Among the most famous and feared streets of Rome, due to traffic , there is that of the Muro Torto! A strange name certainly that, as often happens in the city, has an origin that is lost over the centuries. And as a local tour guide of the city, as well as a lover of the most disparate traditions that make the Eternal City even more interesting, I must remind you how much this area is full of slightly macabre stories, even demonic ones, certainly not very happy. Let's go and see them together.

First of all, it is good to remember how we find ourselves in the presence of the stretch of the Aurelian Walls that flank Villa Borghese and the Pincio hill, a stretch in which a portion of the wall seems to be about to collapse, being swollen and curved. Deliberately, over time (apart from the modern age, for security reasons ), no action was taken to resolve the issue. Reason? The Muro Torto area is considered cursed! Here unrepentant prostitutes and condemned to death were buried and, according to tradition, Nero himself found his (unworthy for Christians) burial. It is said of how, centuries later, pilgrims of all kinds continued to come to the area to pay homage to the first emperor who persecuted the Christians. But there is talk of the curse of the Muro Torto already in the Gothic age, during the sixth century AD It is said, indeed, of how the Muro Torto was directly guarded by St. Peter, which prevented the Goths from entering Rome from this side as, in 1849, prevented the papal and French soldiers from entering the city through this stretch (and the irony was wasted, considering that in theory these soldiers had to pave the way for the return of Pope Pius IX, unfortunately for him dethroned from the throne a year earlier, as you will read by clicking here).

Above all, the nineteenth century was a century in which various personalities not really well liked in Rome found their own burial. For example, in the nearby Piazza del Popolo, used for public executions (as you can read here ), two Carbonari were beheaded in 1825. And their ghosts would also roam here, in the Muro Torto area, to make it even more dark and rich of history. Do we have to talk about the beginning of the last century when many of the city's suicides decided to throw themselves on this stretch of the Aurelian Walls? It is no coincidence, in fact, that here you will find networks suitable to curb the insane gesture of many. In short, despite numerous traditions and legends , this section of the Aurelian Walls, dating back to the third century AD, resists everything: bad weather, traffic , public executions, more or less clandestine burials.