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.
A modest Baroque church on a busy street, Santa Maria della Vittoria hides one of the supreme works of European sculpture. In the Cornaro Chapel, Gian Lorenzo Bernini staged his "Ecstasy of Saint Teresa" (1647–52) as total theatre: the saint swoons back on a cloud as a smiling angel prepares to pierce her heart with a golden arrow, while hidden light pours down from a concealed window and gilded bronze rays seem to vibrate around them.
Beneath the dignified 19th-century rione lie the remains of the "Gardens of Sallust", one of the most luxurious pleasure-grounds of ancient Rome. Created by the historian Sallust around 40 BC with the fortune he made (and was accused of extorting) as governor of a province, the gardens were so splendid that they later passed into imperial ownership and became a favourite retreat of emperors.
Properly the Fontana dell'Acqua Felice, this monumental fountain (1585–88) was built to mark the end of the first new aqueduct constructed in Rome since antiquity, the Acqua Felice, commissioned by the energetic Pope Sixtus V to bring water back to the long-dry hills.