Rome by Night Walking Tour

Overview

Two hours on foot through the oldest inhabited quarter of Rome after dark, ending near the best-preserved building the Romans left standing. About ninety minutes of that is actual walking; the rest is standing still while something is explained, which is the correct ratio for this part of the city.

The quarter was chosen because it flooded

In 1555 a papal bull confined the city's Jewish residents to a few streets in the bend of the river, walled, with gates locked from dusk to dawn. The site was not incidental. It was the lowest ground in Rome and it flooded most winters, so the district lived with damp, disease and severe overcrowding for three centuries. The walls came down only in 1870, when papal rule over the city ended. The community itself is far older than that confinement — it has been here since before the destruction of the Second Temple, which makes it the longest continuously settled Jewish population in Europe.

The brass stones underfoot

You will start noticing small brass squares set into the paving outside doorways, each carved with a name, a date of birth and a date of deportation. There are hundreds in these few streets. They record the raid of 16 October 1943, when over a thousand people were taken from this quarter in a single morning. Sixteen came back. The stones are deliberately placed where you must look down to read them.

Fried twice

The local cooking is its own tradition, distinct from anything else Italian, and its emblem is an artichoke pressed flat and fried in two stages so the outer leaves crisp like paper while the heart stays soft. The dialect spoken here was its own too, a mix of Roman speech and Hebrew, still audible in the names on the restaurant menus.

The turtles were an afterthought

The small fountain in the quiet square nearby was finished without them; the four turtles were added around seventy years later, generally credited to Bernini. The story attached to it is that a duke who had gambled away his fortune had the whole thing built overnight beneath his fiancée's window to prove he could still accomplish something, then had the window bricked up so nobody else would ever see it from that angle. The bricked window is still there.

The fish had to hand over its head

Set into the ancient portico at the edge of the quarter is a medieval plaque ordering that any fish longer than the marked line must have its head surrendered to the city magistrates. The fish market operated here among the Roman columns for centuries; the heads went into the councillors' soup.

The building with the wrong name on it

The great portico at the end of the route carries an inscription crediting Agrippa, who built the original. The one you are looking at is Hadrian's replacement, and he left the earlier name in place, as he did on everything he rebuilt. The columns are single pieces of Egyptian granite, quarried in the desert and floated down the Nile. At night the square empties and you can see the whole thing without a crowd in front of it.

How to tell real gelato

Look for muted colours and covered metal tubs rather than bright mounds piled high. Banana should be grey, pistachio dull khaki, and nothing should be neon. Air and vegetable fat make the peaks; the good stuff cannot hold a shape.

Practicalities

The route is cobbled throughout and the evening air turns cool, so bring a layer. Departure is from a stated meeting place, and commentary runs in English and Spanish. Cancellation is free up to a day ahead.