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Much of the architecture in Rome is Baroque, born out of the Catholic Church’s determination to reassert itself after the Reformation and The Basilica di San Pietro is no different. We were there by 7.30 and walked through security and straight inside.  It is huge, but felt somewhat impersonal.

We admired Michelangelo’s Pieta from afar as there is a barrier to protect it …

… and admired the ceiling from below.

We took the lift then steps, stopping to walk round inside the dome where even the letters are 2m high …

… then between the layers of the dome to the top, with that view out over the Piazza San Pietro, designed by Bernini, which welcomes visitors with open arms.

Back to earth, we walked out across the piazza, stopping at a circular stone in the pavement which marks the focal points of an ellipse, from which the four rows of columns on the perimeter line up perfectly so the colonnade appears to be supported by a single line of columns. Clever stuff!

We were amazed how the queue had grown, and it was only 9am!

After breakfast we set off to the historical centre, passing the Trevi fountain which was undergoing its weekly clean and empty, carefully supervised by the police as some €20,000 is raked out each week and sent to local charities.

We picked up rolls for lunch at the nearby Antico Forno bakery …

… and continued to Piazza Venezia which is overpowered by the gigantic Vittoriano or Victor Emanuelle Memorial errected to celebrate Italian Unification.

The Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, one of the city’s finest Rococo palaces and still lived in by the family is our next stop. Jonathan Pamphilj himself led us round the sumptuous state rooms and extensive art gallery via the audio guide, pointing out the sparkly Gallery of Mirrors with tales of Hercules on the ceiling and decorated with grotesque work.

Then, towards the end, I saw a Caravaggio I liked. The Rest on the Flight into Egypt has no blood or moody lighting, instead an angel playing violin to soothe the baby to sleep!

Next up, a trip back in time beneath the government offices of Palazzo Valentini to visit Domus Romaine, ruins of Roman baths and a residential complex brought vividly to life by a high tec and dramatic guided tour. Afterwards, there was a virtual reconstruction of Trajans Column. This 30m column was built to celebrate the empires victories in Dacia (modern Romania) in 113AD.

It is covered in reliefs commemorating the campaign, with some 2590 figures carved on a series of marble drums. The detail of the soldiers in their armour going off to war in their boats, blessed by Neptune is amazing considering its age.

Moving on to Piazza della Minerva we took photos of the cute elephant statue by Bernini …

…then went to the roof bar of the Minerva Hotel as we were given a tip that there was a good view of the Pantheon … and there was.

The Pantheon was built by Hadrian in 125AD, and consecrated as a Christian church in 609AD. It is an engineering marvel, with the diameter equalling its height and the oculus 8.7m across and remains the world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome. It would have been richly decorated in its heyday and the niches filled with statues if the gods.

Just round the corner is Piazza Navona, Rome’s most famous square, with bars, buskers and lots of tourists and we found a nice little spot to watch the world go by.

Revived, we went and looked at Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi or fountain of the four rivers by Bernini, with figures representing the great rivers of the world – the Nile, Danube, Ganges and Plate and topped by yet another obelisk.

We returned to Cantina 26 for dinner and had another great meal – more pasta and aubergine patties with lemon sauce for Chris and Saltinbocca, a Roman speciality for me.

Our first stop today is Domus Aurea, only open at the weekends on a guided tour and undergoing a €39m restoration. This is Nero’s Golden House, a huge villa complex of banqueting rooms, baths and gardens with a facade that was supposed to be coated in solid gold, a revolving dining room which scattered petals and scent over the guests and a huge statue of Nero as a sun god requiring 24 elephants to put the base in place! The villa was torn down after his death, all the precious marble covering the walls was removed and the Colosseum and Trajans Baths built on top of part of the complex.

We put on hard hats for our tour and saw the excavations of a banqueting villa which had been filled with earth and used as foundations, accessed by holes in the roof in the Rennaissance and thought to be grottos by visiting artists of the day who copied the designs seen in the frescos to begin a style called grotesque which can be seen reproduced in almost every villas and palazzo of the time.

