Walks · Italy
Real places, told on your phone by someone who was there, as you walk to them.
Free · GPS-guided · works offline · your own pace
Rome · 52 min · 2.8 km · 5 stops
Told by Michelangelo Buonarroti
the sculptor of the Capitoline
An old sculptor walks from the Colosseum to the Trevi water, arguing with his city.
Colosseum
Roman Forum
Capitoline Wolf
Rome
Monument to Victor Emmanuel II
“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…”
ColosseumPantheonTrevi Fountain
When to go: 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.
Rome rewards walking more than any bus tour can, because the things to do in Rome on foot sit close together and change character block by block: the Colosseum's stone bulk, the half-buried Roman Forum, the Capitoline hill Michelangelo himself redesigned, and finally the crowds and water of the Trevi Fountain. A car or coach cuts straight past what makes the city work, which is the walking itself, uphill and down, past ruins that were once quarried like any building site.
Walk & Tell turns that walk into a self-guided audio guide narrated by Michelangelo Buonarroti, arguing with his own city in old age. GPS starts each stop as you arrive, the route takes about an hour, and it's free to try, with an offline download for anywhere signal drops. It suits a first visit to Rome, a spare afternoon between other plans, or anyone walking alone or as a couple who wants Rome in one day without booking a single ticket in advance.
Walk & Tell is a self-guided audio walking-tour app. Walks are free to try; download one for offline before you set out. All cities