Uncover the city’s living history. Rione maps Rome’s ancient quarters dynamically — unlocking subterranean layers, hidden stories and local secrets right where you stand.
Dynamic, interactive boundaries of all of Rome’s historical rioni, colour-coded and tappable.
Every monument with photos, history and the stories beneath the stones.
It began as a tomb. Between 135 and 139 AD the emperor Hadrian raised this colossal cylindrical mausoleum on the right bank of the Tiber as a resting place for himself and his successors; emperors were interred here for nearly a century. Stripped of its marble and crowning statues, the mighty drum proved too useful to abandon — and so it became, in turn, a fortress, a prison, a barracks, and a refuge for the popes.
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Running along the top of the medieval wall between the Vatican and Castel Sant'Angelo, the Passetto — "the little passage" — is an elevated, fortified corridor about 800 metres long, built so that a pope in danger could slip from his palace to the safety of the castle without ever touching the street.
This broad avenue sweeping up to St Peter's is the youngest "monument" in the rione — and the most controversial. Until the 1930s the basilica was approached through the "Spina di Borgo", a dense tangle of medieval lanes that hid the great dome until you burst suddenly into Bernini's oval piazza, a deliberately staged surprise.
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