Ostia Antica - 4 Things to Know Before Visiting

The largest church in Rome after St Peter’s, this vast basilica stands on the site where St Paul was buried after being decapitated in AD 67. The basilica is within Italian territory and not the territory of the Vatican City State. The interior of the Basilica of St. Paul is magnificent, with enormous marble columns and beautiful gold mosaics. On the basilica’s walls, visitors will be able to observe the portraits of each of the popes, while a ray of sunlight lights up the portrait of the curren

The Villa Doria Pamphili is a huge and beautiful park situated just outside the ancient walls of Rome. It is the second-largest public park in Rome after the regional park of the Ancient Appia. It was built by the Noble Roman Pamphili family in 1630. The baroque style Casino del Bel Respiro is one of the central attractions of this park and It overlooks a geometric secret garden, raised above the valley below, which contains a series of embellishments and curious architecture.

The Pyramid of Cestius was most likely built between 18 and 12 BC. The 36-meter high pyramid was built as a tomb for a wealthy Roman under the sway of all things Egyptian. It is a remarkable monument, made of white Carrara marble and exactly 100 Roman feet high. It stands at a fork between two ancient roads, the Via Ostiensis and another road that ran west to the Tiber along the approximate line of the modern Via Marmorata.

The Janiculum is a Roman hill, overlooking the right bank of the Tiber, whose maximum height is 88 meters, not included in the group of seven traditional hills. The eastern slope slopes down towards the river and at the base is the historic district of Trastevere, while the western one, less steep, is the oldest part of the modern district of Monteverde; to the south-west of the hill is Villa Doria Pamphili, while on its eastern slopes are the botanical gardens of Rome and the Regina Coeli priso

The Aventine Hill is one of the seven hills on which Ancient Rome was built. The legend recounts that Romulus had the idea to build a city on the Palatine Hill and his brother Remus thought the Aventine Hill was the right place where to start construction of a city. The Aventino is ringed with very important churches, monasteries, and the one thing tourists come to see while missing the rest: the Knights of Malta keyhole in Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta.

The Basilica of Our Lady in Trastevere is one of the oldest churches still standing in Rome. However, the majority of the building as we see it today was erected later, in the twelfth century AD. The inscription on the episcopal throne states that this is the first church in Rome dedicated to Mary, mother of Jesus. The church has large areas of important mosaics from the late 13th century by Pietro Cavallini.