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Rome guide

From Trajan's Markets to the Mouth of Truth: Four Stops on Foot in Rome

A short walk from Trajan's Markets and Trajan's Column to Palazzo Venezia and the Mouth of Truth, through the Imperial Fora area. It suits first-time visitors who have a couple of hours and want the story behind the stones.

Within a few streets of Piazza Venezia you can read three eras of Rome in a row: an emperor's building site, a Renaissance cardinal's palace and a medieval church porch with a stone face in it. This walk takes about two hours and begins at the top of the old imperial quarter, where the street drops towards the Colosseum.

It moves west and then south, and each stop sets up the next. Go in at the first two if you like. The rest are best enjoyed from the pavement and the courtyard.

1. Trajan's Markets: start in the shops

Begin at the Markets of Trajan, the brick hillside of arches that today holds the Museo dei Fori Imperiali. The museum is open daily and closes on 1 May and 25 December. Climb through the curved halls and look out over the Forum of Trajan below you, then notice how the building steps up the slope instead of fighting it.

Mercati di Traiano
Mercati di TraianoLandmarkGo in. The museum is open daily, and the route up through the brick halls gives you the best view over the Forum of Trajan. Leave by the street side and turn towards the tall column you can already see.Photo: NikonZ7II, CC BY-SA 4.0

2. Trajan's Column: read it from the bottom

Walk down to Trajan's Column, which was finished in 113 AD. A band of carved scenes winds around the shaft about twenty-three times and runs to roughly 190 metres if you unrolled it. It tells the story of the emperor's wars in Dacia, in what is now Romania. Trajan himself appears on it dozens of times.

The statue on top is not Trajan. Pope Sixtus V put a bronze Saint Peter there in 1587. Stand at the base and look up: the lower turns are the easiest to make out, and the upper ones are best left to a photograph.

Trajan's Column
Trajan's ColumnLandmarkWalk round the base and follow the carved band as far up as your eyes allow. You see it from outside, so allow ten minutes. Then continue west along the busy street towards the big square.Photo: Alvesgaspar, CC BY-SA 4.0

3. Palazzo Venezia: a Renaissance palace and a balcony

Cross into Piazza Venezia and look for the square, castle-like front of Palazzo Venezia. It was begun in the 1450s for the Venetian cardinal Pietro Barbo, later Pope Paul II, and is often described as the first Renaissance palace in Rome. In 1929 Mussolini chose one of its halls as his office, and the small balcony over the square is where he gave speeches, among them the one announcing the Italian Empire in 1936.

Palazzo Venezia
Palazzo VeneziaAttractionIt now houses a national museum, open daily, and its large garden, the Giardino Grande, is free to enter. Look at the facade and the balcony from the square, then step into the garden for a quiet break before the longer leg south.Photo: ThePhotografer, CC BY-SA 4.0

4. The Mouth of Truth: end at the porch

Head south, away from the traffic and down towards the river, to the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. In its porch is the Mouth of Truth, an old marble disc carved with a bearded face and an open mouth. The porch can be seen without paying, and the church is open daily from 9:30 to 17:50.

Bocca della Verità
Bocca della VeritàAttractionLook at the carved face from the front, then try the mouth for yourself. Step inside the church afterwards; it is open daily from 9:30 to 17:50.Photo: Sailko, CC BY 3.0

Four stops, one short stretch of Rome: an emperor's building site and column, a cardinal's palace and a church porch. Going in at the first and standing back at the others keeps the walk light.