Rome: Tessera Audio Guide

Rome is best seen on foot — and best understood with someone telling you what you're looking at. Tessera is that someone, in your pocket, with no signal needed.

125 short stories cover the whole historic centre, from the Vatican to Monti. Each one is written to be heard on the spot: look up, listen, and the stones start to make sense. Why the Pantheon's dome has never cracked. Who hung rude poems on a battered statue for five hundred years. Where Bernini and Borromini fought their rivalry in marble, a few metres apart.

SIX NEIGHBOURHOODS
• Ancient Rome — the Colosseum from outside, the Circus Maximus, the Baths of Caracalla
• Pantheon & Navona — baroque squares around the best-preserved building of antiquity
• Trevi & the Spanish Steps — fountains, stairways and the streets down to Piazza del Popolo
• Vatican — St Peter's Square and Castel Sant'Angelo
• Trastevere & the Ghetto — medieval lanes, Tiber Island and the Jewish quarter
• Monti — the old Suburra and the great basilicas of the Esquiline

WALKS FOR ANY SCHEDULE
• Rome in two hours, three hours, or a full day, planned on real streets
• Themed walks: Bernini & Borromini, the Talking Statues, Hidden Rome, Evening Fountains
• A walk through every stop in each neighbourhood
The guide leads you stop to stop and shows how far the next one is and how much of the walk is left.

HOW IT WORKS
• Walk up to a place and the guide offers its story. Nothing ever plays on its own
• Every place has a photo and the full text — read instead of listening if you prefer
• For museums and churches with tickets, a link to the official site for hours and booking
• Search by name, theme, or any detail from the stories
• Works completely offline once downloaded: stories, photos, map and routes
• Eight languages: English, Русский, Español, Deutsch, Italiano, Français, Português, 中文

TRY IT FIRST
The introduction and one story in every neighbourhood are free: the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, St Peter's Square, Santa Maria in Trastevere and Santa Maria Maggiore. One purchase unlocks all 125 places, every route and all eight languages — for good. No subscription, no account, no ads.

Tessera is an independent app and is not affiliated with the Vatican, the Colosseum Archaeological Park or any museum. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.