This is definitely work in progress and a mammoth task to secure the site from damage from the garden above where the weight of soil and penetration of roots and water are continuing to undermine the structure.

Walking through the rooms alone would have been a disappointment as just a few small areas of fresco have been cleaned, and most has been badly damaged but fortunately our excellent guide, the video and the 3D reconstruction of the site with headsets really made the Domus Aurea come to life.

The afternoon was to have been spent at a football match … but it’s the end of the season with Roma playing Juventus and tickets proved rather expensive … almost as much as going to Liverpool for the weekend which would be Chris’s first choice … so we changed our minds.

With our remaining days already planned to take in the must-see sights of Rome, I was interested in finding some less-known gem and came up with Art Noveau Rome. Firstly we made our way to the Quartiere Coppede, which was designed by Florentine architect Gino Coppede in the C19. Piazza Mincio is surrounded by whimsical collection of buildings with turrets, columns and grotesque faces, surrounding a fountain topped with frogs.

From here, we walked to the Villa Torlonia, set in parkland and once lived in by Mussolini. In the grounds is Casina Delle Civette or small house of owls, a Liberty-style house full of Art Noveau features created in 1917 for Prince Torlonia, with owls above the door.

Unfortunately it became quite dilapidated before being restored but now contains a huge collection of stained glass, some original to the house, some remade from original drawings and other glass collected from the period.

Across the road we saw a large gathering of people holding gelato … always a good sign … and went to look. The tubs of gelato in the counter all had their own beater churning to keep the gelato at perfect consistency! Keeping the theme from the morning, I chose Nero Chocolate from Modica and Red Orange – an inspired combo if I say so myself … and Chris had surprisingly coffee, pistachio and mango! Well Guttilla has surpassed all the gelato we have had so far … so might be the best in Rome … but we do have two days to go!

As for getting back to the B&B, with a limited metro system, the Google bus information has been invaluable, telling us the best route and showing us where the bus stop is and even the time of the next bus and it also works for trams, so we got a ride back on this green one!

Today we headed north to the Villa Borghese, once the summer playground of the Boghese family, but now a large tree-filled public park and home to several museums. The Casino Borghese houses the art collection amassed by Cardinal Scipione Borghese when his uncle was Pope Paul V in the C17. The villa is sumptuous, with marble clad walls, gilding, frescoed ceilings, putti, columns, statues and paintings. The ground floor has one iconic sculpture in the centre of each of the first few rooms, beautifully lit and all so lifelike while the painting gallery upstairs was like a who’s who of Italian art.

Since I’m on a quest to try to appreciate Caravaggio better, here are two of his self portraits, one at each end of his life.

We wandered through the park, ate lunch and continued past the boating lake to the Pincio gardens, where a band played Dire Straits on the belvedere overlooking Piazza Di Popolo.

Santa Maria del Popolo is full of art and sculpture, but we came for the Cerasi Chapel where we continued my Caravaggio quest to see The Conversion of St Paul and the Crucifixion of St Peter, both showing unusual compositions and a dramatic realism which was considered risque when they were made … but do we like them?

We left the piazza and walked down one of the smartest shopping streets in the city till we reached the Piazza Spagna which was a little busy on a Saturday afternoon, home to the Spanish Steps, built with three flights and three landings for the holy Trinity and the view of the Trinita dei Monti church at the top.

We then wound our way down mainly pedestrianised streets to the Trevi Fountain, a very Baroque gush of water over statues and rocks on the back of a Renaissance Palace. It was designed by Bernini and they say if you toss in a coin you will return to Rome but you’d be lucky to get close enough.

Piacere Molise was our choice for dinner, a pretty family-run restaurant over the road from the hotel where we both enjoyed our food, but we were sat in a draught from the door and we felt a bit rushed so won’t be returning here … can’t win them all!

Having taken the train back to Rome, we made our way towards the Vatican City, home to the Pope since 1376 and also an independent sovereign state since 1929. We are staying just close by at B&B RomAnticaRoma, where we have a very comfortable studio room and vouchers for breakfast at a cafe a couple of doors down where they have a great choice of croissants!

