About
us (History)
The Torre Colonna Guest House by Piazza Venezia in
the heart of Rome occupies the defensive tower of the
same name that was built by the noble Colonna family
in the middle of the 13th century. The tower stood at
the edge of the family’s extensive Rome city centre
residence and served to help defend the property amid
tumultuous times.
Indeed, the period between the decline of the Roman
Empire and the great Renaissance was a dark one for
much of Italy and Rome was no exception. The ancient
city buried beneath centuries of dust and neglect, the
once impregnable centre of the civilised world was devastated
by corruption, power struggles between rival aristocratic
families and subject to waves of attack by foreign invaders.
The first to actually live in the tower was Francesco
Colonna, Count of Romagna and close friend of the great
poet Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) - one of the pioneers
of the Renaissance and widely considered along with
Dante and Boccaccio as one of the fathers of the modern
Italian language.
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