Rome has an old riddle hidden in plain sight. Its answer is not the Colosseum, the Pantheon or any other of the Eternal City’s best-known monuments, but four noble palaces remembered in a centuries-old rhyme. Their clues are a cube, a harpsichord, a staircase and a doorway.
The expression “the four wonders of Rome” emerged between the 18th and 19th centuries, when Romans created a rhyme celebrating four palaces: “Il dado di Farnese, il cembalo di Borghese, la scala di Caetani, il portone di Carboniani.” In English, it refers to the cube (or dice) of Farnese, the harpsichord of Borghese, the staircase of Caetani and the doorway of Carboniani.
