Christmas Nativities and Angels Tour in Rome: Festive Magic in the Heart of the City

Highlights

• Small Group Guided Tour
• Roman Christmas Traditions
• Key Locations

What's included

Itinerary

1. 1

   Piazza del Popolo

   15min

   Piazza del Popolo is a large urban square in Rome designed in neoclassical style between 1811 and 1822 by the architect Giuseppe Valadier. The name in modern Italian literally means "People's Square". In the northeast corner of the piazza, there is the church of Santa Maria del Popolo. For centuries, the Piazza del Popolo was a place for public executions, the last of which took place in 1826.

2. 2

   Piazza Navona

   15min

   Navona Square was defined during the fifteenth century, the Baroque-style Piazza Navona is one of the most charming and popular squares in Rome. The square is built on the former ‘’Stadium of Domitian’’, a horseshoe-shaped arena for foot races built in the 1st century AD. In the square, there are three magnificent fountains - Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, the Fontana del Moro, and the Fontana del Nettuno.

3. 3

   Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi

   15min

   Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers) is a fountain in the Piazza Navona in Rome. It was designed in 1651 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini for Pope Innocent X whose family palace, the Palazzo Pamphili, faced onto the piazza as did the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone of which Innocent was the sponsor. The base of the fountain is a basin from the center of which travertine rocks rise to support four river gods and above them, a copy of an Egyptian obelisk surmounted with the Pamphili family emblem of a dove with an olive twig. Collectively, they represent four major rivers of the four continents through which papal authority had spread: the Nile representing Africa, the Danube representing Europe, the Ganges representing Asia, and the Río de la Plata representing the Americas.

4. 4

   Campo De' Fiori

   15min

   The Campo dei Fiori in the morning it's a bustling marketplace, that transforms into a nightlife centre in the evening, all amid a beautiful setting steeped with history. Piazza Campo dei Fiori was the place where executions were carried out. A statue in the centre of the piazza commemorates Giordano Bruno, it was created in 1888 and placed in the centre of the piazza at the exact location of his execution.

5. 5

   Trevi Fountain

   15min

   Trevi Fountain is the most beautiful and most spectacular fountain in Rome. There is also a curious tradition regarding the Trevi Fountain. It is said that if you throw a coin over your shoulder into the water, you will be sure to return to Rome!

6. 6

   Pantheon

   15min

   The Pantheon is without any doubt one of the best preserved ancient monuments in Rome. It is a wonderful example of the reutilization from a Christian perspective of a sacred building consecrated to all Gods. It stands in the heart of the ancient Campus Martius, in one of the lowest parts of Rome, and its imposing facade dominates the southern side of Piazza della Rotonda. In 1870 the Pantheon became the shrine of the kings of Italy and hosts the mortal remains of Victor Emanuel the Second, Humbert the First, and Margaret of Savoy and also Raffaello Sanzio, the supreme artist of the Renaissance, is buried in the Pantheon. Admission fee is around 5€ per person.

7. 7

   Piazza Della Rotonda

   15min

   The square faces the Pantheon and the monument characterises it in such a way that many Romans don’t even know its name: they simply call it “the square of the Pantheon”. During the 19th century, the piazza was especially noted for its market of bird-sellers, who brought their cages with live parrots, nightingales, owls, and other birds into the piazza

8. 8

   Fontana del Pantheon

   15min

   In the center of the piazza there is a fountain, the Fontana del Pantheon, surmounted by an Egyptian obelisk. The Fountain was commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII and is located in the Piazza della Rotonda, Rome, in front of the Roman Pantheon. It was designed by Giacomo Della Porta in 1575 and sculpted out of marble by Leonardo Sormani.The Fontana del Pantheon was commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII and is located in the Piazza della Rotonda, Rome, in front of the Roman Pantheon. It was designed by Giacomo Della Porta in 1575 and sculpted out of marble by Leonardo Sormani.

Before you go

Location