Isola Tiberina

Centro Storico


One of the world’s smallest inhabited islands, the boat-shaped Isola Tiberina has been associated with healing since the 3rd century BC when the Romans built a temple here to the god of medicine Aesculapius. Still today people come to be cured, though they now head to the island's hospital, the Ospedale Fatebenefratelli.

The island is connected to the mainland by two bridges: the 62 BC Ponte Fabricio, Rome's oldest standing bridge, which links with the Jewish Ghetto, and Ponte Cestio, which heads over to Trastevere.

Visible to the south are the remains of the Pons Aemilius. Also known as the Ponte Rotto or Broken Bridge, it was ancient Rome’s first stone bridge, and was all but swept away in a 1598 flood.