BENEATH Rome’s bustling streets lies a phenomenon locals call the lasagne effect, a term coined by historians to describe the city’s many layers of civilisation stacked one atop another like sheets of pasta.
Walking through ancient alleyways the concept comes alive. Each turn reveals another piece of history — Roman temples beneath Renaissance palaces, pagan shrines under Christian churches, and fragments of empire embedded in modern walls.
On my first trip to this city, I walked the streets of Rome with Gladiator historian Alexander Mariotti as he shared many of the city’s secrets and ancient past.
Alexander is no ordinary historian, this academic has served as a historical consultant on major film productions, including the Spartacus series, Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II, and the Amazon Prime series Those About to Die.
He regularly appears as an expert on networks such as the BBC, History Channel, National Geographic, and Discovery.
He has also provided personal tours of Rome for Bill Gates, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and now yours truly…
Alexander has an immense knowledge of Rome’s history as well as being extremely personable and entertaining.
“The city isn’t built on ruins,” Alexander explains. “It’s built with them.”
From the Colosseum’s weathered arches to the cobblestones that once echoed with chariot wheels, every layer tells a story of survival and reinvention.
“In Rome, the past isn’t buried—it’s served daily, rich and layered, like the perfect lasagne.”
Alexander puts the colossal history of this city into context from its secrets found around every corner to its ancient history and here I share a few of the highlights.
From the skies above its domes to the espresso bars tucked into its narrow alleys, Rome remains a living and breathing manuscript. Even a bottle of herbal liqueur can serve as a reminder that in this city, history never truly disappears — it simply changes form.
Legend tells of Saint Eustace, a Roman soldier who saw a stag with a glowing cross between its antlers and converted to Christianity. The stag and cross can be seen on a roof top in Piazza Saint Eustace along with the same image found on the green bottle of Jägermeister — its name meaning ‘Saint of Hunters.’
“Rome doesn’t have a church of Jägermeister,” Alex joked, “but it has plenty of stories where the sacred and the profane meet.”
We popped into the restaurant Trattoria Der Pallaro, although not open early in the morning, the owners welcomed us. Alexander told us that he often brought his students here for dinner and one day the Nonna who ran the restaurant heard him speaking about ancient Rome and said: “you should see my broom closet” and downstairs he discovered a huge hall dating back to ancient Rome. We climbed down the steep stairs to discover the layer of Ancient Rome.
We wandered to Santa Maria sopra Minerva and Alexander noted Bernini’s elephant statue, carrying an obelisk and a centuries-old grudge. Forced to sculpt another man’s design after losing papal favour, Bernini took revenge on the cardinal who commissioned it — by turning the elephant’s rear toward the cardinal’s window. Tail raised, trunk curled, the statue still smirks across the square, a timeless reminder that even in Rome, genius never forgets an insult.
At the foot of the Spanish Steps sits a curious fountain shaped like a half-sunken gondola. It was sculpted by Pietro Bernini, father of the famed Gian Lorenzo Bernini, to commemorate one of Rome’s great floods in the late 1500s.
When the waters finally receded, a Venetian boat was found stranded in the piazza. To mark the strange event, Bernini carved the Barcaccia — a leaky boat forever sinking yet never submerged, its gentle streams a reminder of the Tiber’s power and the city’s resilience.
In Rome, we found that even devotion has gone digital when we’re outside a small church which often sees long queues of young, glamorous visitors each day — not for prayer, but for a mirror.
A viral TikTok claimed that if you drop a coin in a box, the mirror’s light shifts to the ceiling, creating the perfect selfie glow. Now, in summer, the line can stretch for hours as influencers pose, snap, and leave — barely glancing at the art around them.
Inside, centuries of craftsmanship are reduced to a backdrop. Yet just across the city, the Pantheon reminds visitors of a different kind of light — natural, timeless, and divine — pouring through its open dome, illuminating Rome as it has for two thousand years.
These layers are found everywhere and there are so many that this story just scratches the service.
What we discovered with Alexander was a city of immense beauty and history, layer upon layer and we knew that one visit would never be enough.
And finally we even found our beautiful hotel was part of the lasagne layers. Hotel Lunetta has a history dating back to 1368. During 2008 and 2011 the hotel was completely refurbished and is now a modern and comfortable lodging making it the perfect base to explore the eternal city.
During its restoration the relics of the Pompey Theatre were found which dates to 61 and 55 BC. The walls of the ancient theatre are visible due to the glass panelling which surrounds and protects it while still allowing guests to enjoy it.
The Eternal City’s layers of ancient ruins lie beneath Renaissance palaces, pagan myths beneath Christian saints —each revealing itself in unexpected ways, reminding Rome’s wanderers that history here is never buried, only waiting to be seen again.
Fast Facts
Alexander Mariotti – Gladiator Historian info@gladiatorguide.com
Hotel Lunetta, Piazza del Paradiso, 68, 00186 Roma — http://www.hotellunetta.com/
