Horse carriage tour of the Ancient Rome

Departure time: on demand

What's included:

• Guest assistance

What's not included:

• Transfer from/to hotel

The Botticella (small barrel) is the roman name for this attraction: a horse-drawn carriage very popular in the tourist areas of Rome. You can see them around the city with groups of tourists on board admiring the most suggestive corners of the city center. The word “Botticella” comes from “botte” (barrel): the carriages were used to carry barrels of various items, when fuel-powered means of transport where yet to exist and there was no other way to move heavy stocks. At the beginning of the century they were used as a public transport comparable to our modern taxi.
The tour will start from the Colosseum, the world’s biggest amphitheater. In 1980, Unesco has added it to the list of World Heritage. Its construction started in 72 B.C. and ended 8 years later. It would contain between 50 and 75 thousand spectators. Riding through the Arch of Costantine the carriage will take you to Circus Maximus, which is the ancient roman circus, a venue for the games since the origin of the city. Going there, on the right you will admire the beauty of the Palatine Hill.
After a short while the carriage will ride through the Theatre of Marcellus, founded by Augustus, is one of the most ancient open-air theatre built in the closing years of the Roman Republic, where locals and visitors alike could watch performances of drama and songs. Going towards Piazza Venezia, you will see the Campidoglio, also called Capitoline Hill, one of the seven hills in which Rome was founded, now used as the town hall. You will also see the Basilica of St. Mary of the Altar of Heaven, built on the ruins of the Temple of Juno Moneta. You will then arrive at Piazza Venezia where you can find the Altare della Patria – Altar of the Fatherland (ironically called the “typewriter” or “wedding cake”), commissioned by King Vittorio Emanuele II in 1861 to celebrate the unity of Italy and inaugurated by King Vittorio Emanuele III in 1911. Inside the monument there is the tomb of Milite Ignoto, in honor of the fallen soldiers during the First World War. The carriage will cross the famous Imperial Forum, originally a necropolis and later transformed in the heart of the city, with temples and cathedrals, the Curia and the Domus of Pontifex Maximus. The tour will end in front of the Colosseum.