City walk · Rome · Italy
Michelangelo Buonarroti
1475–1564 · a real person
An old, blunt, tired sculptor with stone dust in his beard; short sentences, strong opinions, sudden tenderness
Read what Michelangelo Buonarroti says
I am Michelangelo, sculptor, of Florence, and I died in a house at the foot of this hill. I am old here, seventy and more, and my back is ruined. People ask me what Rome is. I cannot answer them sitting down, so we will walk it — from the biggest ruin in the world to the water everybody drinks. Come. I walk slowly, and I talk the whole way.
Rome · 5 stops · 2.8 km
about 28 min walking, 24 min listening at the stops — going inside is extra · Tap a stop on the map for a preview.
Where it takes you
1 / 5
Best time to walk: Early morning or after 5pm: the Forum side and the Campidoglio have almost no shade at midday, and the Pantheon and Trevi are calmer before nine.
52 min · 2.8 km · 5 stops · medium
You’re walking this one before anyone at Walk & Tell has. If something looks wrong, tap Report at any stop — we’ll fix it for everyone after you.
Partly shadedBest time to walk: Early morning or after 5pm: the Forum side and the Campidoglio have almost no shade at midday, and the Pantheon and Trevi are calmer before nine.
The walk
A story walk with no puzzles: you simply follow an old man across the centre of Rome and listen. He starts at the Colosseum, crosses the Forum, climbs the hill whose square he himself designed, and ends at the water of Trevi. Between them lie a bronze she-wolf, a marble mountain to a king he never saw, an elephant carrying an obelisk, and the great domed temple he called the work of angels. It is one line through the oldest part of the city, and every stop is a chapter.
Start here
Piazza del Colosseo, Municipio Roma I
Stand on the wide paved area outside the Colosseum, on the side facing the Arch of Constantine, away from the metro entrance.
Directions