Holiday in Transition # 5: Life at the Palace

Rome is one city where you, too, can live like nobility, or even like royalty!  Because of the great power and importance of the Roman Catholic Church and its headquarters in Vatican City, Rome was for centuries a mecca for the influential, wealthy, and powerful of Italy and indeed of Europe.  Palaces abound as a result.  In between the palaces are many humbler buildings which adopt some of the same architectural features such as high ceilings, sweeping staircases, tall windows and imposing entrance doors.  Almost all have now been re-purposed as apartments, offices, or hotels.

In Rome, then, even a modest hotel can feel somewhat palatial.  I remember that from the old Hotel Sorrento Patrizia where we stayed on those school tours in 1971 and 1973.  On the second stay, indeed, I was assigned with three other students into a top floor room which was quite big enough for four beds, and included a step-up balcony overlooking the busy Via Nazionale.  It's still there, now under a different name, but I have no doubt it is still a modest hotel.  And no, the ground floor restaurant on the corner where we had our breakfasts and dinners was not a McDonald's back in the 1970s!

For my stay this year, I cashed in some more frequent traveller points, this time from the Intercontinental Hotels Group plan (which includes all Holiday Inns) at the Hotel Indigo St. George.  This hotel really is pretty palatial, both in facilities and in services, and quite modern behind its centuries-old exterior.  Again, as in London, if I had to pay I probably wouldn't be staying here, comfortable as it is.

Anyway, for my second full day in Rome I decided to go on a walk through the Rome of the Renaissance -- the age which saw the construction of so many of the palaces and churches.  This area lies to the west and northwest of the ancient Rome surrounding the Forum.  Really, the churches and the palaces are totally interlinked -- because so many of the palaces belonged to either princes of the church or wealthy nobility who lavishly donated to the churches.

My first major stop was the Piazza Navona, one of the most famous public spaces of the city: the piazza itself based on the outlines of the ancient Roman stadium that once stood here, the church and the fountains all gifts of the Pope whose family owned the major palace on the piazza.

Bernini's famous Fountain of the Four Rivers is the centrepiece, and a totally stunning one at that.  Of the four river gods depicted by the sculptor, my favourite is the Nile -- modestly hiding his face behind a cloak because the source of the Nile was still unknown in Bernini's day.  And then there's the horse emerging unexpectedly out of the open grotto directly under the huge obelisk.  Definitely an engineering as well as an artistic masterpiece.

From there I proceeded onwards to the church of Santa Maria something-or-other which is more usually known by its ancient name of "Pantheon" -- because this is indeed a Roman temple, and its marvellous domed concrete roof is one of the engineering wonders of the ancient world.  In fact, it is still the largest dome in the world built of un-reinforced concrete.

It's a short walk from the Pantheon to the world-famous Trevi Fountain.  The good news is that, after a very costly two-year restoration, the Fountain was officially turned back on at the beginning of the month.  The bad news?  For whatever reason, it has been switched off and drained again.  Maintenance work continues, so no chance to fling a coin today and ensure my return to Rome.  Maybe the selfie will do the trick instead!

I also encountered the exact same problem with Bernini's spectacular Triton Fountain at the Piazza Barberini.  The joys of travelling out of the peak season....   On the way north, I passed this massive and ancient-seeming monument -- actually a traffic tunnel, built under the Quirinal Hill in 1945.  In Rome, even the modern often has to look old.  As shown on the two imposing pilasters either side off the tunnel entrance, the city still officially uses the ancient Roman monogram SPQR which stands for Senatus populusque Romanum ("The Senate and the people of Rome").

But then I came to that modest-looking street corner where there's a fountain on each of the four corners, thanks to some other bygone Pope (sorry, but I just can't be bothered tracking all their names!).  Here are just two of the four fountains, the River Tiber and the goddess Diana.

My next point of call was the modestly-sized church of Santa Maria della Vittoria.  This church was chosen by the Venetian Cardinal Cornaro as the site of his family mausoleum, and the church prospered mightily under his patronage.  For such a small building, it is almost bursting at the seams with major artworks.  But the masterpiece of all is Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Teresa.  My camera wasn't handling the indoor lighting properly for some reason on this one, but here's an internet view of this extraordinarily energetic artwork.

What none of the standard pictures show you is that on either side of the sculpture are two sets of "box seats" holding sculptures of the members of the Cornaro family watching the main event -- a most unusual means of recognizing the patron within the art work!  The entire chapel -- ceiling, walls, pillars, floor, and all -- was designed by Bernini as a coherent unit.

My next stop was undoubtedly the oldest church building in Rome next to the Pantheon.  Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri is built inside what was originally the frigidarium or cold bath of the Baths of Diocletian, completed in the early 300s AD.  It's one of several more recent structures making use of the original walls in different parts of the bath complex.  It was converted by Michelangelo, and has a soaring grandeur and simplicity perfectly in keeping with the original structure.

Cutting across the floor of the church at a sharp angle is a brass strip in the floor, marking the meridian on which Rome stands.  A cunningly placed window high up in the structure allows the sun to shine directly on the strip at local or solar noon each day, and the strip is labelled to show the location of the sun -- and several major stars -- at certain times of the year.  It's only one of several features that have led the church to describe itself as a monument of history, faith, art and science.

Time out for lunch, and then I continued on to my last stop of the day: the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.  This is one of only four Major Basilicas in the Roman Catholic Church, all located in Rome itself.  It's also the most ancient, as the main part of the present building dates originally from the years 430-432 AD.  No surprise then that it is a Romanesque building with small windows and limited natural light.  But the compensation comes with the beautiful coffered gilded ceiling and the incredible mosaic artworks decorating so much of the nave.

And at that point, tourist feet once again did me in after another five kilometres of walking.  I made my way up to the railway station nearby and then caught a cab back to base.  I put the blame largely on the streets -- all the cobblestones make for really rough walking surfaces, and I'm getting blisters in places I've never had them before.  I may even be getting blisters on my blisters!

On my third and last day, I set out in the morning to visit the Vatican Museums.  Nothing proves the immense size of this complex so much as the fact that it seemed completely uncrowded and spacious throughout my visit -- with the single (unsurprising) exception of the Sistine Chapel.  And that was exactly where I encountered that bizarre species of tourist who, having shelled out thousands of dollars to travel so far from home and encounter one of the artistic wonders of the world, sits there calmly talking to a friend about the trivial problems of everyday at home.  I have the exact same reaction as the late author Helene Hanff: at first I feel sorry for them, and then I just want to smack them.

Anyway, here are just a few of my favourite sights in the Vatican Museums, with the exception of the Sistine Chapel where no photography is allowed.  First up, this elaborately-detailed frieze on a sarcophagus.

Next, the world-famous Laocoon sculpture group, which surprised me by being much smaller than I expected -- not much over life size.

Raphael's magnificent fresco, The School of Athens.

It intrigues me that the perspectives of this picture go all wonky as soon as you move one step away from the dead-centre line of the room.  And here are a couple of masterpieces from the medieval collections.

After leaving the Museums, I walked around to Piazza San Pietro where the Nativity Scene is now under construction for the Christmas season.

However, I took one look at the lineup to enter the basilica (around the far side of the piazza), and my aching feet resolutely declined, with thanks, to stand around any longer.  So I just walked back to my hotel, and on the way took this picture of the old papal fortress, the Castel Sant'Angelo.

What this picture proves pretty conclusively is that, no matter how superbly conditioned an athlete she may have been, Tosca couldn't possibly have leaped from the ramparts and landed in the River Tiber.  It's pretty close to 100 metres distance.