Here are a number of taverns and trattorie, much frequented by the lower ranks of the Roman people... Similar places of public amusement seem to have existed here from imperial times. Ovid describes the people coming out hither in troops by the Via Flaminia to celebrate the fête of Anna Perenna, an old woman who supplied the plebs with cakes during the retreat to the Mons Sacer...
-from "Ponte Molle"
English aristocrat Augustus J.C. Hare filled his days with trips to the Continent, and returned home to share his journeys with eager readers-and the journals of his travels still enjoy a cultishly devoted readership today.
First published in 1871, his two-volume Walks in Rome is a virtual walking tour of the city; Volume II covers:
. the Baths of Diocletian and its neighborhood, including the Pretorian camp, Convent of the Pregatrici, and Villa Negroni
. St. Peter's and the Vatican, including the Sistine Chapel, the Picture Gallery, the Library, and the Etruscan and Egyptian museums
. the Island and the Trastevere, including Castle of the Alberteschi, Palazzo Ponziani, and Ponte Sisto
. and much more.
Charmingly enthusiastic and obsessively detailed, this guidebook continues to be invaluable for today's travelers, and for those fascinated by the ongoing metamorphosis of a modern metropolis.
Also available from Cosimo Classics: Hare's Sketches in Holland and Scandinavia.
British travel writer AUGUSTUS JOHN CULBERT HARE (1834-1903) also wrote Epitaphs for Country Churchyards (1856) and Wanderings in Spain (1873).