End of Tour - What now?
Since you are viewing this page, we are making the assumption that you have followed the tour and are standing just outside of the church of Santa Pudenziana; which is the last location in this tour.
You have various options available to wrap up your day in this part of town.
Terminal Central
Terminal Central Train Station is just a few blocks away with access to Metro subway lines. It is marked on the Where am I map. As you get closer to the train station, tuck your map and iPad away so you don’t look like a tourist. There are a lot of beggars and people at Terminal Central; it is very busy. There is not a lot of help available to guide you to the Metro lines as they expect everyone to know what they are doing while at the train station; which a lot of us don’t.
Look for and follow the Metro Line signs hanging from the ceiling. You will descend a few flights of stairs or escalators.
To buy a Metro ticket, look for a ticket machine opposite to the Metro entrance gates. Selection buttons on the ticket machine to let you pick your language of choice. Be careful if you buy the 24 hour ticket. The 24 hour ticket is not good for 24 hours from the time of purchase. It is only good until midnight of the day of purchase.
When you get on a train or bus be sure your knapsacks and other valuables are secured and in front of you. Don’t keep anything on your back. Don’t keep your wallet in your back pocket. Keep everything in front of you close to your chest.
Rome Metro Line Information
Taxi
If you prefer to take a taxi home, head toward the train station. There are usually taxis parked in a line on one side of S. M. Maggiore. The first in the line is the one to take. It doesn’t matter if you prefer the driver in the third car back for whatever reason; you will be sent to the front of the line. Check the price with the driver before you get in. Once you’re in, be sure to put on your seatbelt.
Food
If you feel like eating before you do anything else, you are in the right place. This neighbourhood is filled with wonderful restaurants. Many of them have tourist or pizza specials which are reasonably priced. The majority of the servers speak English as well as Italian, so it is easy to place your order. The servers are friendly and helpful and the food is good. Be sure to check out the seafood on their menus. The restaurants farther away from the train station are not as busy as those that are closer to the train station.
Grocery Store (Il Castoro Supermercati - Santa Maria Maggiore)
If you would like to explore an Italian grocery store, there is one across the road from Santa Maria Maggiore. It is marked with a blue circle on the map below. The grocery store is on the lower level, take the stairs or escalator down. If you don’t have your own grocery bag you will be charged 15 cents for one. This is the best place to pick up water, power drinks, wine, beer, fruit, etc., as it is priced for locals. You might also like to try some olives, cheese and local bread. If you haven’t tried “fizzy” water yet, this is the cheapest place to buy it. Single bottle water prices are between 17 and 50 cents. It is fun to spend time wandering in this store reading labels and trying to figure out what everything is. If you find jars of Pistachio Paste, be sure to buy a few to take home for souvenirs!
Rest
If you have time in your day you may want to go back to one of the churches you’ve already been to and sit on a pew for a while; this will get you out of the sun and provide another chance to view the mosaics. If you didn’t sign up for the paid tour in S. M. Maggiore to see the mosaics in the upper portico on the front of the building, you may want to check it out at this time. The paid tour is the only method to see Bernini’s staircase. You also get to see a bunch of pope robes and some special books.
Whatever you do, don’t sit on the front steps of S. M. Maggiore, it is not allowed and you might be told about it. You may however, head over to the fountain in the front of the church and sit on those steps. People-watch for a while, it’s a lot of fun.
Thank You
Thank you for joining us on this tour. We hope you shared in our joy and fascination of Mostly Roman and Early Christian Rome.
If you want to contact Mary here email address is: [email protected]
I can be reached at [email protected]
You have various options available to wrap up your day in this part of town.
Terminal Central
Terminal Central Train Station is just a few blocks away with access to Metro subway lines. It is marked on the Where am I map. As you get closer to the train station, tuck your map and iPad away so you don’t look like a tourist. There are a lot of beggars and people at Terminal Central; it is very busy. There is not a lot of help available to guide you to the Metro lines as they expect everyone to know what they are doing while at the train station; which a lot of us don’t.
Look for and follow the Metro Line signs hanging from the ceiling. You will descend a few flights of stairs or escalators.
To buy a Metro ticket, look for a ticket machine opposite to the Metro entrance gates. Selection buttons on the ticket machine to let you pick your language of choice. Be careful if you buy the 24 hour ticket. The 24 hour ticket is not good for 24 hours from the time of purchase. It is only good until midnight of the day of purchase.
When you get on a train or bus be sure your knapsacks and other valuables are secured and in front of you. Don’t keep anything on your back. Don’t keep your wallet in your back pocket. Keep everything in front of you close to your chest.
Rome Metro Line Information
Taxi
If you prefer to take a taxi home, head toward the train station. There are usually taxis parked in a line on one side of S. M. Maggiore. The first in the line is the one to take. It doesn’t matter if you prefer the driver in the third car back for whatever reason; you will be sent to the front of the line. Check the price with the driver before you get in. Once you’re in, be sure to put on your seatbelt.