Needing to stretch our legs and having only visited Hadrian’s retirement villa yesterday, this afternoon we head to his mausoleum. His ashes are long gone as is the original building, but we saw the central area where he had been interred. The building is now Castel Sant’Angelo, renamed by Pope Gregory in C6, after a radiant silhouette of an angel sheathing a flaming sword was seen in the sky which brought to an end a particularly bad bout of the plague. Since then, there have been six statues of Michael the Archangel on the roof – the first was wooden and was lost, replaced by a marble one which was destroyed in a siege. The third was marble with bronze wings which were hit by lightening, the fourth was bronze and melted down for cannon balls, the fifth is on the terrace, sadly relegated when the sixth was put on the roof in 1956, but I my view far nicer.

We climbed up to the ramparts and onto the roof which gave great views of the city.

There is a covered corridor called the Passeto di Borgo connecting it to St Peter’s Basilica and there are several sets of state rooms of different ages that have housed popes who have taken refuge here and we spotted a portrait of Hadrian himself.

The afternoon had clouded over but we could see St Peter’s just a short walk away and went to have a look and even saw a marching band. We also saw the huge number of people waiting to enter and we resolved to get up early one morning to avoid the queue, and also thought our photos might be better with a clear sky …

Another afternoon, another gelato – this time gelato by Claudio Torce who pioneered the natural gelato movement in Rome. My passion fruit and raspberry cone was Jewel coloured and delicious, while Chris continues in his search for the best coffee and pistachio gelato in Rome.

We also checked out some local restaurants and ended up having dinner at Ristorante Cantina 26, possibly the only restaurant in Rome serving vegan dishes as well as a regular menu, which meant Chris had an option of a main course which wasn’t pizza or pasta! The food was excellent – courgette flowers stuffed with anchovies then fettuccine with sea bass and artichokes for me and artichokes, pumpkin and cinnamon risotto and then tofu in tomato sauce for Chris and a lovely bottle of local white wine. We thought we would get a little exercise after dinner and walked to St Peter’s square to see it lit up at night. While we were there, a group of several hundred people processed into the square singing, knelt and prayed, then got up and left. It was very moving.

Tivoli has always been a bit of a retreat from the city, sitting in the countryside, perched on a hill catching the breeze. In classical times it was a retirement spot for wealthy Romans and during the Rennaissance became the playground of the moneyed classes. Our train headed east out of the city with tickets just costing just €3 each and an hour later we were in Tivoli.

Our B&B, Le Pietre Larghe was a short walk and very pretty with a courtyard and a romantic room.

We then headed straight out to Villa d’Este, once a convent then transformed in 1550 into a country villa for Cardinal Ippolito d’Este.

The villa itself contains a number of Mannerist frescos, but most people come for the gardens, which descend from the villa in a succession of terraces with some amazing fountains along the way.

Next morning, we started with Villa Gregoriana, which isn’t a villa at all, but landscaped gardens created when Pope Gregory XVI diverted the river to reduce flooding in 1831 and surprisingly free with our National Trust card! The path zigzagged down past a couple of stunning waterfalls, The Grand Cascade and the Bernini Waterfall, then climbed the other side with views of the Temple of Vesta.

We were going to get the bus out to Villa Adriana, but Antonio insisted on driving us there, which was incredibly kind. This was probably the most sumptuous villa in the Roman Empire, built in 135AD as a retirement home for the Emperor Hadrian. Having walked through Hadrian’s Wall (ha, ha) we reached the Pecile or huge pool.

The Canopus was another huge pool with a banqueting area, complete with statuary and a crocodile.

The site was huge, with lots of ruins, and it was really peaceful walking round, but unfortunately the splendid Teatro Marittimo, with an island within a circular pond surrounded by columns was closed for renovation.

There is always time for gelato and today Marianina’s won our custom … liquorice flavour was certainly a first for me!

