ITALY – Lazio (Rome) Oct 1-3, 6-7, 2021
I flew from Amsterdam to Rome on a direct flight with Vueling, arriving at 11 pm. I slept in the airport and took the train into Rome Termini and walked the 400m to my hostel, Roman Holidays. I spent most of the day working on my website and went to Tivoli on my second day, and then the Pelagie Islands (Lampedusa) for two nights. I then returned to Rome to the same hostel, but first had a big walkabout to see NM sites I had missed on my previous two trips here
TIVOLI. 28kms east of Rome. I took the train here
Villa Adriana (Hadrian’s Villa) WHS. The ruins and archaeological remains of a large villa complex built in 120 AD as a retreat by Roman Emperor Hadrian. He disliked the palace on the Palantine Hill in Rome. He governed from here in the latter parts of his reign requiring a large court and rooms for visitors and bureaucrats. After Hadrian, the villa was occasionally used by various successors. In the 4th century, the villa gradually fell into decline and was slowly looted of most of its statues. Christians used much of the building material to build churches. Most of the remaining marble and statues were removed in the 16th century by Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este.
28km from Rome, the villa is vast with many pools, baths, fountains and classical Greek and Roman architecture sat in landscaped gardens, wilderness and farmlands. The buildings were constructed in travertine, brick, lime, pozzolana and tufa. 30 buildings cover at least a square kilometer. Water was supplied by aqueducts feeding Rome so was on land lower than the aqueducts. Many structures were named after places seen by Hadrian in his extensive travels.
The Canopus features a long reflecting pool, representing the Nile lined by copies of famous sculptures.
Basically, it is one huge ruin where much is left to the imagination. 25€.including Villa Este + 4€ audio guide for Villa Adriana.
Get there. Train from Termini at 09:06 to Bagni, Tivoli (25 minutes). Get off at Bagni Station, a small town before Tivoli. A red bus waits outside (your train ticket is good for the bus). It departed lat 09:43 to drive the 5.2kms to Villa Adriana – all included in the one price, but not at all clear from the ticket or the conductor (“I am not a tour guide, but I think you get off here for Adriana”!). Note these times are for when I did it, there are many other trains virtually on the hour. 3.60 E
The bus to Tivoli didn’t leave till 13:10 and it took exactly that long to walk to Tivoli and Villa Este. It went along a dirt road, pavement and then a trail till finally hitting the road in Tivoli. I stopped and had great pizza, and then went to Villa d’Este. Once there I realized I had seen it before (another example of Nomad Mania not having places I’ve seen recorded).
Villa d’Este WHS. A 16th-century villa In the town of Tivoli, I had been here before (the gardens are unforgettable – a terraced hillside Italian Renaissance famous for its fountains. The villa was commissioned by Cardinal Ippolito Il d’Este (1509-72.
The top floor has several rooms of religious art – paintings, sculpture brass and photographs from the 1500s to the present. All the ceilings and upper walls are painted with the same style of busy style. The gardens are very special with multiple fountains, waterfalls and pools descending the hillside.
Monte Della Croce cross (Mountain of the Cross). Take the nature trail that allows you to reach and walk for hours on Mount Catillo. It is also known as Monte della Croce due to the iron cross placed on the top.
Park at the train station and walk 400m to Arco de Quinitilolo. Take the asphalt road to the trail marked Mount Catillo Nature Reserve. It is 30 minutes to the top. Pass through a cork forest. Return the same way.
I then walked 1.4 km to the train station in Tivoli and had to transfer at Tiburtina for Temini.
I then had one of my weirder travel occurrences. I bought a train ticket to Termini, followed the sign on the big board to track 6 and boarded without looking at the destination. It was a high-speed train to Bologna, in the north of Italy!! The conductor had a good laugh. There I had 6 minutes to run upstairs and buy a return ticket (62€) back to Rome on the same train I had come in, arriving back at 9 pm. Oh well.
ROME
On returning from Lampedusa, I purchased a two-day Rome transit card for 12.50€ and took the metro to Piazza del Popo. I wanted to take the bus out to Macini, but couldn’t find it, so walked 2 km to my first site.
Ponte della Musica crosses the Tiber that connects the Parco della Musica Auditorium, the park of Villa Glori, the MAXXI museum, and the Olympic theater with the Foro Italico sports complex. Made of steel and reinforced concrete, it is reserved for bicycle and pedestrian use inaugurated in May 2011 as a bridge of Music,
It has an arched structure, 190 meters long, which reaches a maximum width of 22 in the central area and 14 at both ends. The main architectural feature of the work can be seen in the two large lowered steel arches – slightly inclined towards the outside – which surrounds and support the metal deck; between them, moreover, there is no horizontal connection in the area above: this stylistic solution has made it possible to give a particular overall lightness to the bridge, as well as to “separate” the central driveway from the two pedestrian paths that on the sides overlooking the Tiber.
