PDF Rome Centro Storico (PDF Chapter) Edition 9th Edition, Jan 2016 Pages 37 Page Range 70–97, 214–222 COVERAGE INCLUDES: Useful Links • Neighbourhood Top • Sleeping Five Want more guides? Head to our shop • Local Life • Getting There & Trouble with your PDF? Away Trouble shoot here • Sights Need more help? • Eating Head to our FAQs • Drinking & Nightlife Stay in touch • Entertainment Contact us here • Shopping © Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd. To make it easier for you to use, access to this PDF chapter is not digitally restricted. In return, we think it’s fair to ask you to use it for personal, non-commercial purposes only. In other words, please don’t upload this chapter to a peer-to-peer site, mass email it to everyone you know, or resell it. See the terms and conditions on our site for a longer way of saying the above – ‘Do the right thing with our content’. ©Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd 70 Centro Storico PANTHEON | PIAZZA NAVONA | CAMPO DE’ FIORI | JEWISH GHETTO | ISOLA TIBERINA | PIAZZA COLONNA Neighbourhood Top Five io o rz anz 0000 a Bri a COLON0000NA M a n 0000 e i Vi t f c 1 gt on n Lu 0000 Stepping into the L M i a 0000 i ro ia d tti V 0000 ia c refe del Co 0000 Pantheon (p72) and feeling P V S ei d 0000 a ia l 0000 the same sense of awe that l V 0000 V e ia dell'O rs rso d the ancients must have felt o a i V 2000 years ago. The sight of 00000000000 the dome soaring up above â# Museo Nazionale 0000000000Piazza0 Romano: 000000Piazza di 0000Colonna0 you is a genuinely jaw- Montec000000itorio00000 Palazzo Altemps 00000000000 dropping spectacle. 00000000000 000 2 Via Exploring Piazza 000 del Po delle Cornacchie 000 C zzo 000 o Navona (p74) and the r 000 s 4# 00Piaz0za o warren of medieval lanes 000 d Navo000na e that surrounds it. 000 l Salita dei Via inario 000 R del Sem i 000 n Crescenzi 3 Browsing the fabulous 002#0 a 000 s 1# 000 c art collection at the Palazzo i 000 m 000 e Galleria Doria Pamphilj 000 e SANT'EUSTACHIO 000 n 3# t (p82). o V ia del o e P arm r i a è i M r d n 4 V Viewing three Caravag- i o t Piazza i T a n i i e gio masterpieces at the d di San d e rg a l Pantaleo i PIGNA Chiesa di San Luigi dei A G V 0 Corso e 0 Vittorio Largo s cito0 Francesi (p77). ù s Eman 000000 lebi 0 uele II 000000di Torre del P 000000 Via 5 Escaping the crowds in 000000Argentina 000000 V Chiesa the shadowy back streets of ia Ü# d del Gesù 'A the Jewish Ghetto (p80). a 00000 l ra 00000 u Via delle c o 00000 n e 00000 V e Botteghe Oscure l 00000 ia r i 00000 d A e 00000 i G a 00000 iub i a 00000 bo V an 00000 na g 00000 ri ar 00000 M 00000 ia 00000 REGOLA Via V 00000 de V l Port i d'O a ttav ico M i o a n 5# ta n a ra e C Lgt d enci Ti ber 0200 m Ri e# 00.1 miles ver Isola Tiberina 000 000 For more detail of this area see Map p304 and p306 A 71 Lonely Planet’s Explore: Centro Storico Top Tip Rome’s centro storico (historic centre) is made for lei- The centro storico is an surely strolling and although you could spend weeks ex- expensive part of town but ploring its every corner, you can cover most of the main there are ways of making sights in two or three days. Many people enter the area by your money go further. You bus, getting off at Largo di Torre Argentina, from where can see masterpieces by it’s a short walk up to the Pantheon and beyond that to the likes of Michelangelo, Rome’s political nerve-centre Piazza Colonna. Nearby, Raphael, Caravaggio and on Via del Corso, the Palazzo e Galleria Doria Pamphilj Bernini for nothing by visit- houses one of the capital’s finest private art collections. ing the area’s churches, Art is thick on the ground in these parts and many of which are all free to enter. STORI CENTRO the centre’s piazzas and churches harbour extraordinary Fuel your wanderings with works by big-name Renaissance and baroque artists. To coffee, sliced pizza and ice the west of the Pantheon, the narrow lanes around Pi- cream, and fill up with water azza Navona, itself one of Rome’s great must-see sights, from the drinking fountains are a magnet for tourists and hip Romans with their bo- known as nasoni (big noses) hemian boutiques, cool bars and popular pizzerias. dotted around the streets. C Over on the other side of Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, O the main thoroughfare through the area, all roads lead to Campo de’ Fiori, home to a colourful daily market and 5 Best Places hectic