Early evening and we went for an Aperol spritz and some cheese to nibble on before dinner at Vino Tinto, a small local restaurant serving rich Roman food. We ordered far too much – a pasta dish each, both with asparagus but one with tomatoes and the other with porcini and truffle then Chris followed with smoked cheese and porcini and I had pork with truffles and walnuts – we rolled home!

Tomorrow we catch the train back to Rome …

Today we started by exploring Travestere which was the artisan area of the city in classical times.  Located across the Tiber and outside the city walls, Travestere means ‘across the Tiber’.

Trastevere maintains its character thanks to its narrow cobbled streets lined by ancient houses and feels more like a small town in the countryside than a suburb of Rome.

We began with two churches first, each with a story. Santa Cecilia in Travestere is uninspiring from the outside, but stands on the site of the home of St Cecelia, whose husband Valerian was executed for refusing to worship Roman gods. She was locked in the calderium or hot room of her own baths for several days but refused to die and sang through the ordeal, making her the patron saint of music. Her head was finally hacked off with an axe although it took several blows before she expired. But guess what, there are mosaics here too, from the C9th showing Paschal I who founded the church being presented to Christ by St Cecelia.

Santa Maria in Travestere is built on the site where a fountain of oil is said to have sprung on the day of Christ’s birth and is held to be the first place of Christian worship in Rome, but we are here for the apse mosaics, similarly in style to the others we have seen, but well lit and we were able to get quite close. Unfortunately the mosaic outside was being restored.

Nearby is the C16 Villa Farnesina, a summer villa built for Agostini Chigi, the richest man in Rome, as a retreat from the city where he lived with his lover and entertained lavishly. He encouraged guests to throw the silver dishes into the river at parties but his servants secretly collected them with nets draped under the windows!

He commissioned fabulous frescos in many of the rooms including the Galatea fresco painted by Raphael depicting a sea nymph on her dolphin-drawn scallop shell chariot, and Cupid and Psyche surrounded by fabulous garlands with fruit and vegetables and the Sala Delle Prospettive where trompe-l’oeil balconies appear to give views over Rome.

Here’s a view of the pretty Ponte Sisto with St Peter’s in the distance.

Following in the footsteps of Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday, stopped at the Bocca della Verita or Mouth of Truth, an enormous Roman drain cover which was said to swallow the hand of anyone who did not tell the truth. There was a huge queue of people waiting to test their honesty, so I snapped someone else’s moment of truth!

We climbed up to the Capitoline Hill, which in the days of imperial Rome, was the spiritual and political centre and the name comes from Capit mundi, or head of the world, and passed between the statues of Castor and Pollux.

The Piazza dei Campidoglio was redesigned by Michelangelo for Pope Paul III who wanted a symbol of the new Rome to impress Charles V. The site was difficult as the buildings did not face each other squarely, and the whole site sloped. Michelangelo remodelled the palazzi, and designed an egg-shaped design on the pavement which draws the eye to the central statue of Marcus Aurelius, transforming the piazza into a harmonious space despite being trapezoid. The thing that surprised me most was that in Rome where everything is bigger than you expect, this was actually smaller!

We ended the afternoon at the Catacombes de Priscilla, far less busy than those along the Appian Way and more interestingly open! There are some 13km of tunnels on three levels, dug into the soft tufa rock between the 5th and 9th centuries. After that they were forgotten till they were rediscovered in the C16. Many tombs had been looted and there are no bones remaining in the section we visited, but rows of body sized cavities one above the other in the soft brown rock on each side of the tunnels.

High humidity has destroyed most of the fresco but scraps remain, including Mary and Jesus, the Magi and the Good Shepherd.

We made a gelato stop at Rivareno on the way home (excellent mango) and later returned to Trattoria Re di Roma for another lovely dinner.