The Stadio dei Marmi surrounded by statues representing athletes.
The main entrance of the Foro is south-east, in line with the Ponte Duca d’Aosta: here – on a wide avenue entirely covered with a mosaic made of black and white tesserae – rises a huge obelisk 17,5 meters high (excluding the base), carved in Carrara marble, known as Stele Mussolini. The facility is decorated with statues, donated by the different Italian Provinces and therefore of different authors, which represent various sport activities: for example, the statue dedicated to javelin throw was donated by the Province of Perugia, while the one representing the so-called “ball with the bracelet” (an ancient Renaissance game) is due to the Province of Forlì-Cesena.
The Foro is home to numerous sports venues, such as the largest sports facility in Rome, the Stadio Olimpico, the ornate Stadio dei Marmi, and the adjoining building which is the seat of the Italian National Olympic Committee. Foro Italico also comprises an aquatics center built for the 1960 summer Olympics, the Stadio del Nuoto (“Swimming Stadium”) and a tennis center.
Foro Italico has hosted important events, most notably the 1960 Summer Olympics. The tennis center annually hosts the Italian Open (aka Rome Masters). Other live events like music concerts are also held at the various venues in the complex.
Ponte Milvio is a bridge over the Tiber that was an economically and strategically important bridge in the era of the Roman Empire and was the site of the famous Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312, which led to the imperial rule of Constantine.
A bridge was built in 206 BC after he had defeated the Carthaginian army in the Battle of the Metaurus. In 109 BC, censor Marcus Aemilius Scaurus built a new bridge of stone in the same position, demolishing the old one. In AD 312, Constantine I defeated his stronger rival Maxentius between this bridge and Saxa Rubra, in the famous Battle of the Milvian Bridge. During the Middle Ages, the bridge was renovated by a monk named Acuzio, and in 1429 Pope Martin V asked a famous architect, Francesco da Genazzano, to repair it because it was collapsing. The bridge was badly damaged in 1849 by Garibaldi’s troops, in an attempt to block a French invasion, and later repaired by Pope Pius IX in 1850.
Love locks. Following the release of the popular book and movie “I Want You” (Ho voglia di te 2006) by author Federico Moccia, couples started – as a token of love – to attach padlocks to a lamppost on the bridge. After attaching the lock, they throw the key behind them into the Tiber. However, after the lamppost partially collapsed in 2007 because of the weight of the padlocks, all parts of the bridge including its balustrades, railings and garbage bins were used. It has continued despite Rome’s city council introducing a €50 fine for anyone found attaching locks to the bridge. In 2012 city authorities removed all locks from the bridge. The love lock tradition has since spread around Italy, the rest of Europe and across the globe.
Football violence. The bridge is known as a place where Italian football hooligans known as Ultras from A.S. Roma often attack fans from opposing teams on match days. The lightning attack or puncicata, as it’s known in Roman slang, is where a flash mob of Ultras quickly assaults another group of fans stabbing them in the buttocks before running away. The bridge is used because its design and locations make it suitable for this type of ambush. On the occasion of games played by the other local team S.S.Lazio, the A.S.Roma fans tend to avoid the area, as it is where Lazio Ultras usually gather.
MAXXI (Museo National of the 21st Century). Unusual for contemporary art museums, it has none of the usual crazy big art installations. The highlight was the wonderful photographs of Sebastido Salgado’s “Amazonia” with great landscapes with magnificent cloud formations and portraits of “uncontacted” tribes. Also nice was Aldo Rossi’s “Architecture of the city” with his drawings although the eventual buildings did not appeal to me.
Music Complex. In the NM Architectural Delights series, this is a public music complex with three concert halls and an outdoor theater in a park setting. Parco della Musica lies where the 1960 Summer Olympic Games were held,
The halls are: Sala Santa Cecilia, with about 2800 seats; Sala Sinopoli, in memory of conductor Giuseppe Sinopoli, seating about 1200 people; and Sala Petrassi, with 700 seats. Structurally separated for sound-proofing, they are nonetheless joined at the base by a continuous lobby. Their outer architectural form has led to nicknames such as “the blobs,” “the beetles,” “the turtles” and “the computer mouses”. The outdoor theater, called the Cavea, recalls ancient Greek or Roman performance spaces and is fan-shaped around a central piazza.
