Ancient Rome from the Outside: Colosseum to Circus Maximus

This walk is told entirely from outside the paid archaeological park of the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine: you do not go inside, no ticket is needed, and none is sold or bundled. Use it before or after a visit inside, or instead of one. From Piazza del Colosseo you will hear how an amphitheater rose on Nero’s private lake, and who paid for it, then read the Arch of Constantine and its borrowed statues, stand over the forums where Augustus built a temple for revenge and Mussolini cut a road, follow a war up Trajan’s Column, stop outside the cell where Rome strangled its enemies, look down from the Capitol on the place where a crowd burned Caesar’s body, meet the bronze emperor who, the usual story goes, survived because people took him for someone else, stand under the cliff of the traitors, find the twins and the wolf in legend at the foot of the Palatine, and end in the Circus Maximus, where Tacitus says the fire of 64 began, near the Circo Massimo metro. The ancient writers are quoted by name, every legend is labeled, and every claim is sourced.

The stops

1. The Colosseum: A Tyrant’s Lake for the People
2. The Arch of Constantine: A Battle at a Bridge
3. The Emperors’ Forums: A Temple for Revenge, a Road for a Dictator
4. Trajan’s Column: A War in a Spiral
5. The Mamertine Prison: The Cell Under the Capitol
6. The Forum from the Capitol: Where the Crowd Burned Caesar
7. Marcus Aurelius: The Emperor Saved by Another Name
8. The Tarpeian Rock: The Cliff and the Traitors
9. Via di San Teodoro: The Twins and the Wolf
10. The Circus Maximus: Chariots, Crowds and the Fire

Finding the start

Start on Piazza del Colosseo at the Colosseo metro station (line B, and Colosseo-Fori Imperiali on line C). Come up to the street and stand on the open paving between the metro exits and the west end of the Colosseum, facing the Colosseum.

Terrain and access

About 3.4 kilometers, mostly on sidewalks, squares and cobbled lanes, ending on gravel and grass in the Circus Maximus park. One climb of about 17 meters to the Capitol, with steps between stops 5 and 6 (a step-free way by Via delle Tre Pile is described, to be checked on site), and a cobbled, fairly steep descent on Via di Monte Tarpeo. Busy crossings with lights on Via dei Fori Imperiali, at Piazza Venezia, on Via della Consolazione and on Via dei Cerchi. Very little shade: carry water in summer. No admissions; every monument is seen from outside. The walk ends about 350 meters from the Circo Massimo metro station (line B), one stop from Colosseo.

Tickets

No admission is needed.

Keep going

• Rome After Dark
• Inside the Ring: One Square Mile That Ran an Empire

What you get

• An email from [email protected] with a link and an access code.
• Use it on your phone or tablet in an up-to-date web browser, no app store needed. There is no account to set up before you start.
• Download it on Wi-Fi before you go. After that it works offline: audio, text, map and pictures.
• Your booking includes 2 phones, so two of you can follow along, each on your own. Extra phones are $2.95 each, or a group can share one phone on its speaker.
• Play, pause and replay every part, skip back and ahead, or change the playback speed. Keep the screen on or tap play at each stop.

How it was made

Every fact in the narration is checked against a cited source, and legends are told as legends. The narration is written from that research. How our tours are made.

Image credits

• Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 1776; CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
• Unknown photographer, ca. 1855 – ca. 1870; CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
• Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1872; public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
• Eugène Constant, 1848 to 52; CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
• Giovanni Battista Piranesi, circa 1748; CC0, via Wikimedia Commons