Rome Then & Now: Immersive Self-Guided Audio Walking Tour

Highlights

• 21 narrated stories
• Interactive reconstructions
• Total flexibility

What's included

Itinerary

1. 1

   Colosseum

   15min

   *Exterior* Your first stop. Outside the amphitheatre, narration opens the tour with how the building worked on a games day: the crowd, the awnings, the machinery beneath the arena floor. Press and hold the screen to see the façade reconstructed as it stood in the 1st century.

2. 2

   Colosseum

   45min

   *Interior* Optional visit with your own ticket. The audio continues inside with chapters on the hypogeum, the seating hierarchy and the arena floor. If you prefer not to enter, the tour continues seamlessly to the next stop.

3. 3

   Palatine Hill

   30min

   Walk the hill where Rome placed both its legendary beginnings and its imperial palaces. From the terraces above the Forum, discover Romulus, the emperors who transformed the hill, and how the Palatine ultimately gave us the word “palace.” Includes narration from sub-stop at viewpoint of Circo Massimo

4. 4

   Arco di Tito

   15min

   At the head of the Via Sacra, the audio covers the triumph of AD 71 and the menorah carved inside the arch — the spoils of Jerusalem carried through Rome, sculpted where you're standing. (You will need a ticket, included in the same general Parco Archeologico entrance)

5. 5

   Roman Forum

   15min

   See the Roman Forum from a public viewpoint, no admission ticket required. From above, the scattered ruins become a city again as you identify the temples, basilicas and Via Sacra below. A Then & Now reconstruction helps reveal the Forum at its height, making this a perfect alternative for travelers who prefer not to enter the archaeological park.

6. 6

   Stop 6

   12min

   Three surviving vaults of what was once the largest roofed hall in Rome, including the times of Constantino. The audio explains how the building stood and what it held, and the reconstruction restores the missing roof above you.

7. 7

   Via Sacra

   8min

   The main street of ancient Rome, walked inside the Forum with your own ticket. Narration follows the road as triumphs did: prisoners, spoils and generals moving toward the Capitoline, over paving stones still rutted from traffic.

8. 8

   Tempio di Vesta

   10min

   The house of the priestesses who guarded Rome's sacred flame. The audio covers who the Vestals were, the privileges and the punishments, and how the ruins of their courtyard and statues fit together.

Before you go

Location