Saint Peter’s Basilica is the largest Christian church in the world. Although it is not the cathedral of Rome, it is arguably more famous than the church that does have the honour of the being the cathedral: the basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano. Together with the San Giovanni, the…
It took us a while to find the ruins of Carsulae, one of the most interesting archaeological sites in all of Umbria. This is a place where history becomes tangible and people from the twenty-first century can walk in the footsteps of Roman travellers, soldiers and traders. Carsulae was a…
The Santissimo Nome di Gesù all’Argentina – simply called Il Gesù by just about anyone – is the mother church of the Jesuit Order. Although founded in 1534 and approved six years later, the Order did not provide the Catholic Church with a pope until 2013, when Jorge Mario Bergoglio…
It is easy to confuse the church of San Saba with the Santa Sabina. The names are almost identical, and both are located on the Aventine Hill, at a distance of some 800 metres of one another. I myself mixed up the two when I wrote about the Sienese cardinal…
Just outside Trastevere, one can find the Palazzo Corsini. It is home to the Galleria Corsini, one of two locations of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica (the other being the Palazzo Barberini). Although I have been to Rome several times and almost always stay at a hotel in Trastevere, I…
The Santo Stefano Rotondo is located on the summit of the Caelian hill, just opposite the Santa Maria in Domnica, but somewhat hidden behind a wall and trees (see the last image of this post). The church was built in the fifth century and it is the oldest surviving church…