Scientific Itineraries in Rome

Whoever sets the unit of measurement sets the value of all things. This itinerary follows two thousand years of Roman metrology —from Augustus' Golden Miliary to Napoleon's sample meter to the second atomic meter— to show how measuring has always been, even before science, an act of sovereignty.

A 3.5 km walk through the heart of Rome to discover the places where the most famous trial in the history of science unfolded. Villas, churches, palaces and squares that every tourist walks through — but that very few know how to read. Galileo lived in all of them.

Six stops between Trastevere, the Vatican and the historic centre to discover an unexpected Rome: the Rome of friar apothecaries, pontifical botanists and Jesuit missionaries who brought medicinal plants from the Americas. Gardens, apothecaries, libraries and academies of a city that treated its sick with herbs — and built a science upon it.