Constructed between 1931 and 1933, this road was one of the most controversial of all the urban reconstructions carried out at the time. The opening of this road wiped out one of the most extraordinary zones of the city where various strata of Renaissance and medieval buildings lay above the ruins of the ancient forums.

In creating this street that links the Colosseum with Piazza Venezia and Palazzo Venezia , the serious loss of monuments and churches was not given any weight; at the same time, the road ruined a plan, going back to 1800, to create a great archeological park embracing the area of the Forums, the Circus Maximus and Via Appia Antica. The piazzas of ancient Rome, the forums, were separated one from another in a way that was as final as it was arbitrary.
The excavations of recent years have uncovered many ruins but a large number of monuments remain buried and lost. Our itinerary starts at Trajan's Forum, the most monumental of all the ancient piazzas.