by Tyler Bushnell
The Eternal City’s Other Side: Rome Through the Lens of Dark Heritage
Rome, Italy. A city of marble, terracotta, and built on foundations older than most nations. The idyllic views of Italians lounging in the sun, aperol spritz in one hand and cigarette in the other – welcomes tourists from across the globe. Those seeking the pleasure of walking in the footsteps of Julius Caesar or entering the Colosseum to see where gladiators fought to the death in the name of fame and fortune – or the faint hope of freedom. Rome is a city that offers winding streets, leaving visitors guessing what is around the next bend. The Pantheon, in all its glory, takes people by surprise when they round a corner (it even produces expletives from my friend from Topeka, Kansas when he first laid eyes upon it) or a small market offers a charming view with the hustle and bustle of locals picking up their morning shopping.
Everyone knows of Rome’s role in history, or at least we know that Rome has a big part in history. We have all grown up with our own vision of the Eternal City, whether that be obtained from films such as Gladiator or from the pen of Shakespeare. But once the sun goes down, one cannot help but wonder who else has walked these streets. In a time before electricity, these beautiful and illuminated alleys during the day are then cast in darkness and it isn’t difficult to imagine who crawled from the depths to make their livings.
During one of my first nights in Rome, I decided to hear their story. Via GuruWalk – an online platform that connects travelers with local tour guides around the world, primarily offering “free” walking tours, where you pay what you wish at the conclusion – I signed up to satisfy my hunger for secrets lying in wait.
We began the tour at the base of Castel Sant’Angelo, a fortress that has worn many masks. Originally the tomb of Emperor Hadrian, it has since played host to popes, prisoners, and executioners. It’s an impressive structure that has worn many faces – much like Rome itself. We learned about the executions that were ordered from the balcony and then delivered next to the river below. How a famous executioner treated his job as if it was as monotonous as being stuck in traffic every day. Giovanni Battista Bugatti served as executioner for 68 years, meticulously recording the names of the condemned, their crimes, and the locations of their executions for each of the “justices” he performed.
My father, in a time after the tour, when I informed him of such actions taken under the orders of the Popes stated in disbelief, “They did that? I thought they would try to stay above that sort of business!” I needed to only state how many men who seek that sort of power do not do so out of the kindness of their heart. And that heart of theirs created many enemies along the way – enemies that were easily dispatched once he was wearing the Papal Tiara. If obscuring the dark history of the role Popes played in parts of history was a goal of the Church, I would say they are succeeding.
To simply state the stories of the past set the tone of the tour would be an understatement. We continued across the Ponte Sant’Angelo towards the more intimate streets of Centro Storico with curiosity about what tale was to come next. This was when we were introduced to a woman by the name of Giulia Tofana. Giulia, six accomplices, and her famous concoction dubbed ‘Aqua Tofana’, allegedly claimed the lives of over 600 victims – mostly husbands who held their wives in abusive and unwanted marriages. I must say, Giulia Tofana sounds like she was disturbingly efficient at her job. To be putting up those kinds of numbers and then dying without being discovered puts serial killers Jack the Ripper to shame. Max – our tour guide – handled this part of the tour delicately, describing both the mythology and historical ambiguity. Was Giulia a mass murderer? A folk hero? Maybe both. It’s these blurry lines – that make history compelling.
When a lady from the Netherlands leaned over to me and asked if I would like a drink, I will admit that I would have easily been another statistic to Tofana’s count (granted I would be the only undeserving one of such fate).
The tour continued with a handful of haunting stops that brought us deeper into the city’s sinister past, spanning approximately 90 minutes in total. One of the most unforgettable moments unfolded at Campo de’ Fiori, a square that today buzzes with cafes and flower stands. We were told that this seemingly charming piazza once served as a stage for public executions – burnings at the stake were not only common but disturbingly popular, drawing eager crowds to watch as dissenters and heretics were put to death in fiery spectacle.
From there, we wandered through narrow alleys until we reached the Fontana del Mascherone, a fountain adorned with a grotesque mask. According to our guide, this fountain was said to have flowed with wine during celebrations thrown by the Farnese family, one of the most powerful dynasties in Renaissance Rome. Those who dared to insult the Farnese name could find themselves dumped near the fountain of wine. When asked how such bodies appeared here – the excess of wine was an easy scapegoat for the Farnese family.
These tales were not just macabre anecdotes – they were windows into how power, appearance, and fear were manipulated in Rome’s past. And in a city where the line between myth and history often blurs, I realized that the stories whispered around fountains and piazzas hold just as much weight as those preserved in museums. Hearing these stories gives you goosebumps, makes you smile, and just wander in awe about what people had to go through only a handful of centuries ago. While these stories should be taken with a grain of salt, it is tough not to be fascinated by the dark underbelly of Rome.
Walking tours centered around the dark heritage and past of a city add an engaging way for visitors to gain a different perspective to their experience of the city. These dark stories have a way of evoking our emotional responses to the past in ways that a museum may not be able to do. To listen to Max dive into the horrors that could have been lying in wait around every corner gives us glimpses into the unknown secrets of Rome.
And that’s precisely what this experience offered: an imaginative journey through the alleys of history that lie just beneath the surface of where we now (at least I do) eat carbonara with a glass of white wine. It reminded me that heritage isn’t only built on these impressive monuments and celebrated victories, but also on whispered legends, forgotten souls, and the shadows that persist even in the brightest of cities.
In a place as layered as Rome – figuratively and literally- walking its darker paths doesn’t diminish its glory; it deepens it, broadens it and encompasses a perspective that the average citizens would be more likely to experience rather than those who sleep on the Palatine Hill. It reveals a city not just eternal in its beauty, but also eternal in its storytelling. And that’s the strange magic of Rome. It doesn’t just show you its greatness – it dares (for a kid from Kansas, it invites) you to grapple with its ghosts.
Tyler Bushnell, ARCH Intern