After getting picked up at your hotel by your guide, head to the ancient Capitoline Hill. This jagged outcrop has served as the backdrop for battles, celebrations, and legends since the city's foundation some 2,750 years ago. Today, you can see historically overlapping buildings from various eras and Michelangelo's Piazza del Campidoglio, a masterpiece of Renaissance design characterized by splendid architecture and extraordinary harmony. From atop the Capitoline Hill, enjoy a spellbinding view of the valley of the Roman Forum, once the center of ancient Rome, with its amazing array of temples, basilicas, colonnades, and roads. Listen carefully and you can hear the stirrings of crowds incited by Cicero, Julius Caesar, Marc Antony and the other great orators of the classical world. From there, make your way to the Colosseum, an iconic and imposing monument that was built at the height of the city's wealth and power. Learn about its construction techniques and uncover the history of the gladiators. Discover why these men were compelled to forge a precarious existence on the sands of the arena, and why the games remained so popular for over three centuries. From here, head to Piazza Venezia with its Monument to Victor Emmanuel and The Trevi Fountain, symbol of the “dolce vita”. Be bewitched by its melodic play of water and its many stories and legends. Then head to the Pantheon to admire its beauty and awe-inspiring architecture, before heading to your final stop, Piazza Navona. Be cast into yet another time and city: the city of the popes and the heart of the Baroque. See the Fountain of the Four Rivers and the Church of Saint Agnes and learn more about Bernini's ingenious ideas and his legendary rivalry with Borromini, the two great architects/sculptors of the Baroque.