late-night drinking scene. From ‘il Campo’ you to Eat can shop your way down to the medieval Jewish Ghetto, a wonderfully atmospheric pocket of romantic corners, ¨ Casa Coppelle (p84) hidden piazzas and authentic eateries. ¨ La Ciambella (p84) ¨ Supplizio (p88) ¨ Forno Roscioli (p88) Local Life ¨ Armando al Pantheon ¨Backstreet eating The restaurants on Piazza Navona (p84) and Piazza Rotonda attract a touristy crowd, while For reviews, see p83.A Campo de’ Fiori (p78) pulls in boozing students. Locals head to places in the quieter backstreets. ¨Shopping Browse retro fashions and indie styles on Best Places Via del Governo Vecchio (p76); Via dei Giubbonari is 6 good for frocks and heels. to Drink ¨ Caffè Sant’Eustachio ¨Aperitif Fashion-conscious Romans love to socialise over an evening aperitivo in the bars around Piazza (p90) Navona (p74). ¨ Barnum Cafe (p91) ¨ Open Baladin (p91) ¨ Il Goccetto (p91) Getting There & Away For reviews, see p90.A ¨Bus The best way to access the centro storico. A whole fleet serves the area from Termini, including bus 40 and 64, which both stop at Largo di Torre Argentina and 1 Best Art continue down Corso Vittorio Emanuele II. From Via Churches del Tritone near Barberini metro station, bus 492 runs ¨ Chiesa di San Luigi dei to Corso del Rinascimento for Piazza Navona. Francesi (p77) ¨ Metro There are no metro stations in the ¨ Chiesa del Gesù (p81) neighbourhood but it’s within walking distance of ¨ Chiesa di Sant’Ignazio di Barberini, Spagna and Flaminio stations, all on line A. Loyola (p83) ¨Tram Catch tram 8 from Piazza Venezia to Trastevere ¨ Basilica di Santa Maria by way of Via Arenula. Sopra Minerva (p75) For reviews, see p75.A PANTHEON RICHARD I’ANSON / GETTY IMAGES © IMAGES GETTY / I’ANSON RICHARD A striking 2000-year-old temple, now a church, DON’T MISS… the Pantheon is Rome’s best-preserved ancient monument and one of the most influential buildings in ¨ The entrance doors the Western world. Its greying, pockmarked exterior ¨ The dome might look its age, but inside it’s a different story, ¨ Raphael’s tomb and it’s a unique and exhilarating experience to pass through its vast bronze doors and gaze up at the largest unreinforced concrete dome ever built. PRACTICALITIES ¨ Map p304 History ¨ Piazza della Rotonda In its current form the Pantheon dates to around AD 125. ¨ h8.30am-7.30pm The original temple, built by Marcus Agrippa in 27 BC, Mon-Sat, 9am-6pm burnt down in AD 80, and although it was rebuilt by Domi- Sun tian, it was struck by lightning and destroyed for a second time in AD 110. The emperor Hadrian had it reconstructed ¨ gLargo di Torre between AD 118 and 125, and it’s this version that you see Argentina today. Hadrian’s temple was dedicated to the classical gods – hence the name Pantheon, a derivation of the Greek words pan (all) and theos (god) – but in 608 it was consecrated as a Christian church after the Byzantine emperor Phocus donated it to Pope Boniface IV. It was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and all the martyrs and took on the name by which it is still officially known, the Basilica di Santa Maria ad Martyres. Thanks to this consecration, it was spared the worst of the medieval plundering that reduced many of Rome’s ancient buildings to near dereliction. But it didn’t escape en- tirely unscathed – its gilded-bronze roof tiles were removed and, in the 17th century, Pope Urban VIII had the portico’s bronze ceiling melted down to make 80 canons for Castel Sant’Angelo and to provide Bernini with bronze for the baldachino at St Peter’s Basilica. During the Renaissance, the building was much admired – Brunelleschi used it as inspi- ration for his cupola in Florence, and Michelangelo studied it before designing the dome 73 at St Peter’s Basilica – and it became an important THE INSCRIPTION burial chamber. Today, you’ll find the tomb of the artist Raphael here alongside those of kings Vittorio For centuries the Latin Emanuele II and Umberto I. inscription over the entrance led histo- Exterior rians to believe that Originally, the Pantheon was on a raised podium, its the current temple entrance facing onto a rectangular porticoed piazza. was Marcus Agrippa’s Nowadays, the dark-grey pitted exterior faces onto original. Certainly, busy, cafe-lined Piazza della Rotonda. And while its the wording would facade is somewhat the worse for wear, it’s still an suggest this, reading: STORI CENTRO imposing sight.