In 2014, it had over two million visitors, making it the second-most-visited cultural music venue in the world, after Lincoln Center in New York.
Ristorante la Campana. This is the oldest restaurant in Rome, 500 years old.
The restaurant is classic – at the entrance a large fridge counter with vegetables and fresh fish on display and, opposite, the buffet with appetizers. The rooms are large, with a total of 120 seats, wood and tablecloths as they once used to. The atmosphere is a restaurant of yesteryear.
Antico Albergo del Sole al Pantheon. In the Piazza del Rotunda, the same plaza of the Pantheon, this hotel dates to 1497, has been renovated several times and is now a 4-star modern hotel.
Palazzo Braschi (Museum of Rome) is a large Neoclassical palace located between the Piazza Navona, the Campo de’ Fiori. It presently houses the Museo di Roma, the “museum of Rome”, covering the history of the city in the period from the Middle Ages through the nineteenth century.
It was built by the papal nephew Duke Luigi Braschi Onesti, The site was purchased in 1790 by Braschi, supported by funds from Pope Pius VI. During the Italian fascist period, it was used as the political headquarters of Benito Mussolini, and was adorned with a giant sculpture of the dictator’s face. After the war, it housed 300 refugee families and many of the interior frescoes were seriously damaged by the fires they lit to keep warm. In 1949 the palace passed to the civic authorities and, following extensive conservation in 1952, the present installation of the museum was effected.
The oval hall inside the main entrance leads to the monumental staircase with its eighteen red granite columns. Decorating the staircase there are ancient sculptures and fine stuccoes inspired by the myth of Achilles. 9.50€
The infamous Mussolini facade, 1934. The “SI” (Italian for “yes”) refers to the 1934 Italian general election, which was a simple yes-no vote on the Fascist Party list.
Campo de’ Fiori. This outdoor market in a large square, has flowers, produce, some clothes and an amazing variety of oils and sauces.
Ponte Sisto is a bridge in Rome’s historic centre, spanning the river Tiber. It connects Via dei Pettinari in the Rione of Regola to Piazza Trilussa in Trastevere. The construction of the current bridge occurred between 1473 and 1479, and was commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV (r. 1471–84), after whom it is named, and reused the foundations of a prior Roman bridge, the Pons Aurelius, which had been destroyed during the early Middle Ages. Currently traffic on the bridge is restricted to pedestrians. The bridge is architecturally characteristic because of the “oculus” or eye lightening the masonry of its central spandrel: this was erected to diminish the river’s pressure on the bridge in case of flood.
Palazzo Corsini (Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica) is a late-baroque palace erected for the Corsini family between 1730 and 1740. During 1659–1689, the former Riario palace had hosted the eccentric Christina, Queen of Sweden, who abdicated, converted, and moved to Rome.
Today, the palace hosts some offices of the National Academy of Science (Accademia dei Lincei) and the Galleria Corsini. The gardens, which rise up the Janiculum hill, are part of the Orto Botanico dell’Università di Roma “La Sapienza”, a botanical garden.
It was closed for renovations until November but I entered the main hall.
Rome Botanical Gardens. The garden has been located behind the Corsini Palace, between the Trastevere district and Gianicolo Hill, since 1883 and is taken care of by the Department of Environmental Biology of the Sapienza University of Rome. It is also an archeological area situated on the Septimius Severus Baths. There are four greenhouses, the Corsini Greenhouse, the Monumental Greenhouse, the French Greenhouse and the Tropical Greenhouse. Each site houses various plants that are not native to the Italian ecosystem like cacti from America and Africa and lush trees and flowering plants from the Amazon Rainforest.
The garden is home to 60 different types of coniferous trees, including sequoias and pines, 35 different types of palm trees, an extraordinary Afghan palm tree that grows horizontally and a once-believed-to-be-extinct Wollemia pine from Australia. Among the trees, you can experience a journey through the forests of the world. 4€
Pons Fabricius is the oldest Roman bridge in Rome still existing in its original state. Built in 62 BC, it spans half of the Tiber River, from the Campus Martius on the east side to Tiber Island in the middle (the Pons Cestius is west of the island). Quattro Capi (“four heads”) refers to the two marble pillars of the two-faced Janus herms on the parapet, which were moved here from the nearby Church of St Gregory (Monte Savello) in the 14th century.
