Hidden Rome Walking Tour

You will explore an extraordinary archaeological area off the beaten track. The itinerary starts with the visit of the forum Boarium, the ancient market of the cattle.   Here we will explore the sacred area of Sant’ Omobono dedicated to Etruscan goddesses Fortuna e Mater Matuta. We will later explore the temples of Vesta and Portunus. The itinerary will go on with the visit of the “foro Olitorium”, the ancient vegetable market. Here we will go down to the underground of the Church of San Nicola in Carcere which preserves the remains of three republican temples dedicated to Juno, Spes and Janus.   Later we will explore the archaeological area of the theatre of Marcellus , the first theatre of Rome built by the emperor Augustus in honour of his nephew  Marcello . Finally, we will take a walk into the jewish getto district.  The word “ghetto” derives from the venetian “gheto”, the district of the foundry of Venice where the Jewish lived during the XIV century. The Roman ghetto is today one of the most fascinating and ancient districts of Rome.. In 1899 the area was chosen for the construction of the main synagogue of Rome so that today the ghetto is still the lively centre of the Jewish community. At lunch we will stop at the Gigetto restaurant one of the most celebrated restaurants of romano-giudaic tradition inserted into the Roman columns of the Porticus Octaviae.  Here you can taste the exquisite fried  “carciofi all giudia”, crispy outside and soft inside, and a range of excellent dishes such as pasta alla gricia , matriciana , cacio e pepe and the superb creamy pasta “alla carbonara”. If we still have some energy after lunch we can have a look at the nearby Tiber Island. Since antiquity the island has been linked to the rest of Rome by two bridges, and was once called Insula Inter-Duos-Pontes which means “the island between the two bridges”. In ancient times, before Christianity spread through Rome, Tiber Island was avoided because of the negative stories associated with it. Only the worst criminals and the contagiously ill were condemned there. This however changed when a  temple of the medicine god Asclepius was built on the island by the Romans.