Horse carriage tour of the squares of 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 Spanish Steps – Piazza di Spagna, in front of the Barcaccia fountain designed by Pietro Bernini and his well-known son Gian Lorenzo in 1629. You will go through the characteristic narrow streets of the city reaching the Mausoleum of Augustus and Ara Pacis Augustae: an altar dedicated to Peace by August in the year 9 B.C. As you cross Cavour Bridge, the carriage will ride around Palace of Justice, commonly known as Palazzaccio (the ugly building) named this way by the Romans because of its excessive lavishness and gigantic proportions. Riding toward the next bridge, Umberto I, you can admire the magnificence of Castel Sant’Angelo and St. Peter’s Basilica.
At that point the carriage will go back to the city center to stop by Piazza Navona where it will be possible to take pictures of the famous Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers and the splendid church of Sant’Agnese in Agone. The carriage will then reach the Pantheon, a circular building dedicated to all past and present divinities, where you can find the tombs of some kings of Italy and that of Raffello Sanzio. Riding through Piazza Sant’Ignazio and Tempio di Adriano you will reach Piazza Colonna, named after the column of Marco Aurelio placed in the middle of the square, where you can see Palazzo Chigi (House of Italian Parliament) and Montecitorio (Chamber of Deputies). The tour will end at Piazza di Spagna, in front of the spectacular Spanish Steps of Trinità dei Monti.