This corner of Esquilino brings together layers of Rome that usually never meet — an ancient hydraulic monument, a baroque experiment in alchemy, and a grand 19th-century square designed for the capital of a new Italy. Those massive brick walls are the remains of the Trofei di Mario, part of a vast water distribution complex built around 226–235 CE under Emperor Alexander Severus. It was initially a monumental nymphaeum, fed by the Aqua Julia and Aqua Tepula aqueducts, and decorated with symbolic “trophy” statues. The statues themselves were later moved to the Capitoline Hill, but the structure survived because in the Middle Ages, the Colonna family turned it into a small fortress. Nearby, inside the garden, stands the strange and fascinating Porta Magica. It once belonged to the villa of Massimiliano Palombara, a 17th-century Roman nobleman who was deeply involved in alchemical studies. The inscriptions in Latin and Hebrew are authentic formulas and symbols used by early modern alchemists. According to one popular story, the markings preserve the last notes of an anonymous alchemist who allegedly vanished after leaving behind traces of gold. Whether true or not, the gate was understood as a symbolic passage to hidden knowledge — and that’s how it earned the name “Magic Gate.” All of this sits inside Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, an enormous square laid out between 1870 and 1887 after Rome became the capital of unified Italy. Its architecture follows the fashion of the time: broad arcades, large residential blocks, and a central garden planned as a modern urban space with a hint of romantic “ruins.” In one spot, you have a Roman waterwork, a medieval stronghold, a baroque curiosity, and a patriotic 19th-century square — woven together in a way only Rome manages to make feel natural.
Rome rises on seven hills, and this walk takes us across two of its most revealing ones — Esquiline and Palatine. The Esquiline, once the city’s eastern edge, still carries traces of imperial gardens, hidden nymphaea, magical gates, and traditions that survived the fall of the empire. The Palatine, the hill of the emperors, preserves stadiums, palaces, terraces and views where the entire history of Rome — Republic, Empire, Middle Ages, Baroque and modern Italy — lies in a single panorama. Along the way, we meet the monuments, streets and layers we uncovered in this journey: the baths of Trajan, the Domus Aurea beneath the grass, the Palatine stadium, the Forum’s arches and temples, and the buildings that reshaped Rome across two millennia. And we pause for something timeless: a pastry shop on the Esquiline that has kept its flavours unchanged for more than a century — a taste of Rome as constant as its stones.
