Rome is a city beyond compare, combining a blend of romance, culture, history and beauty to create an ideal destination for any traveler possessing a keen sense of adventure and intellectual curiosity about previous eras.

Millions of guests from around the globe visit Italy’s capital each year, mingling with the city’s 2.8 million residents amid relics and structures that date back two thousand years. While many visitors indulge in exquisite dining and fine wines in the evening, they perhaps walk the avenues the next day to observe the architecture, parks, gardens, monuments and museums, burning calories while enjoying the scenery.

PerryGolf offers a 14 night Escorted Tour to Italy in late August / early September which wraps up in Rome where guests are pampered at the 5-star Hotel Bernini Bristol, a historical palace built in the late 1800s that offers an abundance of modern amenities and an ideal location in the heart of the city in the shadow of Piazza Barberini.

The golf is fantastic and diverse in Italy as guests on a PerryGolf Escorted Tour enjoy six rounds, including one at Marco Simone, located 10 miles from the center of Rome and sharing the grounds of an 11th century castle. Marco Simone is the site of the 2022 Ryder Cup and from several holes offers a view of St. Peter’s Dome, which was designed by Michelangelo. The brilliant Italian fashion designer Laura Biagiotti (“The Queen of Cashmere”) and future husband Gianni Cigna bought the property in the late 1970s and commissioned American architect Jim Fazio in 1989 to carve out the outstanding 27-hole golf course.

PerryGolf also offers an array of Custom Tours to fit your schedule and desires as well, for groups large and small. Whatever your preferred route, plan or party size, be sure to visit these five places on your visit to Rome.

The Colosseum

If your travels to Rome allowed you only one sight to see, this would surely be it. Then again, you’ll hardly face that problem on a PerryGolf Escorted Tour as there is ample time allotted for each sight to be enjoyed at a leisurely pace. And this architectural wonder deserves to be savored and explored.

Also known as the Flavian Amphitheater, The Colosseum was commissioned by Emperor Vespasian in 72 AD and his son, Titus, opened it with a bang eight years later, presenting 100 consecutive days of games – which included gladiators battling and wild animals fighting. After four centuries, the arena fell into neglect and only one-third of the original structure remains today. Nearly four million visitors tour the grounds each year.

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Pantheon

Perhaps Michelangelo himself best described this former temple the first time he gazed upon it, saying it looked more like the work of angels than the work of humans. The best preserved Roman Monument, it was built in 120 AD by Emperor Hadrian, who collaborated with Apollodorus of Damascus on its design. The building became a church in the 7th century and features the world’s largest unsupported dome, measuring 142 feet in diameter – nearly 50 feet larger than than the dome on the U.S. Capitol. Supporting the building are 16 massive Corinthian columns weighing 60 tons apiece. During construction each column traveled down the Nile River during spring flooding and onward across the Mediterranean Sea before arriving in the heart of Rome.

Vatican City

Located inside the city of Rome is the world’s smallest fully independent city-state which serves as headquarters to the Roman Catholic Church. Vatican City gained its current status on the 11th of February, 1929,  signed into existence by the Italian leader Benito Mussolini. St. Peter’s Basilica, built between 1477 and 1480, is a featured building while inside the Vatican Palace the Sistine Chapel features the renaissance art of Michelangelo, including his remarkable paintings on the ceiling, which have been fully restored in recent years and are vibrant and clear today. A central point to the ceiling art is nine scenes from the Book of Genesis, including The Creation of Adam, a work without compare in the High Renaissance world. The majority of Vatican City’s 600 residents live abroad, although it remains, of course, the residence of Pope Francis.

Roman Forum

The center of ancient Rome, the Forum ruins give a glimpse of the temples, basilicas and vibrant public spaces that beginning in the 7th century served as host to religious and secular events. Rectangular in shape, it was once the home to battles between gladiators, general elections, public speeches, criminal trials and also functioned as the centerpiece of Roman commerce. It developed and transformed over many centuries under different rulers and was eventually replaced by nearby buildings constructed under the rule of Julius Caesar among others. Augustus Caesar gave the Forum its final configuration.

Trevi Fountain

As legend has it, toss a coin into the Trevi Fountain and ensure your return to Rome. Millions of liras and euros have no doubt plummeted to the fountain floor in this pursuit. Dating to the earliest Roman times, the fountain served as a display of an ancient Roman aqueduct. Built mostly of travertine stone, the Trevi Fountain is 85 feet high and spills 2.8 million cubic feet of water daily. The theme of the fountain is the ‘taming of the power of water.’ The muscular, majestic form of Neptune (16 feet in height) is the primary figure among the intricate carvings, which include his two steeds and their tritons as well as Abundance, holding the horn of plenty and Health, drinking from a serpent filled cup. Pope Nicholas V ordered a restoration in 1453 and the fountain has enhanced its reputation as Italy’s most beautiful in the centuries since.