As I was riding into Rome from the airport yesterday, rolling past the walls of the Vatican and across the Tiber, I was having trouble believing that it's actually been over forty years since I was last here. To be quite precise, it was on a school-organized trip from York Mills Collegiate in Toronto in the spring break of 1973.
I have a few vivid memories of that trip, some of which had better not be published! But I always chuckle at the thought that a tour company which specialized in arranging student tours would book their clients into a hotel whose ground floor consisted of a restaurant, a bar and a cheap wine shop! I also remember the tiny elevator up the centre of the hotel's stairwell which could hold 4 people and no luggage at a pinch, and whose doors were mounted on hinges and had to be manually opened and closed. There were also a couple of parties -- but perhaps we shouldn't go there!
Rome is one of the most remarkable cities on the planet for the unrivalled co-existence of so many different periods of history all at the same time. If history is regarded as a layer cake (actually, more of an archaeological way of viewing things), then Rome is the side that's left exposed when a slice is taken out of the cake. Although my first day in Rome was dedicated to viewing the ruins of the ancient Roman republic and empire, the other and more recent layers continually intruded -- a typical experience.
This is going to be a photo-rich blog post, so we'd better get right on with it. It takes about 30-45 minutes, depending on choice of road, to walk from my hotel to the Piazza Venezia. Along the way, here are a couple of highlights. First out the door, the narrow but arrow-straight Via Giulia on which my hotel is located, one of the few truly straight streets in Rome.
The Palazzo Farnese, one of the most beautifully symmetrical of the many palaces built in Rome during the Renaissance period, and now the home of the French Embassy. Lucky ambassador!
The Chiesa del Gesu, formerly the head church of the Jesuit Order. Beautiful Baroque churches like this are a dime a dozen in Rome, with at least one on almost every street, but this one really takes the cake for its incredibly ornate and beautifully painted interior.
At the Piazza Venezia modernity intrudes -- albeit in the form of a structure designed in the height of the Classic Revival style. This is the massive memorial to King Victor Emmanuel I, the first King of united Italy. It was built and decorated between 1885 and 1925, and is now officially entitled Altare della Patria ("Altar of the Fatherland"). Due to its height, it's readily visible from many areas of Rome. It's always attracted controversial argument, partly due to its massive size and pomposity, and partly due to the glaring white marble that contrasts all too successfully with the grey and brown tones of many surrounding buildings. I can never forget that Maria von Trapp described it as resembling at first glance a gleaming set of dentures.
This memorial stands right on the edge of the ancient Roman Forum. There are actually a number of fora, to give the Latin word its proper plural form. There's the original ancient Forum:
There's the Forum of the Emperor Trajan, which includes his remarkable column with its spiral ascending line of bas-relief carved figures:
There's the Marketplace of Trajan, immediately adjoining the Trajan Forum. Although I now know that this is largely a restored structure, I recall that as a teenager I found its gaping empty arches somewhat creepy.
Next you come to the Forum of Augustus, with its platform that looks for all the world ready for the next speaker to get up and begin spinning out magnificent oratory to wow the crowds.
One of the smartest decisions made by Roman authorities since the 1970s has been to close the adjacent Via dei Fori Imperiale to traffic, making it into a wide and welcoming pedestrian street linking all the ancient monuments together. On this Sunday morning, with the blazing sunshine and tolerably comfortable temperatures, I took particular note of this musician playing on a cimbalom.
As I continued east to the Colosseum, I couldn't help noticing that overpriced bus tours, shops, and restaurants are now passe. All the sidewalk touts -- and I do mean all of them -- are busy selling selfie sticks. That inspired me to take the first of several selfies -- without a stick!
I took that one just as I was passing the massive remaining north side of the Basilica of Maxentius, a building that in imperial times would have housed a law court and a public discussion/debate space.
It's notable that the governments of Rome, and of Italy, take very seriously their mission to preserve these ancient monuments into the future, and to continue the work of uncovering and restoring still more of them.
And so we come to the Flavian Amphitheatre, better known as the Colosseum. The name, by the way, probably does not derive from the size of the arena but from the fact that a colossal bronze statue of Nero stood beside it in classical times, and up until about the year 1000.
The second photograph includes in the foreground the stones of an ancient Roman highway.
South of the Colosseum can be found the Circus Maximus, a much larger arena. In your mind's eye, take the famous chariot race from Ben-Hur and superimpose Charlton Heston and all the rest on this view -- because this was the venue for chariot racing.
The huge ruins in the background are the remains of the imperial palace of Septimius Severus, a southward extension of the older palaces on the other side of the Palatine hill overlooking the Forum.
Speaking of the Forum (or Fora), bet you thought we were through with those! Not on your life. Just down the hill, close by the Tiber River, are these two small restored temples which mark the site of the Forum Boarium -- the cattle market!
A turn north from here brings you uphill towards the Theatre of Marcellus -- a genuine Roman theatre which has undergone certain modifications and modernizations in the centuries since it was first built.
Not far past this impressive structure, you come to the Cordonata, the stepped ramp leading up to the piazza on the summit of the Capitoline Hill.
Here, as nowhere else in Rome, the multiple layers of the city's history are all on view in one single location. The church of Santa Maria Aracoeli at the top left was originally built somewhere before the ninth century, as it was brought under control of the papacy in that century. The facade is of a later date, early Gothic. The piazza at the top of the Cordonata has a replica of the ancient bronze statue of Emperor Augustus on horseback.
Behind it to the left stands the Palazzo Senatorio, dating from the 13th century. Next to it is the medieval Palazzo dei Conservatori. In the 1500s, Michelangelo was commissioned to redesign the Capitoline Hill. He built the Palazzo Nuovo on the left, remodelled the Palazzo dei Conservatori to be its twin, added the bell tower to the Palazzo Senatorio, and then built the Cordonata which reoriented the entire hilltop away from the ancient Forum and towards the (then) modern Papal city, -- above all, towards St. Peter's and the Vatican. Michelangelo was also responsible for the intricate design of interlocked white lines in the pavement, although this was not actually built until the twentieth century. All in all, this is one of the earliest and most remarkable examples of careful urban planning in the world.
The modern layer is also supplied, of course, by the traffic roaring past the foot of the hill!
A longer-than-usual post focusing mainly on the remains of Ancient Rome.
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