History School Trips to Rome – Rise & Fall of Italian Fascism

Lead by Richard Bowen, our head guide in Rome, the tour takes in key Fascist sites in the city and can include the EUR district and the balcony of Palazzo Venezia.

Today the EUR quarter is mainly a business district. It was planned to host the Universal Exposition of Rome in 1942 that never took place due to the war. Examples of fascist town planning, it features several important buildings including the brilliant white Palazzo della Civiltà del Lavoro. 

This is part of the Olympic area in Rome – a testimony to the Fascist regime's romance with ancient Rome. Its continued existence shows the survival of the dictatorship's architectural heritage. There is a huge marble obelisk reading Mussolini Dux at the entrance, and the Stadio dei Marmi sports stadium features 60 marble statues of male athletes.

Recording the period of German occupation of Rome in WW2 and its subsequent liberation, also covering the persecution of Rome’s Jews. The building housing the museum was used by the SS to torture members of the Italian Resistance in the first half of 1944.

A National Monument and Memorial Cemetery, it tragically became a symbol of the resistance movement after the occupying German troops’ mass execution here of 335 innocent youths and adults, taken at random from Rome’s prisons and streets, in reprisal for an attack carried by partisan fighters in the city centre.

In Catholic tradition, this is the burial site of its namesake. Famous as a place of pilgrimage and for its historical associations. Like all the earliest churches in Rome, St Peter’s has its entrance to the east and the apse at the west of the building.

Ancient tradition suggests that St Peter’s Basilica was built where Peter, the apostle who is considered the first Pope, was crucified and buried in AD64. Today, the chapel houses many masterpieces.

This is the most prominent building inside the Vatican City, its dome being a dominant feature of the Roman skyline. Papal ceremonies take place here due to its size, proximity to the Papal residence, and location within the Vatican City walls.

The most famous chapel in the world, decorated by the greatest artists of the Renaissance. The Sistine Chapel and the Stanze della Segnatura, decorated by Raphael, are on the visitor route through the Vatican Museums. This chapel represents a collection quite unique in the history of painting.

Rome’s famous Baroque fountain is the largest in the city and the most beautiful in the world. A traditional legend holds that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to Rome. The fountain is worldwide famous but many people do not know the history and the secrets hidden behind its construction.

Amaze students with the monumental size and grandeur of the world’s largest surviving structure of Roman antiquity, the scene of the legendary and savage gladiatorial games. 

This, the largest monument of Ancient Rome, seated more than 50,000 spectators in its day. Your students will see the location where fights between men and beasts, gladiatorial contests, races and simulated naval battles took place.

This site holds the remains of what once was the civic and political heart of the Roman Empire. The site was excavated in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The most central of the Seven Hills of Rome is one of the most ancient parts of the city. See the ruins of the Imperial Palaces and the Hut of Romulus, as well as a great view of the Circus Maximus. Explore the pleasant gardens or see vibrant frescos in the house of Augustus.

Built as a temple to all the gods and rebuilt circa 126AD during Hadrian’s reign, it’s still in use today. A marvel of Roman engineering and, until the middle of the 20th century, the largest masonry dome built.