in order, and it was to the 17th-century baroque masters Bernini
and Borromini that Rome's patrons turned. Exuberant churches, fountains and palazzi
(palaces) sprouted all over the city, as these two bitter rivals competed to produce ever-
more virtuosic masterpieces.
The next makeover followed the unification of Italy and the declaration of Rome as its
capital. Mussolini, believing himself a modern-day Augustus, also left an indelible stamp,
bulldozing new imperial roads and commissioning ambitious building projects such as the
monumental suburb of EUR.
Modern Styling
Post-fascism, the 1950s and '60s saw the glittering era of la dolce vita and hasty urban ex-
pansion, resulting in Rome's sometimes wretched suburbs. A clean-up in 2000 had the
city in its best shape for decades, and in recent years some dramatic modernist building
projects have given the Eternal City some edge, such as Richard Meier's Museo dell'Ara
Pacis and Massimiliano Fuksas' ongoing Nuvola building in EUR.
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