Termini station, the real heart of shopping in Rome!

The stations are those places that best show the vocation of the cities to open themselves to the world, to be hospitable with travellers and tourists; They are the business card of a country. The Roma Termini Station does not escape this logic, indeed, located in the ancient heart of the city, it shows itself in all its efficiency and beauty, worthy of the best living room of the oldest city in the world.

The numbers of history
If, as the famous saying goes, traveling is a bit like dying, then it should be done in a place that makes it much more enjoyable. Waiting for a train that leaves or one that arrives, the Termini station is never boring or obvious. It is the most important station in Italy, the fifth in Europe for passenger traffic, and is the only stopover in a historic city centre. In fact it is located on the hill of Esquilino, in the Castro Pretorio district, and takes its name from the ancient Baths of Diocletian, located on the opposite side of the present square of the XVI century.

In addition to its numbers, 225,000 sqm total area, about 480,000 visitors per day for a total of over 150 million each year and 850 trains a day, the station has assumed a leading role in the city fabric, even from a tourist point of view. The project had the intent to refound 13 of the most important Italian stations and to convert them into real citizens ' living rooms, giving them a twofold role: that of hyper modern stations, connected to the entire national transport system, and that of elegant shopping centre, equipped with all the comforts and services.

In fact, in addition to the pitches, the tracks, the kiosks, the information points and the police stations, in the largest station of the capital there are shops. A real shopping center in the heart of Rome to make the station one of the major points of attraction of the city.

It was the 1862 when the first station was built and opened to the public on February 25, 1863, with the name of the central station of the Roman railroads. Around the 1868 began the preliminary work of the new Termini station, but it was with the project of the architect Salvatore Bianchi that started the umpteenth work of modernization, ended only after the taking of Porta Pia in 1874. In 1950 the station was completely revisited.

Millions of travelers have gone to this place rich in history.
At the very moment you enter the imposing building, you will feel immersed in a place at the same time magical, as suspended in a non-time, and frenetic, where thousands of people from every corner of the world Cross, meet, communicate.

The cinema and the Termini station
All stations are a large and natural film set, with passengers carrying with them stories of new encounters, fleeting loves and departures to an unknown destiny. The Termini station is even more, as it is not only the nodal center of Transport in Italy and its capital, but it is also a cultural symbol that was soon enlisted by both Italian and international cinema. Many films have often been set and shot in this place made of steel, marble, fumes, voices, hopes and emotions. One of these feature films is titled "Stazione Termini" and is a film by Vittorio De Sica in 1953, which was even presented at the festival of Cannes, but without a great success. But even before that, in 1950 a scene of the film ' The Path of Hope ' was also shot, while many years later, in 1985, in the film ' Ginger and Fred ' by Federico Fellini we see a station termini invaded by billboards and a gigantic paw, which advertises an imaginary company.

Not only shopping
Bookshops, supermarkets, clothing stores of the most famous brands, bars and hot tables, but also shops of shoes and chocolates. The Termini station is above all a very convenient place: it is in the center of the city, the shops are one after the other and you can find everything, without moving by public transport, at all hours of the day, from morning to 10am until the evening at 10pm. There are dozens of shops in the Termini station that can compete with the largest and most provided shopping malls in and around the capital. You could begin the exploration starting from the clothing boutiques, where you will definitely find something to wear during your stay in Rome, then head to the accessories shops, or sunglasses, or shoes, to complete your mise. There is no better way to spend an afternoon shopping or to deceive the wait of departure or arrival: Beware of the timetables, you could miss the train for a stopover too much to the dressing rooms! But the reason for your visit might also be different. If you have forgotten the charger of your mobile phone or if you need music players with earphones, to dedicate yourself on holiday to a healthy physical activity, then the obligatory stage is in the electronics stores on the binary, or at the entrance of the Metro.
In addition, there are also the main mobile phone operators, if you would like to recharge your credit, or take advantage to take a look at the latest mobile phone models. But if you really want to lose yourself and distract yourself from sultry afternoons or endless waits, then enter the historical library of Termini station. Three floors of books, also in foreign language, exposed in such a way as to facilitate the consultation, a wide choice of all genres and for all tastes, with music in the background. It will be really hard to disconnect when it's time to go.

The surroundings
If after wandering through the corridors and shops of the Termini station complex, you will still have time and want to let yourself be enchanted, then without even going out of a floor with escalators or walking stairs, take the Metro A and, just one stop away, get off at the metro station ' Repubblica ': There is a small part of the Roman ruins , discovered while performing the work of the last renovation with extension of the station and the construction of new galleries. A sign will illustrate the phases of discovery and the assumptions elaborated by scholars and archaeologists, what they could be and how they had to develop in the past. The excavations are suggestive and leave the visitor-traveler with open mouth for the majesty, the grandeur and the surprise that arouse.

Just outside the station, there is a stretch of the ancient Servian walls, dating back to 400 B.C., while right on the Piazza della Stazione there is the national Roman Museum at Palazzo Massimo, one of the most beautiful and important in Rome; Opposite is the museum of the Baths of Diocletian (you enter with the same ticket).

But the surprises don't end here. As mentioned at the beginning of this small treatise, the name ' Termini ' is inspired by the Baths of Diocletian, and in particular to the cistern, called ' Botte di Termini ', which feeds them. If you exit the station and cross Piazza dei Cinquecento, head towards via Luigi Einaudi and walk until you reach the magnificent Piazza della Repubblica. There, a sumptuous concave brick façade will appear in front of you: it is the façade of the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli (and the Martyrs), built and remade on a part of the ' calidarium ' of those spas. A little further you can admire the lovely Piazza San Bernardo with the Fountain of Moses and the royal via Venti Settembre, with the churches Santa Maria della Vittoria and Santa Susanna.

Moving then only a couple of kilometers, you can visit Porta Maggiore, with the center a huge grey travertine door in ' square work ', monumental and isolated, dating from 52 B.C. A little further on, you can reach the Basilica of S. Maria Maggiore or ' Liberian Basilica ' (because it was the first building of worship erected by Pope Liberius). It is one of the four papal basilicas of Rome, located in the Rione Monti and located, just like the Termini station, on the top of the Esquilino Hill. It is the only one to have retained the original Christian structure, even if modified with subsequent additions.

The words can try to describe the buzz of voices from different languages, the sparkling colors of the shops, the scent that emanates from the different restaurants, the thousand stories of quick passages between the quays of the train. But just passing through it you can appreciate the magic and the thousand sensations that a place will be able to transmit.