We started our day with a walk round a couple of Rome’s 900 or so churches. Byzantine mosaics have always held an attraction, as despite their age, they retain jewel-like colour and sparkle and we hadn’t realised that several of Rome’s early basilicas have excellent examples. First up is Santa Maria Maggiore, one of Rome’s four basilicas, second only to St Peters in importance and containing one of the best preserved Byzantine interiors and lots of mosaics. A service was being held, so we had to stand at the back and couldn’t get a good look at the mosaics in the apse, however we took a short tour to the loggia, so see the mosaics telling the miracle of the snow in which Mary appeared to Liberius in his sleep telling of snow and lo and behold snow fell in August showing where the church should be built. This is still celebrated annually with a festival including petals falling and lots of fake snow!

Santa Prassede occupies the site where St Praedes harboured Christians on the run from persecution. She collected blood and remains of martyrs which she put in the well where she was later buried. No service here, and we got quite close to the apse, but the lighting was poor and the altar canopy obscured part of the apse. The better mosaics were in the mausoleum chapel built for Theodora, mother of Pope Paschal I which is decorated like a sparkly jewelry box although the photos don’t do it justice at all.

Next the main event of the day was to look at remains of Ancient Rome. We started with the forum which was the centre of early Rome with government offices, temples, shops and meeting places.

Well what to say, there were lots of ruined bits and pieces of buildings that were very old and we caught some atmospheric snaps.

We then climbed up to the Palantine Hill which was the most desirable address in Rome and has ruins of various residences as well as baths and a stadium for exercising horses.

Last, but not least, the Colosseum, which is very large and very impressive and presently undergoing a €25m renovation to spruce it up.

Everywhere in Rome seems to be in chaos due to the building of the third metro line, which is causing large areas to be cordoned off with diggers in action.

We thought we might end the day as we began, with a couple more churches containing mosaics and stopped at Santi Cosma and Damiano, entered through a lovely Renaissance cloister and containing naturalistic mosaics in the apse of the two saints being presented to Christ by St Peter and St Paul with St Felix and St Theodore looking on.

Finally, San Clemente, a C12 basilica with quite a stunning interior including mosaics and frescos but unfortunately no photos allowed. Downstairs is an earlier church with frescos of San Clemente and below this a mithraic temple with a statue of Mithras slaying the bull, but we were out of energy, looked at the postcards in the shop and saved the €10 each entrance.

Fortunately just a short walk to dinner at Trattoria Re di Roma, a pretty restaurant with great food, both of us having salad and pasta – we might return tomorrow!

Have you noticed the photos are a little under-par? Well I have a new camera and it and I are not quite seeing eye to eye at the moment. The results are not a patch on my old camera – in my view grainy and not crisp. Anyway I’m stuck with it for the rest of the trip, but unless it pulls its socks up it won’t be coming away with me again!

The Via Appia Antica is the old Roman Appian Way, which ran from Rome down to the port of Brindisi. It was the most important of all the Roman trade routes and is the only Roman landmark mentioned in the Bible. The stretch close to Rome is now part of a nature and archaeological park and we’ve chosen to come on a Sunday as it is closed to traffic.

We got off the bus and picked up a map at the visitor centre close to the church of Domine Quo Vadis, where legend says St Peter met the risen Christ then set off The Appian Way was an important part of early Christian Rome and its verges would have been lined with pagan and Christian sites, including underground catacombs of the early Christians. Roman law forbade burial within the city and most Romans were cremated, but for some reason, the Christians chose to dig tunnels out of the soft tufa rock. We would have taken a look, but one complex was closed for the day and the other shut for lunch as we arrived … Italy!

We kept walking and reached the remains of the Villa and Circus of Maxentius, where it was possible to make out the starting gates for the huge chariot racetrack.

Further along we came to the Tomb of Cecilia Metella, converted to a castle in the C14 but now just another ruin in the fields.

Everyone was was out on a Sunday – families for a short stroll, walkers with purpose, lots of people who had hired bikes and dog walkers – all enjoying a sunny day and a breath of fresh air so close to the bustling city.

From here on the road goes through proper countryside and parts of the road are still made of original Roman slabs.

The verges contain bits and pieces of ancient shrines and tombs and it all felt quite atmospheric and we stopped on the way to eat our sandwich and watch people passing by.

