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([Augustus] found a city [Rome] of bricks and left a city of marble)

Rome, a radiant landscape from ancient to Christian times. All paths lead to Rome because Rome was once the centre of the ancient and Christian worlds, from where all radiated. On this six days visit we will visit Ostia antica, the ancient port of Rome, the Gianicolo hill. Then, the Forum Romanum, the true centre of ancient Rome. We will visit museums such as the Musei Capitolini and the Palazzo Massimo.

We will focus on the political and sacred landscape of Rome, through Augustus’ sacred and propagandist urbanism: his Mausoleum, the Ara Pacis (“Altar of Peace”) and the obelisk from Egypt he used for a gigantic sundial, and imitations of these ideas by later emperors: Trajan’s and Antoninus’ columns. We will go to the Villa Hadriana in Tivoli, a microcosm of the ancient Roman world in the 2nd cent. B.C. We will then visit Early Christian Rome: Coliseum, Catacombs, Santa Maria Maggiore, Santa Pudentiana, San Giovanni in Laterano and of course, the basilica of Saint-Peter and the Vatican museums