Things to see and do Vatican

This museum was created by the Treaty of Vienna (1816), which provided that the works returned by France would be exhibited to the public. This was done under Pius XI in 1932. It is a pleasure, because the rooms are not visited very often. Finally, a little quiet in these crowded galleries! You can therefore enjoy the art gallery, which presents, in chronological order, works that allow you to follow the evolution of religious painting from the 2nd to the 17th century. This is one of the richest collections of paintings in Italy, you would be wrong to ignore it! To help you see more clearly, here are the works not to be missed:

Melozzo Da Forli (1438-1494): Sixtus IV and the librarian.

The painters of Umbria: The Perugino (The Virgin and Child) and the Pinturicchio (Coronation of the Virgin).

Raphael (1483-1520), with the famous Madonna of Foligno and the Transfiguration. Not to mention the tapestries on Raphael's drawings.

Giovanni Bellini (1429-1516) and theDescent of the Cross.

The primitives are represented by a last judgment of a still very Byzantine style (11th century).

Giotto and his students: the triptych Stefaneschi (1315).

Fra Angelico (1400-1455) and his pupil Gozzoli: the Virgin in Glory and the Stories of St. Nicholas.

Filippo Lippi (1406-1469): Coronation of the Virgin Mary.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519): Saint Jerome.

Titian (1490-1576): Our Lady of Saint Nicola dei Frari.

Le Caravage (1573-1610): Descent of the Cross, which made a lot of noise because of its realism.

The legend makes the site the place of landing of Dido and its own. Ostia was founded by King Ancus Martius in the th century BC The port is located at the mouth of the Tiber River and owes its name to its latin origin, misled, which means "mouth".

During antiquity, Ostia was the port of Rome. The city, which has been able to reach the 100 000 inhabitants, has peaked in the first century of our era. Travellers and goods travel there, sailors and traders lived there. Ostia, a military port and commercial port, has always followed the evolution of Rome: military conquests and then commercial development. Populated by many foreigners, it was a bit of the Empire that stood there. Ostia fell into the torpor following the decadence of Rome and then the fall of the Roman Empire. Its progressive silting and an unhealthy environment have led its last inhabitants to abandon it.

Ostia site, which is now about 4 km from the coastline, was rediscovered only at the beginning of the th century. It has become Ostia Antica, offering visitors an archaeological treasure, among the best preserved in the ancient world. It allows to discover the life of a great ancient city through the centuries of its existence, from its foundation until the introduction of Christianity into its walls.

The Vatican Museum site offers five illustrated guided tours of photographs. It also puts on line the calendar of museums opening times that it is sometimes good to check.

It is the largest and most sumptuous of the forums. The Trajan Forum is a 300 m x 190 m quadrilateral, built in 112 AD. It is best known for housing the famous column that bears his name. Bounded by the basilica Ulpia, the forums of Caesar and Augustus and the markets of Trajan, this forum was designed by the great architect Apollodore of Damascus. For its construction, an entire hill was razed to the ground between the Quirinal and the Capitol, to give the necessary scale to the complex.

Trajane column. At a height of 10 Roman feet, corresponding to 30 m, it tells in 17 marble rings and 155 paintings the story of Trajan's victorious campaigns against Dacia, today's Romania. It is the main monument of the forum. The column is inflated to half height, to avoid the impression of concavity that its height would cause; the relative size of the figures in its bas-reliefs in relation to the whole increases as the viewer moves away from it. Try it, it's obvious! The 2,500 scenes that adorn the column provide very valuable insights into the military techniques and equipment of the time. To find out more, casts displayed at the EUR-Museum of Roman Civilization make it possible to analyse the smallest details. The base of the column housed the emperor Trajan's gold funeral urn, unfortunately it was stolen in the Middle Ages. The statue of Saint Peter, at the top of the column, has replaced the statue of the emperor since the 17th century, which is now lost

The most famous Roman historical villa. It is not only a pleasant walk for the Romans and tourists, but also offers many museums. It is rightly called the'museums park '. It houses Galerie Borghese, the Canonica Museum, the Etruscan National museum, the national gallery of modern art… It is a huge park that plays in Rome the role of the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. It occupies the height of the Pincio and extends to the balcony of the same name that dominates piazza del Popolo. It encompasses the gardens of the villa Giulia north of the Pincio. This park was part of the vast ensemble of the great areas of accreditation of the noble Romans, which, for the most part, did not resist the real estate explosion after 1870. The park is adorned with numerous statues, copies of many ancient buildings, and countless small buildings, such as those dedicated to Adonis, Faustina, and Diane or this fountain at Seahorses.

The temple of Castor and Pollux (the Dioscuri) is said to date back to the early ^5th century BC, after the two brothers appeared to the Romans on the battlefield during the war against the Latins. Dedicated to these twin gods who protected the riders (sons of Jupiter and Leda, and Helen's brothers), he suffered multiple destruction. The last one spared only three Corinthian columns from the time of Augustus, which are still admired.

This museum houses a rich archaeological collection, bequeathed to the city of Rome by Baron Giovanni Barracco, and is therefore an essential stopover for lovers of Greek, Roman, Assyrian and Egyptian antiquities. His 400 works are distributed in 9 rooms, depending on their civilization. You can admire the head of Alexander the Great (Room VIII), those of Paris and Mars (Room IX), and a remarkable Egyptian stele (Room I).

Overlooking the piazza del Popolo, the Pincio gardens allow you to enter the Villa Borghese. Set up on the small hill of the same name during the Napoleonic occupation according to Giuseppe Valadier's plans, they are covered with oaks, umbrella pines and palm trees. Be careful, to access it, it climbs a little bit! But when you reach the top, you are quickly rewarded with a panoramic view of Rome and the Piazza del Popolo from the belvedere. It is particularly appreciated at the end of the day, when the sun sets.