According to Dio Cassius, the bridge was built in 62 BC, the year after Cicero was consul, to replace an earlier wooden bridge destroyed by fire. It was commissioned by Lucius Fabricius, the curator of the roads and a member of the gens Fabricia of Rome. Completely intact from Roman antiquity, it has been in continuous use ever since.
The Pons Fabricius has a length of 62 m, and is 5.5 m wide. It is constructed from two wide arches, supported by a central pillar in the middle of the stream. Its core is constructed of tuff. Its outer facing today is made of bricks and travertine.
Basilica di Santa Sabina is a historic church on the Aventine Hill in Rome, Italy. It is a titular minor basilica and mother church of the Roman Catholic Order of Preachers, better known as the Dominicans.
Santa Sabina is the oldest extant Roman basilica in Rome that preserves its original colonnaded rectangular plan and architectural style. Its decorations have been restored to their original restrained design. It is especially famous for its 5th-century carved wood doors, with a cycle of Christian scenes (18 now remaining) that is one of the earliest to survive.
Santa Sabina was built by Peter of Illyria, a Dalmatian priest, between 422 and 432 on the site of early Imperial houses, one of which is said to be of Sabina, a Roman matron originally from Avezzano in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Sabina was beheaded under the Emperor Vespasian, or perhaps Hadrian, because she had been converted to Christianity by her servant Seraphia, who was stoned to death. She was later declared a Christian saint.
The exterior of the church, with its large windows made of selenite, not glass, looks much as it did when it was built in the 5th century. The wooden door of the basilica is generally agreed to be the original door from 430 to 432, although it was apparently not constructed for this doorway. Eighteen of its wooden panels survive — all but one depicting scenes from the Bible. Most famous among these is one of the earliest certain depictions of Christ’s crucifixion, The campanile (bell tower) dates from the 10th century.
An interesting feature of the interior is a framed hole in the floor, exposing a Roman era temple column that pre-dates Santa Sabina. This appears to be the remnant of the Temple of Juno erected on the hilltop site during Roman times, which was likely razed to allow construction of the basilica. The tall, spacious nave has twenty four columns of Proconnesian marble with perfectly matched Corinthian capitals and bases, which were reused from the Temple of Juno.
Depiction of the crucifixion on the wooden door of Santa Sabina. This is one of the earliest surviving depictions of the crucifixion of Christ.
Ostiense is the 10th quartiere of Rome. The toponym comes from the original name of the Porta San Paolo, a gate in the city walls of Rome, was Porta Ostiensis, because it was located at the beginning of Via Ostiense. It now houses the Via Ostiense Museum.
In the late 9th century, a fortified settlement developed around the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls.
The landmarks in the quarter include the Centrale Montemartini and the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. Other landmarks include the Roma Ostiense railway station and most of the University of Rome III campus. The squares and the roads of the quartiere are chiefly named after explorers and missionaries. Local toponyms can be categorized as follows:
Ponte della Scienza. This modern, green, steel girder, pedestrian bridge spans the Tiber. It is 147m long and was finished in 2013. It was a long way here, several stops on the metro and then a 1.8km walk.
Nuovo Mercato di Testaccio. 100 stores and many with produce, this large market has it all.
Crypta Balbi. There is not much to see here – lots of pots and info to read showing layers of history (2000 years) and the remains of a theatre outside. Not worth the price. 13€
Metropoliz Museum of the Other and the Elsewhere (Museo dell’Altro e dell’Altrove di Metropoliz Cita Meticcia). An abandoned salami factory in the outskirts of Rome has found a new life as both a collective art space and a shelter for refugees. In 2009, several migrant and Roma families cleaned the empty complex and turned the factory’s auxiliary buildings into homes. They’d already begun painting murals on the walls when Curator Giorgio de Finis found the place in 2011 and started organizing events and performances there. What became a collaboration between de Finis and the factory’s 200 squatters has led to murals, paintings, and installations made by more than 300 artists from around the world.
The history of the building has made its way into the content of the art. A slaughterhouse hall once used for stripping carcasses now features a painting of hanging pigs. Other halls and some of the art installations serve as giant playgrounds for the children, who make up about 40 percent of its population. Many of the people who live at MAAM are poor and unemployed, living in the factory illegally. Italy has been criticized in the past for its treatment of migrants and Roma people. But considering the precedent potentially set by Barcelona’s La Carbonería, the increasing popularity of the museum’s art could keep its inhabitants from being evicted.
It is a long way here. Take the metro to Ponte Mammola and then bus 508 a long way with a stop outside. Everyone under 25 had their masks below their noses and the driver had none. It was a dangerous bus ride.
