The Best of Rome with a Private Driver & Mercedes van (5 hours)

Customizable private tour with a licensed tour guide.

THE BEST OF ROME WITH A GUIDE The Vatican Museums contain masterpieces of painting, sculpture and other works of art collected by the popes through the centuries. The Museums include several monumental works of art, such as the Sistine Chapel, the Chapel of Beato Angelico, the Raphael Rooms and Loggia and the Borgia Apartment.

THE BEST OF ROME WITH A GUIDE The Sistine Chapel is named after his commissioner, Sixtus IV della Rovere (1471-1484), who decided to have a large room built where the “Cappella Magna” once stood.

THE BEST OF ROME WITH A GUIDE The first basilica was built by the Emperor Constantine on the place where the apostle Peter was martyred. It was consecrated by Pope Silvester I in 326 and construction was finished in 349. Over the centuries, the building underwent many restorations and refacading until Julius II decided to rebuild it completely.

THE BEST OF ROME WITH A GUIDE The construction of the largest amphitheater of the Roman Empire was started by Vespasian in 72 AD. It was used for gladiator fights and hunting simulations involving ferocious and exotic animals. The capacity is estimated around 55.000 people.

Piazza Venezia is the central hub of Rome, Italy, in which several thoroughfares intersect, including the Via dei Fori Imperiali and the Via del Corso. It takes its name from the Palazzo Venezia, built by the Venetian Cardinal, Pietro Barbo alongside the church of Saint Mark, the patron saint of Venice. The Palazzo Venezia served as the embassy of the Republic of Venice in Rome.

Overview from the Capitol Hill. An impressive sprawl of ruins, the Roman Forum was ancient Rome's showpiece centre, a grandiose district of temples, basilicas and vibrant public spaces

The Spanish Steps were built at the beginning of the eighteenth century connecting Piazza di Spagna and the Church of Trinità dei Monti. It is one of the most famous parts of Rome. The staircase is a favourite spot among tourists to sit, relax and enjoy the views of Piazza di Spagna.

Trevi Fountain is considered a late Baroque masterpiece and is arguably the best known of the city’s numerous fountains. It was designed by Nicola Salvi and completed by Giuseppe Pannini in 1762. According to legend, those who toss coins into its waters will return to Rome.

The beautiful square is built on the site where the Stadium of Domitian, founded in 86 AD, once stood. It could hold approximately 30,000 spectators. Erected in the centre of Piazza Navona, the Fountain of the Four Rivers designed by Bernini in 1651.

The Circus Maximus is an ancient Roman chariot-racing stadium and mass entertainment venue in Rome, Italy. In the valley between the Aventine and Palatine hills, it was the first and largest stadium in ancient Rome and its later Empire. It measured 621 m (2,037 ft) in length and 118 m (387 ft) in width and could accommodate over 150,000 spectators. In its fully developed form, it became the model for circuses throughout the Roman Empire. The site is now a public park.

UNDERGROUND ROME WITH A GUIDE They were the official cemetery of the Church of Rome in the 3rd century AD. Around half a million Christians were buried here, among them many martyrs and 16 popes. They are named after the deacon St. Callixtus who, at the beginning of the 3rd century AD, was assigned by Pope Zephyrinus to the administration of the cemetery. Since 1930 they have been entrusted to the custody of the Salesians of Don Bosco.

UNDERGROUND ROME WITH A GUIDE The Basilica of San Clemente is situated some three hundred yards above the Colosseum, on a road that rises gradually to St John Lateran from the valley between the Coelian Hill on the south and the Oppian Hill on the north. In 1857, Fr Joseph Mullooly, the then Prior of San Clemente, began excavations under the present basilica, uncovering in the process not only the original, fourth- century basilica directly underneath, but also at a still lower level, the remains of an earlier, first-century building. Later excavations, notably those conducted in 1912-1914 by Fr Louis Nolan when a drain was being built between San Clemente and the Colosseum, show¬ed that underneath this third layer of buildings there was still a fourth stratum, that contain¬ing buildings destroyed in the fire of Nero in 64 A.D.