Rome 2018: Capitoline Hill

It was the afternoon when my parents and I made our way up Capitoline Hill. The smallest and tallest of Rome’s famed seven hills, Capitoline used to be the religious and political center of the city. At the top is Piazza del Campidoglio with its duplicate of an equestrian statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. The Renaissance artist Michelangelo renovated Capitoline Hill in the 1500s and in addition to revamping the square he also designed the staircase that leads down to Piazza Venezia below.

Since it was still raining we went inside the Capitoline Museums to get out from under the weather. The museums have a lot of ancient Roman sculptures and artwork, including the original version of the Marcus Aurelius statue outside. When we exited the museum the sun had gone down and the rain was finally starting to lighten up. Before leaving Capitoline Hill and descending Michelangelo’s staircase I turned around and took today’s photo. On both the left and right sides of the photo are the Capitoline Museum buildings (which are connected by an underground tunnel) and in the center is the Marcus Aurelius statue with the old mayoral palace behind it. There’s also a church up there, which is out of sight to the left in the photo, but we didn’t have time to check it out.