Essential Rome

An itinerary bursting with gems from the whole range of Rome’s heritage. Over the years MRT has devised many tours to Rome, but mostly they have attempted only a single episode or theme – Ancient, Medieval, Baroque, Caravaggio, Michelangelo, Raphael, music. This tour provides the perfect opportunity to explore all of these simultaneously.

Rome presents three major challenges to the cultural traveller. Firstly, it is big. Items of major importance – many of which on their own would make any town in the world worth visiting – are generously strewn through an area that is approximately four miles in diameter. The second is that there are hundreds of such places in the Eternal City.

The third challenge is that these items are from such a wide span of time – well over two millennia – for much of which Rome was the pre-eminent city in its sphere. Capital of the Roman Republic and Empire, centre of western Christianity, a role regained with consequent splendour with the triumph of the Catholic Reformation and finally, from 1871, capital of a united Italy.

This tour overcomes such challenges by giving preference to geography over chronology, proximity over theme. Meandering walks explore a particular district, picking out the most significant buildings and works of art, enjoying alluring vistas as they arise, glimpsing major and minor treasures – whatever period they belong to. But it’s irrefutable that the itinerary includes most of the most important places and works of art in Rome.

There is a lot of walking, though regular use is made of minibuses (never coaches, which are excluded from the centre). Not every place seen is mentioned in the description below, and the order may differ.

This tour is particularly strenuous. Please review the Physical Requirements under Travel Notes.

Inclusions

Travel by private minibus; hotel accommodation; breakfasts, 1 lunch and 4 dinners with wine, water, coffee; all admissions, including a private visit to the Vatican Museums; all tips; all taxes; the services of the lecturer.

Expert Speakers

Dr Thomas-Leo True
Art historian specialising in Renaissance and Baroque architecture in Rome and the Papal States, and Assistant Director of the British School at Rome from September 2015. He received his doctorate from Cambridge University, and also studied at the British School at Rome, where he was Rome Scholar (2009–10) and Giles Worsley Fellow (2013). He has lived in Le Marche region of Italy and is currently writing his first book on the Marchigian Cardinals of Pope Sixtus V.

Mr Christopher Garibaldi
Christopher Garibaldi is an independent researcher and academic. From 2010 to 2019 he was Director of Palace House, Newmarket (the National Horseracing Museum). He was previously Co-Director of the Attingham Summer School for the Study of Historic Houses and Collections. Earlier in his career he was Assistant Keeper of Art (Decorative Art) at Norwich Castle Museum. In the 1990s, he worked for the Royal Collection cataloguing the silver at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and other royal residences. He recently completed an MPhil in the History of Art and Architecture at St John’s College, Cambridge where he is currently studying for his PhD on aspects of the history of royal patronage.

Tour by Martin Randall Travel.