Welcome to Rome

Rome wasn't built in a day — but you can explore it in 30 minutes. Founded in 753 BC (legend says by twin brothers Romulus and Remus, raised by a she-wolf), Rome grew from a cluster of hilltop villages into the capital of an empire that stretched from the misty shores of Britain to the sun-baked sands of Egypt. For nearly 3,000 years, this city has been continuously inhabited, conquered, rebuilt, and reinvented.

What makes Rome extraordinary is the layers. A medieval church built on top of a Roman temple. A Renaissance palace built into the curved wall of an ancient theater. A 2,000-year-old column standing in a piazza where you can buy gelato from a shop that has been open since your grandparents were born. You can literally touch a marble column that Julius Caesar walked past, then turn the corner and eat the best cacio e pepe of your life at a trattoria with plastic chairs.

Over the next eight stops, you will walk through the arena where gladiators fought for their lives, stand where Caesar was cremated, look up through an ancient hole in the sky, toss a coin into the most famous fountain on Earth, gaze at a ceiling that took a genius four agonizing years to paint, and wander the cobblestone streets of a neighborhood that feels like time forgot it. Andiamo — let's go!