We walked on to the Villa dei Quintili, a huge suburban villa built by an influential Roman family and wandered through the ruins then made our way back to the city.

Luckily we passed Billy’s reminding us it had to be gelato time and today I thought my amaretto cherry and fruits of the forest combo was the winner!

Later we went to SinFraso Bistro for dinner where salad and mixed seafood pasta for me and bruschetta and burger for Chris brought us to the end of the day.

We didn’t have the smoothest start to our trip this morning, as just as we were about to leave for Gatwick at 5.30, I realised I’d forgotten to book the parking. Fortunately this was soon sorted online, but once on our way we saw diversion signs as the M3 was closed, but we still arrived at Gatwick in plenty of time to enjoy breakfast before our flight. We arrived in Rome to a grey sky and a bit of drizzle, but by the time we had made our way by bus and metro to B&B Blue Roma, the sun had come out. The B&B is on the 6th floor of a smart apartment block, fortunately with a lift and close to the metro and local restaurants. We have a large and comfortable room and a breakfast of bread, pastries and coffee sets us up for the day.

We are staying near San Giovanni in Laterno, to the south-east of the city, named for the basilica which is officially the cathedral of Rome and the seat of the pope as bishop of Rome. The first church was built here by Constantine in the C4th but it had a makeover by Borromini in the C17. The Lateran Palace was the original papal residence in the Middle Ages, but when the papacy returned from Avignon in the C14th, it was in ruins and the pope moved into the Vatican instead. It also has the tallest of the eight ancient Egyptian obelisks in Rome standing outside. I wasn’t expecting to like the cathedral particularly, but I was impressed. The huge porch contains a statue of Constantine at the end and the doors are from the Curia or Senate House of the Roman Forum. A service was in progress as we went inside and the singing added to the atmosphere. The nave is lined with monumental Baroque statues of the saints, each with its attribute like Bartholemew who was flayed alive! The ceiling is gilded and draws your eye towards the Gothic baldacchino or canopy over the altar and the mosaic covered apse behind, which while splendid, replaces the lost originals.

In the piazza behind the basilica is the Lateran Obelisk, the largest standing ancient Egyptian obelisk in the world, and One of eight brought from Egypt to Rome by various Emperors.

We fancied a walk so set off to the Baths of Caracalla, named for one of the most brutal and shortest-lived rulers of Rome, but close to where we are staying. The stone pines in the surrounding gardens made a great photo op with the ruins.

The complex is huge, and really gives an idea of how monumental Roman architecture was. There is a long central hall with baths rounds the outside, an Olympic size swimming pool, and vast courtyards used for sports.

On our way back we stopped at Gelabo gelato, and Chris’s choice of coffee and pistachio was a winner.

Later, we had super thin and crispy pizza at Trattoria Simonetta, a family run place with red checked tableclothes and a constant stream of pizza takeaway customers just round the corner from our B&B.

 

It’s easy to decide to spend ten days in Italy, soaking up the sunshine and enjoying the food and wine, especially since we haven’t been for a couple of years … but where should we go?

Last time I was in Rome, my daughter was only a year old and I remember pushing her in the buggy across St Peter’s Square. Chris has been to Rome too, but not to the Vatican City at all … and we both felt it was time to see the Sistine Chapel, among Rome’s other treasures.

So we are staying a few days in the south-east of the city near the Pope’s original residence, the Lateran Palace and a few days in the north-west of the city near the Pope’s present residence, the Vatican and in between we are taking the train, escaping to the countryside and visiting villas in Tivoli.

With so much to see it’s jolly lucky our Roman Holiday is lasting longer than a day and hopefully the pizza and pasta won’t slow us down!

Journal Entries

The Lateran Basilica – 6 May 2017

The Appian Way – 7 May 2017

Ancient Rome – 8 May 2017

Travestere – 9 May 2017

Tivoli Villas – 10 May 2017

Castel Sant’Angelo – 12 May 2017

Villa Borghese – 13 May 2017

Art Noveau in Rome – 14 May 2017

Centro Storica – 15 May 2017

Vatican City – 16 May 2017

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