Everyday I see hundreds of thousands of tourist walking down the streets of Rome. Where, exactly? You already know it: Colosseum, Imperial Fora, Piazza di Spagna, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona, St. Peter’s Basilica, and dozens of churches, squares, streets and Roman ruins.
Tourist attractions in Rome are almost endless, and each of them deserves a visit. But the city offers just as many amazing spots that tourist ignore. And they deserve a bit of your time too, trust me.
So let’s ignore for a moment the travel guides, and let’s discover some amazing, unknown or underestimated places in Rome!
The House of the Owls
This place is hidden in Villa Torlonia, a large park in which the main house is famous as the residence of Mussolini. The House of the Owls is a tiny building in the park, was a princely residence and its architecture, its colors, its windows let it looks like a place came out of a fairy tale.
The name “House of the Owls” comes from the almost obsessive presence of the owl theme in the decorations and furnishings of the House wanted by the Prince Giovanni Torlonia, who lived in the House until his death in 1938, and who was a lover of esoteric symbols.
The atmosphere in this place is truly magical, and it’s the perfect place to take a break from the tourist crowds in Rome enjoying the quiet in the park and a bit of beauty.
The Orange Garden
This wonderful garden is just on the top of the Aventino Hill and, for this reason, it offers one of the best views on the city.
Full of orange trees (as the name suggest), it’s a picturesque and shining place, the ideal for a relaxing moment lying on the grass reading a book.
Unlike the other viewpoints you will find in your guidebook, the Orange Garden is very close to a metro station, so it’s very easy to reach it from any area in the city. You have no reasons to escape!
The Water Clock
This clock represents a unique piece of mechanical engineering and architecture, an experiment made by Giovanni Battista Embriaco, a friar of the Dominican Order, basing on a simple but revolutionary idea: to use the force of the water to move the pendulum. For this reason the clock tower is placed in the middle of a pond and, being decorated with wooden details and placed on a rock, it gives the idea to be exactly in the place it belongs to. Another “fairy tale spot” in the middle of Rome.
The Jewish ghetto
This is, in my opinion, one of the most charming area in Rome. Not only because it represents years of history, suffering and redemption, but also because it’s still the heart of the Jewish community in the city that, during the time, has built an important part of the Roman tradition. It’s a maze of sides streets ideal to walk, to get lost, and to be surprised every corner.
You can admire the Synagogue (one of the biggest in Europe), the St. Angelo in Pescheria Church, where Jewish people were obliged to take part in a Catholic Mass every Saturday, and the Turtle Fountain, one of the more beautiful in the city.
Rome’s Non-Catholic Cemetery
I let the best at the end! The Non-Catholic Cemetery is such a peaceful place, a mix of art, poetry and beauty that, trust me, will leave you amazed! Graves are pieces of art, and several famous people are buried here, including poets Keats and Shelley. It’s a very beautiful place to take a walk through art and nature: there are not only graves, but also several big green areas, with colorful flowers and cypress trees.
As Shelley wrote not long before being buried here, "It might make one in love with death, to think that one should be buried in so sweet a place".
So, are you ready to put aside your travel guide and start to explore the real soul of Rome? :)