Old Town
From the Capitoline Hill you have to go a bit north to the real center of Rome, Old Town, which takes up most of the triangular plane of the earth pressed into the bend of the Tiber above Corso Emanuele. In Roman times it was the Field of Mars (Campus Martius), a low riverside area with sports arenas located outside the ancient city, barracks and several temples. Later it became the heart of Renaissance Rome and today this part of the capital is full of attractions: among the incoherent maze of narrow streets and alleys, you can find both some of the best examples of classical and baroque heritage, and also get to know the life of the Italian street and experience nighttime adventures.
Eastern border of the historic center, Via del Corso, is the main artery of Rome, called via Lata in antiquity because of its exceptional width; currently on the street, cutting right through the city center, the largest stores are located. Via del Corso on one side forks into numerous shopping streets, leading to Piazza Spagna; on the other, the street grid extends all the way to the Tiber. Going north from Piazza Venezia we come across Palazzo Doria Pamphili on the left, one of the most beautiful rococo palaces in Rome, which now houses the Doria Pampfili Gallery (entrance from Piazza Coli. Romano; wt. i pt.-nd. 10.00-13.00; 3000 L). It is one of the many galleries open to the public and located in palaces, belonging to ancient Roman patrician families; probably the best, at least in terms of the quality of the collection. The Doria-Pamphili family still lives in part of the building and you can also visit the carefully selected apartments: a cosily furnished library, several salons filled with busts of family members and a ballroom - which lasts half an hour and at a price 2000 L is not worth it. The pictures in the gallery only have numbers and so you know what you are looking at, you need to purchase a catalog (3000 L). In the midst of a rich harvest, covering Rome's best cluster of Dutch and Flemish works, there are Caravaggio's canvases, and in one of them the chiaroscuro modeling resembles the method used by Michelangelo (it is even said, that Caravaggio painted this painting after visiting the Sistine Chapel). There is a painting by Velasquez in a small hall next to the main gallery, depicting the Pope from the Pampfili family, Innocentego X, an impatient individual looking impatiently at the viewer. The bust made by Bernini makes a completely different impression; the pope seems to burst out laughing.
The first block to the left after the palace leads to Piazza Sant'Ignazio, a bizarre square built up like a theatrical decoration and dominated by the façade of St.. Ignatius (Saint Ignatius; codz. 8.00-12.30 i 16.00-19.15). It is a spacious structure with a wonderful Pozzo baroque painting depicting the entrance of St.. Ignatius to paradise. The saint is not really buried here (it rests in the church of II Gesu a little further south), but it is worth visiting if only because of the illusionistic plafond with a false dome painted at the intersection of the naves. The ingenious treatment of perspective is best seen from the circle in the center of the nave (directly from below, the perspective just looks botched); the painting shows figures in action and at rest, conversations and silence, hypnotic looks from the classic front…
> Via di Seminario leads straight to the Pantheon (wt.-sb. 9.00-14.00, nd.
9.00-13.00; Free entrance) na Piazza della Rotonda. It is the only completely preserved building of ancient Rome, and next to the Colosseum, the most visually impressive. Although it was originally a temple, it was built during the reconstruction of the Field of Mars by Marek Agrippa, approx. 27 r. BC. - hence the inscription on the portico - the present building is the work of Emperor Hadrian, completed approx 125 r. n.e. To this day, it is considered a great architectural achievement; a dome with a larger diameter was built only in our century. Obok Sports Palace w EUR (erected for the Olympics in 1960 r.). The Pantheon is the largest building in Rome. Like other Roman monuments, in its time the temple was certainly more magnificent. W 609 r. the building was consecrated and dedicated to Santa Maria ad Martiri because of the bones of Christians found here. Soon after, the bronze ceiling was removed, and Pope Urban VIII took the bronze from the covering of the portico for the canopy cloth in the Basilica of St.. Peter and works at the Castel Sant'Angelo. (Interestingly, some of the bronze returned to the Pantheon, when, after reunification, the cannons were melted down on the tombstones of new Italian kings). Hadrian's engineering expertise can be best appreciated inside: the dimensions of the dome and the height of the building are perfectly equal, and the opening in the center of the dome transmitting beams of light into the dark interior is a full nine meters. The fact is what makes the biggest impression, that no spans or vaults supporting the whole are visible. They are integrated into the walls of the building. Of course, the interior was also richly decorated, coffered ceiling covered with stucco, and the niches full of statues of gods. Currently, in addition to the enormity of the building, the tomb of Raphael between the second and third chapels on the left is noteworthy, with the writer's inscription, Father Bembo: "During his lifetime, Nature was afraid, that he will overshadow her works, after death he is afraid, that the life itself will be lost ". The same sentiments may have been felt about the Pantheon itself.