Jewish Ghetto > Isola Tiberina > Santa Cecilia > Santa Maria in Trastevere > San Pietro in Montorio > Aqua Paola (Two hours).
Note: If a monument or museum is highlighted in red, please click on it for a link to the official website.
The Jewish Ghetto 
The Jewish Ghetto in Rome dates back to 1556 when the then recently elected Pope Paul IV forced the city's entire population of Jews to live in a small area by the Tiber. The Ghetto was walled and gated with a curfew on entry and exit. Its inhabitants were excluded from exercising most trades and were obliged to attend church each week to hear a christian sermon. In time, roughly 4,000 people lived in an area of little more than eight acres. Conditions inside the Ghetto, with its dark and narrow streets, must have been desperate and deplorable.
The Ghetto survived for almost three hundred years. In 1848 the walls were pulled down and after 1870 Jews were able to live and work where and how they chose.
The entrance to the Jewish Ghetto, in Piazza Mattei, is preceded by one of the most delightful fountains in Rome, La Fontana delle Tartarughe, the Fountain of the Turtles. The fountain was sculpted by a Florentine, Taddeo di Leonardo Landini, who started work on it in 1581. He finished the fountain three years later, but minus the tortoises. These were added during a restoration of the fountain almost a century later.
Isola Tiberina
On the south side of the Ghetto runs the Tiber, which can be partly crossed by Rome's oldest bridge, the Pons 
Fabricius (62BC). The bridge, which has been in continuous use for over 2,000 years, is also known as the Ponte dei Quattro Capi, after the images of herms on the parapet. It was also once known as The Ponte degli Ebrei, the Bridge of the Jews, because of its proximity to the Ghetto.
The Bridge leads to the Isola Tiberina, an island in the middle of the Tiber. The shape of the island has always resembled that of a boat and in the middle of the first century BC the end of the island which lies downstream was modelled into the shape of a prow of an ancient trireme
The island has long been associated with the art of healing. A Temple to Aesculapius, the God of Healing, was built here in 291 following an outbreak of the plague. No traces of the temple have ever been found, but its remains almost certainly lie under the church of Sant' Bartolommeo all' Isola, which stands in the middle of the island. The art of healing still continues on the island in the form of a modern hospital.
Santa Cecilia
The church of Santa Cecilia is preceded by a delightful courtyard surrounding a fountain, the centre-piece of which is a cantharus. A cantharus is a type of Greek vase and the only other church in Rome to have retained a cantharus is San Clemente. It was common for early Christians to perform their ablutions before entering a church.
According to tradition, the church of Santa Cecilia is said, to have been built over the house where the saint lived with husband, Valerian. Part of an ancient Roman house still exists under the church and can be visited for a small fee.
The church, which was heavily modified in the 18th century, contains a splendid Baldacchino by Arnolfo di Cambio.
Beneath the altar is a statue of the saint by Stefano Maderno. Cecilia's body is depicted as it was found when her tomb was opened in 1599.
The church also contains what is left of a huge fresco of the Last Judgement by Pietro Cavallini, which was painted in the 1290s. The fresco occupies the whole of one wall in the nuns' choir to the side of the church. 
Very little of Cavallini's work as a fresco painter survives, but his work as a mosaicist has fared much better and can be seen in the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere.
Santa Maria in Trastevere
Santa Maria in Trastevere is allegedly the oldest church in Rome dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Today's church stands on the site of several earlier ones and dates back to the 12th century.
It was built during the Pontificate of Pope Innocent II, whose image can be seen (carrying a model of the church) in the mosaics in the apse. The nave is made up of over twenty massive ancient columns plundered from a variety of sites. 
The beautiful mosaics, which decorate the Triumphal Arch and the top of the Apse were made in the middle of the 12th century. Over a century later Pietro Cavallini added, in the lower part of the Apse, a series of mosaics depicting the life of Mary,
The mosaics on the facade of the church, which depict the Virgin, flanked by ten female figures bearing lamps (two of which are extinguished), date back to either the 12th or 13th centuries. The mosaicist and the exact meaning of the image are both unknown.
San Pietro in Montorio
The church of San Pietro in Montorio was built at the end of the 15th century with money provided by the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile.
In the little cloister beside the church stands Bramante's Tempietto.
Erected on what was once thought to be the exact site of the martyrdom of St Peter, some time between 1499 and 1512, the little temple is one of the architectural masterpieces of the Renaissance. Bramante had at his disposal 16 antique granite columns and he used their diameter as the module for his design. Each column is spaced 4 diameters apart and 2 diameters from the walls, thus making the Tempietto a perfect model of classical harmony.
Acqua Paola
In 1605, when Camillo Borghese became Pope Paul V, the right bank of the Tiber had little water, having to rely on local springs. In order to remedy this situation, the Pope decided to restore the ancient Aqua Trajana, which had been built in 109. Work started in 1608 and was completed five years later, but when the water began to flow it was neither as sweet nor as copious as had been expected. The problem lay along the thirty mile route of the aqueduct, where the supply was being illegally siphoned off!
The Fountain was designed by Giovanni Fontana and is adorned with dragons and eagles, which are part of the Borghese coat of arms.
From the Fountain you can enjoy some spectacular views of Rome, especially at sunset.