Food
If you feel like eating before you do anything else, you are in the right place. This neighbourhood is filled with wonderful restaurants. Many of them have tourist or pizza specials which are reasonably priced. The majority of the servers speak English as well as Italian, so it is easy to place your order. The servers are friendly and helpful and the food is good. Be sure to check out the seafood on their menus. The restaurants farther away from the train station are not as busy as those that are closer to the train station.
Grocery Store (Il Castoro Supermercati - Santa Maria Maggiore)
If you would like to explore an Italian grocery store, there is one across the road from Santa Maria Maggiore. It is marked with a blue circle on the map below. The grocery store is on the lower level, take the stairs or escalator down. If you don’t have your own grocery bag you will be charged 15 cents for one. This is the best place to pick up water, power drinks, wine, beer, fruit, etc., as it is priced for locals. You might also like to try some olives, cheese and local bread. If you haven’t tried “fizzy” water yet, this is the cheapest place to buy it. Single bottle water prices are between 17 and 50 cents. It is fun to spend time wandering in this store reading labels and trying to figure out what everything is. If you find jars of Pistachio Paste, be sure to buy a few to take home for souvenirs!
Rest
If you have time in your day you may want to go back to one of the churches you’ve already been to and sit on a pew for a while; this will get you out of the sun and provide another chance to view the mosaics. If you didn’t sign up for the paid tour in S. M. Maggiore to see the mosaics in the upper portico on the front of the building, you may want to check it out at this time. The paid tour is the only method to see Bernini’s staircase. You also get to see a bunch of pope robes and some special books.
Whatever you do, don’t sit on the front steps of S. M. Maggiore, it is not allowed and you might be told about it. You may however, head over to the fountain in the front of the church and sit on those steps. People-watch for a while, it’s a lot of fun.
Thank You
Thank you for joining us on this tour. We hope you shared in our joy and fascination of Mostly Roman and Early Christian Rome.
If you want to contact Mary here email address is: [email protected]
I can be reached at [email protected]
Mary's Suggested Reading List
There are thousands of excellent books available about Rome. Mary’s list below provides books from her Art Historian perspective.
Beny, Roloff, and Gunn, Peter. The Churches of Rome. This attractive book boasts a scholarly, readable text and exquisite photographs. Gunn is primarily a travel and guide-book writer and, as such, includes a very helpful map and a useful list of all of the churches and their attractions.
Bussagli, Marco, ed. Rome: Art & Architecture. This is a grand coffee-table book with superb illustrations and texts describing the works of Roman art that we will visit.
Della Voragine, Jacopo. The Book of the Golden Legend. Jacopo della Voragine (c. 1230-1298) was an Italian chronicler and the Archbishop of Genoa. He wrote his famous tome about 1270, and it became one of the most popular religious works of the Medieval and Renaissance periods. It outlines the lives of the most popular saints of the era including those of Christ and his family. His stories, apocryphal and otherwise, were the source on which painters and sculptors based their works of art.
Duchet-Suchaut, G. and Pastoureau, M. The Bible and the Saints.There have been many books written on this subject in the last thirty years aimed at people who are interested in understanding the subject matter of Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque art. This is one of the best.
Durant, Will. The Age of Faith. My father gave me Will Durant’s books when I was an adolescent, and my fascination for the Middle Ages began at that moment. Scholarly,easily read and fascinating, this volume begins with Julian the Apostate and Constantine’s legacy and ends with Dante. It is superb bed-time reading.
Gardner, Helen. Art Through the Ages. Gardner’s book has been around for several decades, and with good reason. It was the undergraduate art-history text at many universities in Canada and elsewhere when I was a student in the ‘50s, and its many editions have served both students and art lovers well. It is highly readable, scholarly, well illustrated and much more complete than many other texts that have been offered along the way. If you do not own a general text on the history of art and would like to have one, this is the one I would recommend. Try to avoid buying it new. Amazon.ca and Amazon.com offer it used at an affordable price, but be sure that you are buying the whole book without the study note frills.
Grimal, Pierre. The Churches of Rome. This large, glossy volume is the most attractive book I have found that is dedicated strictly to Roman church architecture. Its text is good, and its illustrations are superb.
Hibbert, Christopher. Rome: The biography of a City. Like his biography of Florence, Hibbert’s Rome deals with the social, political, religious and economic history of the city from its mythological beginnings well into the 20th century. What makes Hibbert’s writing so compelling is his intimate approach to the people and the events that he describes.
Kessler, Herbert L., and Zacharias, Johanna. Rome 1300: On the Path of the Pilgrim. This scholarly and devout work deals with the first Jubilee in the year 1300 when Rome desperately needed such an event. It marked the very beginning of the city’s faltering recovery from the devastation of the Middle Ages.
