Compare Rome: Study Tour by Academy Travel

Day 1: Arrive

Meals: Dinner

The tour begins in the lobby of our apartments this afternoon, where we meet for an orientation walk of the local neighbourhood with your tour leader. After time to settle in, we have dinner in a local restaurant.

Day 2: The Layers of Rome

Millennia of building, rebuilding, adapting and recycling can make it difficult to see Rome’s history clearly through its monuments. Adding to the complexity is the way the city and its monuments have been used to serve different agendas over the centuries. This morning, after a lecture, we have a guided tour of the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine – made partly from new work and partly from old works pressed into service of the new emperor –  and the Roman Forum. Centuries of building have accumulated here – from Republican buildings such as the Senate and House of the Vestal Virgins, to gigantic imperial monuments, such as the Temple of Venus and Rome and the Basilica of Maxentius. Much of the area’s present appearance, however, comes from Mussolini’s decision to dig no further than the forum of Julius Caesar, and to separate the forum complexes with a triumphal road of his very own. In the afternoon, there is the option of continuing the tour to San Pietro in Vincoli, to see Michelangelo’s Moses, and to San Clemente – a 12th-century church, beneath which is a 4th-century church and a 1st-century Roman house and a mithraeum.

Day 3: Roman art and Design

The Romans’ love of Greek culture is nowhere more evident than in the art of the Hellenic world they brought back home or had copied. The Greek influence on Roman art, however, is only part of the story. Roman art was also heavily influenced by Etruscan culture and, as the empire expanded, new styles were imported and appropriated. This morning, after a lecture, we visit the Capitoline Museums, one of the world’s finest collections of classical sculpture. The collection, which was established in the 15th century, includes some of the best finds from Rome and its surrounds, from the realism of the Etruscan-influenced statue of Brutus, to the imperial monuments of Marcus Aurelius and Constantine. In the afternoon, there is the option of visiting Palazzo Massimo, another of Rome’s great collections of antiquities, which has 1st-century frescoes from Livia’s imperial villa, and excellent collections of mosaics, jewellery and coinage. In the early evening, there is a lecture on Rome in Late Antiquity.

Day 4: The Coming of Christianity

Christianity had been practised in Rome since the 1st century CE, but it was not until the 4th century that it left great monuments. Most of the churches of Late Antiquity were replaced in the grand rebuilding projects of the 1100s and 1500s, but the ones that have survived tell us much about Christian Romans’ attitudes to their heritage. This morning we visit Santa Pudenziana, one of the oldest surviving churches in Rome. This church, from the 400s, is built into a 1st-century bath and contains excellent 5th-century mosaics. The naturalism in these mosaics shows how early Christians adopted Roman aesthetics. They are a stark contrast to the 8th-century mosaics in nearby Santa Prassede, which reflect the dominance of Byzantium, whose style came to define medieval Italian art. Our tour continues to Santa Costanza, a 4th-century mausoleum-church for Constantine’s daughter Helena, whose mosaics incorporate both Christian and pagan motifs, and Sant’Agnese fuori le mura, a 7th-century church commissioned by Pope Honorius I. This church was built above the top

of the catacombs of St Agnes to replace the monumental church built by Constantine, the ruins of which are testament to the scale of Constantine’s ambitions. The afternoon is free.

Day 5: Medieval Rome

The decline of the Empire and the resulting wars in Italy reduced Rome’s population to about a hundredth of what it had been. The population retreated to a small pocket on the Tiber, where they fortified themselves among the ruins of a glorious past. The city remained significant, however, because of the presence of the papacy, over which Roman aristocratic families fought for control. When the papacy became more centralised in the High Middle Ages, it set about consolidating itself through rebuilding larger, grander churches throughout the city and decorating them with Cosmatesque floors and golden mosaics. The art and architecture of these new Romanesque churches in many ways defined how ‘medieval’ looks. After a lecture this morning, we explore medieval Rome on foot, beginning at Santa Maria in Cosmedin, an 8th-century church that was significantly remodelled in the 12th century after it was sacked by the Normans, and ending at Santa Maria in Trastevere, one of Rome’s most beautiful churches. The districts in between are an excellent place to examine how the ancient city was transformed in the Middle Ages. The afternoon is free, and you may wish to walk up the Janiculum Hill for its panoramic views over Rome and Bramante’s masterpiece, the Tempietto.

Day 6: Renaissance Rome

In the 15th century, the Popes began to systematically restore Rome to its magnificence. Artists, architects, engineers and intellectuals were brought in from around Italy to work on this project, which included rebuilding roads and aqueducts, to cataloguing newly discovered antiquities and creating new masterpieces to adorn the city, its churches and palaces. The wealth that cardinals and bankers brought to the city was phenomenal and, to get ahead, one needed to spend it tastefully. After a lecture this morning, we explore the Renaissance city, starting at Villa Farnesina, the fashionable party house of Agostino Chigi, a papal financier, who commissioned Raphael to paint a series of secular frescoes. We continue our walking tour of the heart of the Renaissance city and its palaces, stopping to visit Campo dei Fiori, the Pantheon and Piazza Navona. The afternoon is free. You may wish to explore some of the many fine smaller galleries and museums in this area or visit some of the Renaissance churches with your tour leader.

