Visiting Rome has always been a challenge for the tour guides of Rome who must not only have a degree in art history or archaeology but also have studied deeply the history of Rome.



In fact today customers with Internet and more information at disposal want to know more about Rome like, "how old was Julius Caesar when he was assassinated" or "how many people live in the vatican". Many interesting questions are asked by the customers and this means that only a private tour of Rome can solve the intricacies of the history of Rome which covers a period of 3000 years.

For example it's good to know that the city of Rome was governed by the seven kings of Rome which begun with Romulus and ended with the tyrannic rule of the Etruscan kings.The Etruscan kings brought to Rome in the VII century BC a lot of manpower to embellish the early city but also to give to Rome a sewage system that the modern population uses still today.

The Cloaca Maxima was the first giant sewer built in early Rome to dry and to collect the water coming from the marshes of the seven hills and from the rain:this massive underground tunnel allowed the Romans to walk in their first square: the Roman Forum.

The Roman Forum is situated among the modern Piazza Venezia square and the Colosseum:it is still today the second most visited place in Rome after the Vatican City and one of the most important archaeological sites in the world. Three thousand years ago, this valley between Campidoglio and the Quirinal, which was to become the future social and political centre of one of the greatest empires of ancient times, was submerged in marshland.

Forum Romanum was the name that the Romans gave to the central square of the urban settlement and we must try to imagine this busy, crowded place as the pulsing centre of a modern city. Here the masses would flock to see the meetings of the orators, attend criminal trials and discuss internal politics or the latest military campaigns, or quite simply to comment on the games or running races (an activity that the Romans particularly enjoyed).

In the area around the Forum, the city was also home to markets, shops and taverns. You could also find the typical Termopolia, which were the ancient equivalent of today's fast food restaurants.

Three triumphal arches were built on the forum. They were used by emperors to commemorate their victories. The first one, constructed by Augustus, does not exist anymore. The Arch of Titus, built in AD 81 AD commemorates the victory in the Jewish War. It is located at the Via Sacra on the eastern side of the forum. At the other end of the forum, near the capitoline hill is the Arch of Septimius Severus. It was built in AD 203 to commemorate the victory over the Parthians.

In short, the Forum was the heart and soul of city life. It was in Caesar's time, when Rome has become the capital of a vast empire, that the Forum became a place for celebrations and in the Imperial era it was the symbol of the Empire.