> 2010 Featured Excursion (May 12-19):
The Eternal City: my favorite walks
• small group - six maximum
• private apartment for two available
• booking closes January 30
Write to me for booking info. Book early - excursion limited to six participants.
Rome is the world’s largest archaeological site and a walker’s dream. A breathtaking mosaic of art, architecture and history is packed into a circle barely two miles wide, with lively piazzas, cafes, great restaurants, cosmopolitan shops and world-class museums. Close by, trail-laced parklands shelter ancient roads, villas, tombs and aqueducts. Through it all winds the Tiber River, washing the small island where Rome had its beginnings some 3000 years ago.
My love affair with the city has brought me back more than a dozen times in the last 20 years. Now, for the first time, I’m offering an excursion right in Rome. Not your average walking tour – just six in the group, and the walks are my personal creations, designed to give an organic sense of how Rome took shape over the millennia and developed into one of the world’s most beautiful cities. Stay in a charming bed and breakfast or a private apartment (see below), both located in the quiet Prati district, where the Romans like to shop. We’ll dine in restaurants that showcase the city’s wonderfully diverse cuisine.
Some themes for our walks:
• The Tiber: best place to visualize Rome’s early centuries
• Roman roads: arteries of empire
• A culture of water: the great aqueducts and their destinations
• Hard times: medieval Rome’s picturesque remnants
• Rebirth: how a Renaissance pope reshaped the city
• The city walls: defensive strategy from 500 BC to 1870
• Artists and architects: creating beauty on a grand scale
Walks will be mainly in the mornings and early evenings. After lunch you can rest, explore, go shopping, visit a museum, enjoy a gelato… it’s up to you. One day we’ll hop a train into the countryside for a walk – we’ll pass a Roman aqueduct hidden in the forest above a beautiful volcanic lake.
Walkers should carry a knapsack with water, sweater, raincoat, camera, etc.
Specially priced at 1600 Euros per person, double room occupancy, 1840 single (as of 10 December 1 Euro = US$1.47). Includes seven nights in a comfortable B&B (or apartment, subject to availability), three meals a day, local transportation and admission to selected museums and historical sites. Our meeting point is Rome. Air fare to Rome not included. Taxi service from the airport can be arranged. A $300 deposit will hold your space, refundable until 25 April. Payment by PayPal or personal check. Write to me for information or booking.
Latest news: Save 10% by joining The International Ecotourism Society (TIES). It’s free! Details at www.romanroadwalks.com
Booking closes 30 January 2010
I suggest arriving in Rome at least a day early to rest up from your flight and make contact with the group, allowing for flight delays or other glitches. Extra days in Rome and other locations can be arranged on request.
Remember, if this trip doesn't meet your needs you can also design your own excursion. It's easy - I'll help!
> Recommended Reading/Viewing
(available on Amazon.com)
This is the first of Saylor’s ROMA SUB ROSA series featuring Roman sleuth Gordianus the Finder. All of them are great reads - and they put you right in the middle of Rome’s turbulent life in the first century BC. A very entertaining way to get to know the city’s landmarks and arrangement before visiting.
McGregor has succeeded in organizing Rome’s overwhelmingly profuse offerings into an understandable scheme – no easy task. Rather than a catalogue of sights, it’s a very readable chronological narrative that flows as smoothly as the Tiber. Highly recommended.
This HBO series is dramatically gripping and visually stunning (if not always historically accurate), and the British actors are magnificent. If you can stomach the violence and sex (certainly real features of the times), you’ll meet the players in the fascinating political power struggles during the last days of the Republic.
> A cozy vacation apartment in central Rome
This recently refurbished apartment in a quiet neighborhood near the Vatican is ideal for a couple visiting Rome. It’s been beautifully renovated, the price is reasonable, and Alessandra is a wonderful host. Available for stays of three days or more. If you’d like to stay here for the May 2010 excursion, be sure to book early. Check it out at these two sites:
