Santa Sabina is one of the more beautiful basilics of the eternal city, but apart from that there are more reasons to walk up Aventine Hill on the cobble stone street behind Circo Massimo. Here you can find some shade to protect you against the Roman sun, try to pick one of the oranges (I found them to be very acid, so be careful!) or just sit down at the edge of the garden and enjoy the view over the city.

From here, you can see St. Peters, you can see the back of the Vittorio Emmanuele monument, housing areas, and river Tiber. There are rumours that the orange trees have been planted centuries ago by St. Dominic himself (the church is the principal church of the Dominicans). In any case, they were full of oranges when I was there. You can wash your hands and drink a little water from the fountain at the entrance to the garden.

The church itself was originally founded in the fifth century in Illyrian style, which explains the differences with most other churches in Rome. It has been renovated several times since, and it has been restored to its original state in the 20th century. Enormous wooden doors at the entrance display intricately carved cypress wood with scenes from the Bible. It has been said that the crucifixion scene displayed here is one of the oldest in the world.