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Aventine Hill (Aventino) is the southernmost of Rome’s Seven Hills. Today, visitors value its leafy lanes, hilltop gardens, and sweeping panoramas, yet its story spans from the plebeian quarters of the Republic to patrician villas of the Empire and, much later, to Fascist-era politics.
What to See and How to Visit
The most efficient way to explore the Aventine is to ascend from the Circus Maximus side. Follow this route:
Circus Maximus ▶︎ Monument to Giuseppe Mazzini ▶︎ Rose Garden ▶︎ Orange Garden ▶︎ Santa Sabina ▶︎ Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta ▶︎ The Keyhole
Monument to Giuseppe Mazzini
Erected in 1949 to designs by sculptor Ettore Ferrari, this 10-metre-tall monument honours the “Prophet of Italian Unity.” Bas-reliefs depict episodes from the Risorgimento, while Mazzini’s bronze figure gazes towards the Parliament he never lived to address.
Municipal Rose Garden (Roseto Comunale)
Open roughly mid-April–mid-June, this 10 000 m² garden cultivates more than 1 100 rose varieties, many of them prize-winners from its annual international competition. Terraces look towards the Palatine Hill.
Fun fact: The ground was Rome’s Jewish cemetery until 1895; the flower beds still trace a discreet Star of David.
Fontana del Mascherone di Santa Sabina
Carved in 1593 to drawings by Giacomo della Porta, this brooding marble “big mask” once watered cattle in the Roman Forum. After long wanderings, it was paired in 1936 with a granite basin from an ancient bath and set into the tufa wall beside Piazza Pietro d’Illiria, just outside the Orange Garden.
Its furrowed brow and flowing beard evoke Oceanus, god of river and sea, while the ever-running jet still feeds from Rome’s modern aqueduct—perfect for a refill on a hot climb. Film enthusiasts may recognise the fountain from Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty.
Tip: Visit at midday when sunlight sculpts the mask’s relief or after dusk when niche lamps cast dramatic shadows rivalling the nearby Mouth of Truth—without the queue.
Orange Garden (Giardino degli Aranci)
Laid out in 1932 by Raffaele de Vico on land once worked by Dominican monks, this 7 800 m² terrace is shaded by bitter-orange trees said to descend from one planted by Saint Dominic in 1220. It frames sunset views of St Peter’s dome and the Janiculum ridge.
Address: Piazza Pietro D’Illiria | Tip: Come at dawn for crystalline light or an hour before sunset for musicians and golden tones.
Basilica di Santa Sabina
Rome’s best-preserved early Christian basilica (AD 422–432) features 24 Corinthian columns recycled from a pagan temple, alabaster clerestory windows, and a cypress-wood door whose 18 carved panels include the oldest known Crucifixion scene—headquarters of the Dominican Order.
Hours: 08:15–12:30 & 15:30–18:00 | Free entry; shoulders and knees must be covered.
Knights of Malta Keyhole
A peephole in the bronze doors of the Priory of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta perfectly aligns its garden avenue with the distant dome of St Peter’s—three sovereign territories (Malta, Italy, Vatican City) in one frame. The square was remodelled by Piranesi in 1765.
Address: Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta | Best light: Early morning before tour groups arrive.
Aventine in Antiquity
Ancient Fortifications & Emporium Port
The Servian Wall (early 4th c. BC) once skirted the hill’s base; segments survive along Via di Porta Lavernale. Below, the Emporium port handled grain, marble, and wine amphorae unloaded from sea-going barges—its vast warehouses (2nd c. AD) now lie buried under 19th-century embankments.
Temple of Diana
Founded around 540 BC by King Servius Tullius, the Temple of Diana became a plebeian rallying place and a model for provincial cults. Though no superstructure remains, excavations beneath Santa Prisca revealed its black-tufa foundations and dedicatory inscriptions.
Hidden Churches of the Aventine
Leave the main promenade, and silence descends: embassies hide behind high walls and the air smells of orange blossom. Along the ridge stand sanctuaries spanning 1 600 years—from a fifth-century basilica to a Rococo chapel guarding a keyhole, a Benedictine abbey still echoing Gregorian chant, and a Mithraic temple beneath a parish floor. Each portal opens onto another century; many reward you with rooftop views and extraordinary cloisters, even in mid-August.