The gate has an intercom and 24 mailboxes but is locked. Nice graffiti is on the outside walls and the long wall inside the gate. Unfortunately, it is only open on Saturdays.
Palazzo Cipolla. Currently holds an exhibit Quayola re-coding, an artist who designs multi-coloured geometrics. 6€
Palazzo Montecitorio. The Italian parliament. It is surrounded by a metal barrier and hundreds of police. Can’t get to within 100 m of it.
Palazzo Venezia. Just north of the Capitoline Hill. The original structure of this great architectural complex consisted of a modest medieval house intended as the residence of the cardinals appointed to the church of San Marco. In 1469 it became a residential papal palace, having undergone a massive extension, and in 1564, Pope Pius IV, to win the sympathies of the Republic of Venice, gave the mansion to the Venetian embassy to Rome on the terms that part of the building would be kept as a residence for the cardinals,It currently houses the National Museum of the Palazzo Venezia with a wonderful chapel.
Original Location of Ara Pacis Argustae. The Roman Senate, in 13 BC, decided to build an altar in gratitude to Emperor Augustus. The Ara Pacis Augustae or Altar of Peace of Augustus, was inaugurated 4 years later, in the year 9 AC. A splendid monument dedicated to the peace and prosperity that the reign of Emperor Caesar Augustus had brought to Rome.
This monument made in marble, celebrates the peace in the Mediterranean area established by the emperor after his victorious campaigns in Hispania and Gaul. It was located in Campo Marzio, a large area outside the walls of the city that gave entrance to Rome from the north through the Via Flaminia, now Via del Corso. Here the legions practiced the rites of purification when they returned from a battle.
From the second century AD this monument fell into oblivion. It was covered by the mud that carried the Tiber River. In the twentieth century, this historic monument was rescued from the foundations of a Renaissance building and was moved from Campo Marzio to the bank of the Tiber and placed in front of the mausoleum of Augustus.
The Ara Pacis is one of the most significant monuments of Ancient Rome as a temple for the sacrifice of sacred animals where only priests and vestals participated. This monument is an altar located inside a closed structure made in Carrara marble. Its impressive decoration consists of several reliefs showing the family of Augustus in procession and different allegories related to the foundation of Rome.
The original location is under the Circuito Cinema and a church, It can be visited apparently on Saturdays.
Basilica di Santa Maria in Ara coeli. Next to the Capitoline Museums, descend the long steps and then climb up again to the church. It is a great 3-nave church with a gilt coffered ceiling, a lot of marble and many crystal chandeliers. Paintings cover the upper sections of the walls. Free
Column of the Immaculate Conception (Colonna dell’Immacolata) is a nineteenth-century monument in central Rome depicting the Virgin Mary, located in what is called Piazza Mignanelli. The column was dedicated on 8 December 1857, celebrating the recently adopted (1854) dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The structure is a square marble base with statues of biblical figures at the corners that uphold a column of Cipollino marble of 11.8 meters. Atop the column is a bronze statue of the Virgin Mary. The standard imagery of the immaculate conception is used: a virgin on a crescent, atop the world, stomping a serpent (a symbol of the original sin assigned to all humans since Adam and Eve, except the Virgin Mary. At the base are four statues of Hebrew figures that gave portent of the virgin birth, each accompanied by a quote of a biblical verse in Latin, including: King David, Isaiah the Prophet, Ezekiel the Seer, Patriarch Moses.
Monti. Rione Monti, Rome’s first ward (rione). The neighborhood for the cool and young, the old and vintage. For those who want a serving of cobblestone, antiques and artisans, with a side order of beauty, great food and some of the bars in Rome. Centrally located between Piazza Venezia and the Colosseum, this is working-class Rome, where older couples maintain tradition, even as young entrepreneurs open trendy galleries.
Monti gentrified and emerged as a haven for artisans in the 1930s when Mussolini’s grandiose Via dei Fori Imperiali swept in, but in the Roman period it was the Suburra, or low-class slum, with a disgraceful reputation and full of prostitutes and pimps. In fact, the wall built to separate Monti from Imperial Rome still stands stoutly against the forums of Augustus and Vespasian. But today, it’s cool factor, charm, and village atmosphere make it a favorite hangout for locals and expats. Start at the fountain in Piazza Della Madonna dei Monti, the heart of Monti for its beauty and buzz.
I walked out here and had an average dinner, then took the metro to Termini, my hostel, and packed getting ready for my flight tomorrow to Mykonos.