The Aventine is the strangest of Rome's seven hills. It is the southernmost - the hill furthest from the city centre, the last to be fully integrated into the city, the most religious in the medieval period, and the quietest now. The 30-metre climb from the Circus Maximus to the Aventine summit takes you out of the tourist Rome (Pantheon, Trevi, Forum) and into a residential Rome that feels closer to Florence than to its own city centre - quiet streets, embassy gates, monasteries, the kind of small piazza where you can hear footsteps. The hill has been used by Rome's most powerful religious and political forces for 2,500 years and is currently in the quietest phase of that long life.
Plebeian secession
In Roman Republican history the Aventine was the plebeian hill. When the working-class plebeians of Rome wanted to bargain with the patrician aristocracy - they used the "secession" tactic of withdrawing from the city to a hill outside the formal city walls and refusing to work until concessions were granted. The first secession in 494 BC was to the Mons Sacer (a hill east of the city) but the later secessions (449 BC, 287 BC) were to the Aventine - which until 49 BC sat outside the Servian Walls and so legally outside the city. The 449 BC secession resulted in the Twelve Tables (Rome's first written law code); the 287 BC secession resulted in the Lex Hortensia (which made plebiscites binding on the whole Roman people). The Aventine's plebeian identity remained a political symbol for centuries; even under the Empire, when the hill became fashionable residential property, it kept its rough-edged reputation.
The hill was fully incorporated into the city in 49 BC under Julius Caesar; the Servian Walls were redrawn to include it. By the 1st century AD the Aventine was a fashionable address - aristocratic villas, sprawling gardens, the Temple of Diana at the summit (a major Republican cult), the Temple of Juno Regina. The empress Trajan (early 2nd century) had villas here. The Christian community on the Aventine dates from at least the 4th century - the legendary house-church on the spot where Santa Sabina now stands was reputedly the home of a Roman senator, Sabina, who was martyred about 125 AD.
Santa Sabina, 422 AD
The basilica of Santa Sabina was built between 422 and 432 AD by the Christian senator Peter of Illyria, on the spot of the earlier house-church. It is the best-preserved early Christian basilica in Rome - the building you see today is essentially the original 5th-century structure with only minor medieval and 16th-century renovations. The interior preserves the original layout: a long aisled nave with 24 Corinthian columns (probably recycled from a Roman temple of Juno that stood nearby), the marble pavement, the original windows of selenite (a thin transparent stone used before glass became affordable in late antiquity).
The cypress doors at the entrance are the basilica's most extraordinary survival. They were carved around 432 AD, contemporary with the building's construction. 18 of the original 28 panels survive, depicting Old and New Testament scenes. One panel in the upper left is one of the earliest surviving depictions of the Crucifixion in Christian art - small, simple, deeply influential on later medieval iconography. The basilica became the mother church of the Dominican Order in 1219, and remains so; the Dominican monastery still occupies the adjacent buildings.
The Knights of Malta and the Piranesi piazza
The Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta at the southern end of the Aventine was designed in 1765 by the architect-engraver Giovanni Battista Piranesi - one of his very few executed architectural commissions (Piranesi is famous for his etchings of imaginary prisons and Roman ruins). The piazza is small, decorated with carved military stelae depicting trophies, helmets and weapons, and is the entry point to the Priory of the Knights of Malta - the Roman headquarters of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, an extraterritorial sovereign entity that has held this Aventine property since the 12th century.
The famous keyhole - through the heavy green wooden door at the Priory's south gate - frames a perfectly aligned view of St Peter's dome through an avenue of clipped cypresses in the garden behind. The alignment is deliberate, although whether it was Piranesi's design or a later modification is debated. The keyhole view is one of the most-photographed in Rome and one of the most romantic - the framed dome of St Peter's, distant, slightly hazy, perfectly composed. Free, 24 hours. The Priory itself is not open to the public except by application.
The Orange Garden
The Giardino degli Aranci - the Orange Garden - was originally part of the 13th-century Savelli family fortress on the Aventine summit. The Savelli were one of medieval Rome's most powerful families (two of their members became pope). The fortress fell out of use after the Renaissance; the land was given to the Dominican monks of Santa Sabina, who planted it with Seville-orange trees (a cultivar that legend attributes to Saint Dominic himself, who supposedly brought oranges from Spain in the early 13th century). The walled garden was opened to the public in 1932; the public works architect Raffaele De Vico designed the formal layout with the central path leading to the panoramic terrace.
The western terrace overlooks the Tiber, Trastevere, and the dome of St Peter's. It is one of Rome's three best free panoramas (alongside the Gianicolo in Trastevere and Parliament Hill in London - if we're being generous). The Aventine sunset, with the light gradually leaving the dome as the city quietens, is one of the canonical Rome experiences. Free, daily 07:00 to dusk.
The Mouth of Truth and Santa Maria in Cosmedin
At the foot of the Aventine, in the portico of the 6th-century Santa Maria in Cosmedin church (Piazza Bocca della Verità 18), hangs a 1st-century marble disc carved with a face - the Bocca della Verità, the "Mouth of Truth". The disc is probably a Roman drain cover from the Cloaca Maxima (the ancient sewer) repurposed in the medieval period; the face is most likely the river-god Triton or possibly Oceanus. The medieval legend that grew up around it - that if you put your hand in the mouth and tell a lie, the mouth will bite it off - made it a popular oracle in the 13th-15th centuries. The 1953 film Roman Holiday, with Audrey Hepburn putting her hand in the mouth while Gregory Peck pretends his hand has been bitten off, made it globally famous. Today the queue runs 15-30 minutes most of the day.
The basilica behind - Santa Maria in Cosmedin - is itself worth visiting. It was built around 600 AD on the foundations of an earlier 4th-century Christian centre, expanded in the 12th century, and is one of the few surviving examples of Roman medieval Greek-style architecture (it served the Greek-rite Christian community in medieval Rome). The interior is austere and atmospheric; the crypt contains the relics of Saint Cyril, the apostle to the Slavs (his brother Methodius is buried at the Cyril and Methodius Monastery in Velehrad, Czech Republic). Free entry; usually quiet.
Sant'Anselmo and Gregorian chant
Sant'Anselmo on the Aventine (Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta) is a Benedictine abbey founded in 1893 by Pope Leo XIII as the international house of studies for the Benedictine Order. About 100 monks live in the monastery; they teach at the affiliated Pontifical Athenaeum of Sant'Anselmo (a university specialising in liturgy, theology and Gregorian chant). The monks sing Vespers in Latin every evening at 19:15 - free, public, no booking required. You enter through the side door, sit in the choir stalls behind the monks, and listen to 30-40 minutes of Gregorian chant in the original style. The acoustic in the abbey church is excellent. One of the most overlooked free experiences in central Rome.
The Circus Maximus, at the foot of the hill
The Circus Maximus - the 600,000-seat ancient chariot-racing stadium - sits in the valley directly east of the Aventine. The shape (an elongated oval, 621 metres long by 118 metres wide) is still visible as a grass field. The seating is mostly gone (the marble was robbed in the medieval period; the south-eastern curve has been partly excavated). Chariot races were the largest spectator sport in the ancient Mediterranean; the Circus operated continuously from the 6th century BC until 549 AD, when the Ostrogothic king Totila held the last games. Today the grass oval is a public space; the city sometimes hosts major concerts here (Rolling Stones 2014, U2 2009, Genesis 2007, multiple Andrea Bocelli summer concerts). Free to walk through. The Aventine looks down on it; the views from the hill across the Circus to the Palatine on the opposite side are extraordinary.