King, Ross. Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling. The Vatican is not on our walking tour, but nonetheless, this is a must-read for any trip to Rome, real or arm-chair. It is the best book on Michelangelo’s amazing ceiling that I have read. It tells the complex story of the relationship between Pope Julius II and Michelangelo and includes plenty of gossip and information about Bramante and Raphael as well. Ross’s analysis of the master’s treatment of the subject matter and the complexities of the medium are thorough and easily understood.
Manchester, William. A World Lit Only by Fire. This is an informal history of the European Middle Ages that is always compelling because of Manchester’s vast knowledge and his intimate style. He scathingly posits, as the title suggests, that the Middle Ages are ten centuries of technological stagnation, short-sightedness, bloodshed, feudalism, and an oppressive church wedged between the golden ages of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance.
Masson, Giorgina. The Companion Guide to Rome. The Companion Guides are not the kind of books that you carry about a city and consult them when looking for restaurants or handsome palaces. They are scholarly, exhaustive and focus on the cultural attractions that the discerning visitor is in Rome to see and to understand.
Robb, Peter. M: The Man who Became Caravaggio. This extremely controversial biography of the very enigmatic painter who pops up again and again in Rome certainly captures the flavour of Counter-Reformation Rome.
Beny, Roloff, and Gunn, Peter. The Churches of Rome. This attractive book boasts a scholarly, readable text and exquisite photographs. Gunn is primarily a travel and guide-book writer and, as such, includes a very helpful map and a useful list of all of the churches and their attractions.
Bussagli, Marco, ed. Rome: Art & Architecture. This is a grand coffee-table book with superb illustrations and texts describing the works of Roman art that we will visit.
Della Voragine, Jacopo. The Book of the Golden Legend. Jacopo della Voragine (c. 1230-1298) was an Italian chronicler and the Archbishop of Genoa. He wrote his famous tome about 1270, and it became one of the most popular religious works of the Medieval and Renaissance periods. It outlines the lives of the most popular saints of the era including those of Christ and his family. His stories, apocryphal and otherwise, were the source on which painters and sculptors based their works of art.
Duchet-Suchaut, G. and Pastoureau, M. The Bible and the Saints.There have been many books written on this subject in the last thirty years aimed at people who are interested in understanding the subject matter of Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque art. This is one of the best.
Durant, Will. The Age of Faith. My father gave me Will Durant’s books when I was an adolescent, and my fascination for the Middle Ages began at that moment. Scholarly,easily read and fascinating, this volume begins with Julian the Apostate and Constantine’s legacy and ends with Dante. It is superb bed-time reading.
Gardner, Helen. Art Through the Ages. Gardner’s book has been around for several decades, and with good reason. It was the undergraduate art-history text at many universities in Canada and elsewhere when I was a student in the ‘50s, and its many editions have served both students and art lovers well. It is highly readable, scholarly, well illustrated and much more complete than many other texts that have been offered along the way. If you do not own a general text on the history of art and would like to have one, this is the one I would recommend. Try to avoid buying it new. Amazon.ca and Amazon.com offer it used at an affordable price, but be sure that you are buying the whole book without the study note frills.
Grimal, Pierre. The Churches of Rome. This large, glossy volume is the most attractive book I have found that is dedicated strictly to Roman church architecture. Its text is good, and its illustrations are superb.
Hibbert, Christopher. Rome: The biography of a City. Like his biography of Florence, Hibbert’s Rome deals with the social, political, religious and economic history of the city from its mythological beginnings well into the 20th century. What makes Hibbert’s writing so compelling is his intimate approach to the people and the events that he describes.
Kessler, Herbert L., and Zacharias, Johanna. Rome 1300: On the Path of the Pilgrim. This scholarly and devout work deals with the first Jubilee in the year 1300 when Rome desperately needed such an event. It marked the very beginning of the city’s faltering recovery from the devastation of the Middle Ages.
King, Ross. Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling. The Vatican is not on our walking tour, but nonetheless, this is a must-read for any trip to Rome, real or arm-chair. It is the best book on Michelangelo’s amazing ceiling that I have read. It tells the complex story of the relationship between Pope Julius II and Michelangelo and includes plenty of gossip and information about Bramante and Raphael as well. Ross’s analysis of the master’s treatment of the subject matter and the complexities of the medium are thorough and easily understood.
Manchester, William. A World Lit Only by Fire. This is an informal history of the European Middle Ages that is always compelling because of Manchester’s vast knowledge and his intimate style. He scathingly posits, as the title suggests, that the Middle Ages are ten centuries of technological stagnation, short-sightedness, bloodshed, feudalism, and an oppressive church wedged between the golden ages of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance.
Masson, Giorgina. The Companion Guide to Rome. The Companion Guides are not the kind of books that you carry about a city and consult them when looking for restaurants or handsome palaces. They are scholarly, exhaustive and focus on the cultural attractions that the discerning visitor is in Rome to see and to understand.
Robb, Peter. M: The Man who Became Caravaggio. This extremely controversial biography of the very enigmatic painter who pops up again and again in Rome certainly captures the flavour of Counter-Reformation Rome.