Not only Piazza Navona

The Relais Arco della Pace is located right next to Piazza Navona, unmissable reference point of Roman architecture. But a few steps from here there are many extraordinary attractions, more or less known, that will leave you breathless.

You might want to be guided by the case when visiting Rome, to lose your way in the tangle of small streets in the center, or to be enchanted by the details that make Rome unique and speaking to each of us. For those who like to get lost in the Roman charm and influences, there is perhaps no better to start and arrival place than our hotel, located in the quiet Via della Pace, in the true historic center of Rome. For those who want to take advantage of the privileged location of our Relais to follow a path of discovery of the city, we have 6 tips of Roman art situated around Relais Arco della Pace to be discovered.
 

 

1 minute from our hotel: Chiostro del Bramante and Santa Maria della Pace

Extraordinary example of Renaissance architecture, designed and built as a cloister for the adjacent church of Santa Maria della Pace by Donato Bramante, is one of the pearls of the Roman historical center, a short walk from our hotel. Bramante, serving Pope Julius II, contested Michelangelo for the supremacy of design excellence and perfection in the very years in which in Rome were created the most magnificent architectures of the world.

A refined linear design and balance, perfectly adherent to the Renaissance aesthetic inspired by the classic ideal of eternal beauty inspired the construction of the cloister, once a place of prayer for the monks who lived on the top floor of the building, and which today houses the eponymous museum.

In the Chiostro del Bramante you can admire some temporary art exhibitions of international appeal. Here you can check the official program.

In the church of Santa Maria della Pace you can admire the work of Raphael Le Sibille, fresco painted by the artist in 1514 and commissioned by the Sienese banker Agostino Chigi. In the complex and turbulent composition, it speaks about the influence of Michelangelo on the artist.
 

5 minutes from our hotel - San Luigi dei Francesi

If you are fond of the painting of Caravaggio, do not miss a visit to the church of San Luigi dei Francesi, which houses three absolute masterpieces of the Lombard painter: The Martyrdom of St. Matthew, St. Matthew and the Angel and the Calling of St. Matthew. These works represent a fundamental point of artistic development of Caravaggio in reaching the perfection of dramatic depiction of feelings in human figures.
In the church, exaltation of France through the representation of its historical figures, there are many works of art from the Renaissance period.
 

9 minutes from our hotel – Pantheon

Pantheon was built in 27 BC as a temple for the deity of past, present and future by Agrippa, after the previous building built by Augustus was destroyed by fire. The magnificent building has a circular structure, known as "La Rotonda", or "Rotonna", on which rests a dome that is almost a miracle of architecture and construction technique, given the time when it was designed by an unknown architect. Still today, the dome of the Pantheon is one of the largest in the world, and the largest built in non-reinforced concrete. In Christian times it was turned into a minor basilica, with its own Capitolo (assembly members with regulatory authority). This peculiarity has partially saved the building from the transformation that the Popes operated on many Roman buildings.

The simplicity of the structure, preserved as per original, makes this place almost magical, imbued with regal solemnity atmosphere. Maybe that's why it was decided to bury here the kings of Italy.
 

3 minutes from our hotel: Piazza Navona

From our hotel along the picturesque Via Santa Maria and then turning on Via di Tor Millina, Piazza Navona opens like a dream. Extraordinary example of Baroque architecture, the origins of the square date back to Roman times, when here was the Stadium of Domitian from the 1st century BC. Today the square retains the shape of the original structure, of which can still be seen the base on one side of the square. The ancient Romans here attended to Agonalia games from which perhaps the current square takes its name.

In the fifteenth century, the public market was moved to Piazza Navona, which began to also host some of the most sumptuous palaces of the city, in a sort of competition between families Barberini and Farnese. The fountains in the center of the square are important creations of Gian Lorenzo Bernini (the Fountain of the Four Rivers) and Giacomo della Porta (the Moor Fountain and Neptune). Piazza Navona has always been the scene of festivals and entertainment events and from 1652 until 1866 the square, the surface of which was below the level of the surrounding streets, was flooded on Saturdays and Sundays of August to be crossed by boat.
 

8 minutes from our hotel - Castel Sant’Angelo

A leisurely stroll from our Relais, crossing the Tiber on the Ponte Sant'Angelo you get to Castel Sant'Angelo, one of the most important monuments of Rome. Also known as the Mausoleum of Hadrian, it is located a few steps from the Vatican, to which it is connected through the fortified corridor called the Passetto.
Emperor Hadrian wanted it as his funeral mausoleum, inspired by that of Augustus, it rests on a cubic marble base with a building covered in travertine. The property was renamed in 590, when Rome was afflicted by a severe plague. During a procession in the streets of Rome, Pope Gregory I had the Michele Angel's unsheathing his sword vision here. It was interpreted as a victory over death, and since then the Romans put a statue of the archangel who pulls the sword on the top level of the Roman Empire, since then called Castel Sant'Angelo.

There are many real and imaginary stories of which the old building was scenary: fortress during the reign of Honorius and state prison during the reign of Theodoric to contention object for many Roman patrician families.
Giuseppe Verdi's set within the walls of the Castle the drama of opera singer Floria Tosca who, in love with a artist sympathetic to Napoleon, surrenders to the avances of police commander Scarpia, who imprisoned him in the castle and sentenced him to death, to free him. They all three die in an intricate web of deception and revenge.
 

16 minutes from our hotel - The Spanish Steps

Not to be missed, a visit to the magnificent Piazza di Spagna and the famous staircase of Trinita dei Monti: one of the most famous urban architecture of Rome known as the Spanish Steps in English. At the center of the square you can admire the famous Fountain of the Barcaccia, dating from the early Baroque period designed by Pietro and Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
The grand staircase is decorated with numerous aristocratic garden terraces which in fine weather are adorned with spectacular floral decorations that make the glance of the square something unique.

The square is surrounded by some of the most important streets of luxury shopping: Via Condotti, Via del Babuino and Via Sistina, with prestigious boutiques of the greatest designers from around the world.