The visit includes, in line with church opening times, the Upper Basilica of San Clemente, the Basilica of SS. Quattro Coronati as well as the Basilicas of SS. Giovanni and Paolo and Santa Maria in Domnica (Navicella).
The Celio, as well as being a famous Roman district, is also one of the magnificent seven hills.
The current name of the hill is more recent. Originally it was called the Mons Querquetulanus (or the hill of the oak trees).
The present name originates in the story of Caelius Vibenna, one of two brothers from the city of Vulci, who according to Etruscan tradition, helped the sixth king of Rome Servius Tullius to conquer first the Celio hill, and then the whole of Rome.
From the late Republican era the Celio became a residential district and home to luxurious villas, such as the one built by Mamurra, praefectus fabrum to Julius Caesar.
During the Empire the topmost part of the hill remained an upmarket residential area, whereas insulae, blocks of flats very similar to modern condominiums, spread out over the lower slopes towards the neighbouring Esquiline hill and the Coliseum.
On the crest of the hill runs the ancient via Caelimontana, which exited the city from Porta Caelimontana to reach modern day Porta Maggiore, following a route which corresponds to today’s via S. Stefano Rotondo, piazza San Giovanni in Laterano, via Domenico
Fontana and via Statilia (after crossing what is now Villa Wolkonsky).
The route just described was also the direction followed by four famous aqueducts arriving in the city across the Celio hill, the Appia, Marcia, Iulia and Claudia.
The first three ran underground while the last one arrived in the city on great arches, the Neronian aqueduct, a branch of the Acqua Claudia developed by Nero to ensure fresh water for his Domus Aurea.
In the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance the hill was abandoned when the ancient via Caelimontana no longer linked essential urban areas and therefore the Celio managed to maintain a predominantly rural aspect until the end of the nineteenth century.
The number of large properties on the Celio gradually diminished…just the Camaldolesi in S.Gregorio, the Passionists in SS. Giovanni and Paolo and the Agostinians in SS.Quattro Coronati were left.
Only two villas were left, from the XVI century, the Villa Mattei (now Celimontana) and that of the Casali, while the other properties were all vineyards.