Day 7: Ostia Antica

Meals: Dinner

Rome today gives very little sense of life in the ancient city. This morning we take the train to Ostia Antica. In its heyday, from the 1st century BCE to the 4th century CE, the population of this town worked the harbour, through which ships from Sicily, north Africa and Egypt supplied Rome with grain. The city was abandoned in the early Middle Ages, partly because of the decline in trade and partly because of the risk posed by Saracen pirates. Its location on the mouth of the Tiber (which is now three kilometres to the west) led to it being covered in silt. Consequently, it is an exceptionally well-preserved site and is free of the crowds that flock to Pompeii. The afternoon is free and there is a lecture in the early evening followed by dinner in a local restaurant.

Day 8: Caravaggio, Bernini and Baroque Rome

Raphael and Michelangelo left an indelible mark on Western art history, but their deaths also created a vacuum. In Rome, leading families with an eye on the papal tiara were searching for the next great artists, in the hope that the kudos they would gain from association with genius would add to their social and cultural capital. Sculpture was especially useful, as monuments and fountains throughout the city were a testament to one’s role as provider to the community and as a man of taste. One needed to get it right – the city was a hotbed of gossip, political intrigue and malcontent, as the life of Caravaggio and the reputation of Pope Urban VIII suggest. This morning, after lectures on Caravaggio, Bernini and Borromini, we explore Baroque Rome on foot, including visits to the Cornaro Chapel to admire Bernini’s extraordinary St Teresa of Avila, Borromini’s early masterpiece, San Carlino, and the Trevi Fountain. After a break for lunch, we focus on the works of Caravaggio in situ, including the Calling of St Matthew, the Conversion of St Paul and the Madonna of Loreto. In the late afternoon, there is the option of continuing the tour to the Galleria Doria-Pamphilj, a fine art collection displayed as it was intended to be seen in the baroque period, with works by Caravaggio, Titian, Jan Breughel and Velasquez’s Portrait of Innocent X.

Day 9: Galleria Borghese

Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the nephew of Pope Paul V, was an avid collector and an adept talent-spotter: he was a major patron of Caravaggio and took a teenage Bernini under his wing. The villa he commissioned on what was then the edge of Rome, surrounded by gardens, was designed to show off his famous collection, which includes Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne, the world’s largest collection of Caravaggio, and masterpieces by Titian, Bellini, Raphael and Antonello da Messina. We spend this morning at the Galleria Borghese. The afternoon is free, and there is the option of exploring the different sides of Rome’s modernity, including a visit to the house and studio of Giorgio De Chirico, and to the Foro Olimpico, where we see how Mussolini was inspired by Rome’s past.

Day 10: Tivoli

Meals: Lunch

Ancient Rome has provided a constant source of inspiration for artists and architects. The interest in all things Roman in the 15th and 16th centuries exploded, however, fuelled by the number of new discoveries made by people actively recovering buildings, coins and statuary from the ravages of time and soil. One of the most influential of these figures was Pirro Ligorio, an accomplished architect and antiquarian. Ligorio undertook extensive excavations of Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli, whose location had been discovered by the historian Flavio Biondo. The villa – a palatial complex sprawling over 80 hectares from which the empire could be governed – became one of the most famous sites in Europe, inspiring numerous buildings. Ligorio’s patrons – the Este – could, however, go much further. Having paid for the excavations, they had Ligorio install some of the discoveries in their own villa. The Villa d’Este also showcased Ligorio’s skill as a designer and engineer, and its extensive water features continue to delight visitors to this day. Today we travel by coach for a guided tour of Hadrian’s Villa, enjoy lunch in a superior restaurant, and visit the Villa d’Este. We return to Rome in the late afternoon, when we have a lecture.

Day 11: The Vatican Museums and St Peters

Meals: Dinner

As the de facto rulers of Rome, Renaissance popes were in an ideal position to amass extraordinary collections of art and antiquities. That the papacy would be heavily invested in the discovery and preservation of non-Christian works is a result of their own humanist educations and the number of leading scholars and classicists who filled the ranks of the papal curia. The collections, which have been growing since their establishment 500 years ago, are extraordinarily vast and include some of the most significant ancient sculptures – the Laocoon and the Belvedere Torso have inspired generations of artists, including Michelangelo and Bernini – and some of the world’s most recognisable paintings, such as the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. This morning we have a guided visit of the Museums, followed by free time for individual exploration. In the late afternoon, we meet again to tour St Peters, with its masterpieces by Bernini and Michelangelo. In the evening, we enjoy dinner at a local restaurant.

Day 12: Departure

The tour ends this morning. Please check your individual travel plans for information about transfers.