Ghosts and Mysteries of Rome

This walk organized after sunset, when the shadows fall on the city, will show you some places linked to the presumed presence of spirits and restless souls who populate the nights of the Eternal City.

The tour will start from Castel Sant'Angelo, a symbol of cultural stratification of Rome. Indeed, it was the Mausoleum of Emperor Hadrian in the second century A.D., medieval castle, then residence of the Popes during the Renaissance and at last, prison.

It is said that, here, you could see the spectrum of Marozia who was imprisoned and buried alive by her son Alberic in the tenth century, the ghost of  the Connestabile Charles of Bourbon, who died hit by a musket sparus during the sack of Rome in 1527 and the headless ghost of Giacinto Centini, charged of plotting against Urban VIII and beheaded for this in 1631.

Crossing St. Angelo Bridge, where it is said that on September 11th, anniversary of death,  the ghost of young Beatrice Cenci appears, condemned together with her stepmother Lucrezia and her brother James for the murder of his father Francesco Cenci and beheaded in 1599.

We will continue our trip through the narrow, winding streets of Old Town, arriving at the place where stood the Prisons of Tor di Nona, populated by the ghosts of the unfortunates who lost their lives here.

Walking along Via del Governo Vecchio we meet the Tromba Family House, where it took place in 1861, one of the most interesting "poltergeist"  known in Italy and where according to some people, the spirit of the great Johann Wolfgang Goethe could be seen, because during his staying in Rome he had a lover, Faustina who lived here and to whom he dedicated the splendid Roman Elegies.

We end the tour in Piazza Navona, where it is said that stopped its run the black cab on where the restless spirit of Donna Olimpia Pamphili, nicknamed the "Pimpaccia", sister in law and supposed lover of Pope Innocent X. She was one of the most unscrupulous Roman women, to give credit to a famous lampooner who dedicated to her this saying: "Who says woman, says damage – who says female calamity says - who says Olympia Maidalchina, says woman, damage and destruction" (but the translation loses all the rhymes of the original text!).