Rome Walk on the Families Who Fought Over the City, Tips Only

A walking tour of the centre organised around a single question: who paid for all this, and what were they trying to prove? The answer is families. Rome was shaped by a few dynasties competing with each other through architecture, and once the guide names them the buildings stop being a list. The route takes in Trajan's Column and Forum, the Vittoriano, the Palazzo Colonna, which belongs to the oldest and richest of those clans, and Santi Apostoli next door, where the Colonna are buried and a passage once led to the papal gardens. Then the Trevi Fountain, Sant'Ignazio with its painted illusions, the Pantheon, and Piazza Navona, where the guide tells the story of Olimpia Maidalchini, the sister-in-law of Innocent X who ran the papacy in all but name and whom Romans called La Pimpaccia, or the female pope. The format is worth knowing before booking: this is a tip-based tour. The guides are paid by what you give them at the end and nothing else, so you decide what the two hours were worth.