Though I’ve visited Rome numerous times, I always discover something new (or ancient). On this trip, the Travel Office arranged a private after-hours tour of Santa Maria Maggiore, one of the city’s oldest and most important basilicas.

Our evening began at our hotel, where our guide picked us up, oddly enough, in a golf cart. It worked well to whisk us across the city, weaving through traffic just as the sun was dissolving into the city’s palette of ocher and dusty rose. Our circuitous route took us past famous landmarks as our guide peeled back the layers of history. As we reached the Esquiline Hill, it became clear why Santa Maria Maggiore is considered one of the four major papal basilicas: It is simply enormous.

Reputedly, the original church was constructed here in 352, though no archaeological evidence has been found to support that. The building as it stands today is from the fifth century, consecrated by Pope Sixtus III. Santa Maria Maggiore is one of the few churches from that period that has maintained its original architecture and even some of the original interior decoration.