San Alessio (Santi Bonifacio e Alessio)
Founded in the late 900s and later rebuilt in Baroque style, the basilica shelters the wooden staircase under which Saint Alexius is said to have lived incognito as a beggar in his parents’ house. A relic of Saint Thomas the Apostle lies in the crypt, and the campanile loggia offers a rarely photographed panorama of Trastevere and the Janiculum.
Sant’Anselmo all’Aventino
Built between 1893 and 1900 by the Benedictine architect Hildebrand de Hemptinne, the abbey is the headquarters of the Benedictine Confederation and houses the Pontifical Athenaeum. Daily vespers at 18:30 feature unaccompanied Gregorian chant in exemplary tempo and pitch. The Papal Ash Wednesday procession begins here.
Santa Prisca & Mithraeum
This modest fourth-century church sits atop an aristocratic house whose basement became a Mithraic spelea (2nd c. AD). Stucco vaults, painted attendants, and an altar relief of Mithras slaying the bull survive in vivid colour. Guided visits (Fri & Sat 09:00; book through the parish) descend eight metres beneath the nave.
Santa Maria del Priorato
Reworked by Piranesi (1764–66) for the Order of Malta, the chapel brims with maritime trompe-l’œil—anchors, seashells, and eight-pointed crosses. Tours are limited (Fri & Sat 10:00; book online), but even from outside, the famous keyhole view of St Peter’s is an Aventine rite of passage.
Best Time to Visit
Golden Hour transforms the Aventine into a painter’s palette. Arrive at sunrise if you wish to have the lanes to yourself: even in peak season, the hill remains nearly empty before 09:00. In the off-season, you might have its gardens and terraces entirely to yourself. About an hour before sunset, the light melts to pastels, and buskers drift into the Orange Garden—ideal for photography and people-watching.
For mild weather and lighter crowds, aim for late April–June or September–October, when orange blossom scents the gardens and tour buses thin out.
Views from the Aventine
Two terraces offer nearly the same postcard panorama from the Tiber River to the Janiculum, yet each frames the skyline differently.
Giardino degli Aranci (Orange Garden) provides the broader canvas—ample space for a tripod, a dead-centre alignment of St Peter’s dome, or silhouette play at dusk. Giardino di Sant’Alessio, twenty metres uphill, sits farther back from the parapet; the added elevation compresses rooftops into tighter layers, perfect for portraits or telephoto shots of campanili and cupolas. They’re just thirty seconds apart—visit both.
Glance left of St Peter’s and Trastevere fills the foreground—a 50 mm lens captures its pastel roofs—while the Janiculum ridge rises behind. A 200 mm (or longer) telephoto isolates the lighthouse, Garibaldi monument, or Acqua Paola Fountain.
Look right of St Peter’s: the ochre façade of Villa Medici crowns the Pincio, and nearer, the bright tiers of the Altar of the Fatherland dominate Piazza Venezia.
A 200–300 mm lens brings their sculptural details into sharp focus.
Foundation Legend
Romulus claimed the Palatine for his new city; Remus chose the Aventine. Their fatal dispute left the hill outside Rome’s sacred boundary, the pomerium, until Emperor Claudius extended that line in AD 49. Even earlier, around 540 BC, King Servius Tullius persuaded the Latin League to build a federal Temple of Diana here. In 493 BC, Rome dedicated a sanctuary to Ceres, Liber, and Libera—the “Aventine Triad” and a rallying point for the plebeians.
Republic and Early Empire
Overlooking the Tiber docks, the lower Aventine was filled with warehouses, grain yards, guild halls, and tenements that rose behind. During the Second Secession in 449 BC, the commoners gathered here to demand the Twelve Tables. By the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, the address had gentrified: senators built townhouses, Trajan and Hadrian kept private residences, and Emperor Decius opened a public bath complex in AD 252—mosaic floors from the Baths of Decius still lie beneath Piazza del Tempio di Diana.
Late Antiquity and Middle Ages
Christian Rome arrived early with Santa Prisca (4th c.) and Santa Sabina (432), turning the ridge into a monastic zone. After the sack of 410, the Savelli and Crescentii clans fortified the hill with towers and walled gardens, blending battlements with cloisters.
Modern Era
On 26 June 1924, about 150 opposition deputies walked out of the Chamber after Giacomo Matteotti’s murder. They gathered on the hill—a modern echo of ancient plebeian secessions, now dubbed the “Aventine Secession.” Today, the ridge rises just 46 metres above sea level, its lanes perfumed by bitter-orange trees, and its skyline marked by bell towers rather than apartment blocks, making it one of Rome’s quietest, most coveted quarters.
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