Off to Italy-2005
Trip Start
Jul 21, 2005
1
15
Trip End
Aug 05, 2005
Toronto,
Ontario,
Canada
Friday, July 22, 2005
We were scheduled to leave Toronto at 4:30 p.m. but the flight was delayed until 7:30 p.m. Stop over at Pescara, Italy on the Adriatic Coast was 1.5 hours, finally arrived in Rome at 1:30 p.m. local time. Car service picked us up at the airport to take us to Trastevere, to the Hotel Santa Maria. www.htlsantamaria.com
The hotel is a 17th century cloister and has 19 rooms all built around a delightful courtyard garden just around the corner from Piazza Santa Maria. It's a beautiful, quiet haven enclosed behind a protective fence in the heart of the labyrinthine lanes. The staff are very friendly and helpful.
After a brief rest in our beautiful room, we set about exploring the neighbourhood.
The piazza is a true Roman Square--by day it's full of mothers with prams, chatting locals and wandering tourists, by night there are artisans selling their craftwork, young Romans looking for a good time and the odd homeless person looking for a hand out and a bed. It has a beautiful large fountain in the centre and is lined with shops and restaurants on three sides.
This square was for all of the history of Trastervere district its real centre and remains that way today. The fountain has stood since the middle of the 15th century and was reconstructed by C. Fontana in 1692 and again restored in the 19th century.
The piazza stands on the place where the three most important roads of Trastevere cross: via della Lungaretta (16th century), via della Scala (16th century) and via di S. Francesco a Ripa (17th century).
The best time of day to visit this square is the evening and night time, when the soft lights of the street lamps create the atmosphere of past centuries and cover the damage brought to this piece of history by time and people.
One of the beautiful buildings lining the square is on the site of Palazzo di S. Callisto. This palace was erected for the cardinals responsible for the life of the Basilica. The present palace was built in 1613 in the times of Paul V in compensation for the expropriation of their Benedictian monastery by the Pope for the construction of his Palazzo Pontificio del Quirinale.
At the fourth end is the magnificent Basilica di Santa Maria, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. First built in AD337, the present structure was built in the 12th century and contains a Romanesque bell tower and facade, with a mosaic of the Virgin from the 12 century. Inside there are 22 ancient Roman Columns and a 17th century wooden ceiling. The mosaics in the apse date from 1140. The interior is breath taking, and the little rooms off the main contain beautiful works of art.
This church occupies the 5th place in the hierarchy of Roman churches after St. Peter's, St. Paul's, St. John's and Santa Maria Maggiore for its ancient origins as well as for being the first dedicated to Madonna. It is the first among so called "minor basilicas" and it was the church which more often substituted far away basilica of St. Paul in the obligatory visits of pilgrims in the years of calamity and pestilence.
According to a tradition the church was founded by Pope Callistus I in 217-222 and was finished by Julius 1 in 352. In the 9th century Gregory IV conducted some works here to deposit the bodies of saints brought from the catacombs in danger to be damaged by Saracens. But radical and decisive was the total reconstruction of the church in the 12th century begun by Innocent II and completed by Eugenius III, who also built the bell-tower in 1145-1153.
The other works were executed in 1584 by Cardinal Marco Sitico Altemps, while in 1617 the ceiling was created.
In 1702, C. Fontana created the portico. The facade is decorated with mosaics of the 13th century. The portico with the five entrances is crowned by a balustrade of statues. The interior is a basilica plan with three naves divided by two rows of 22 granite columns. The ceiling was designed by Domenichino in 1617.
After exploring the neighbourhood, we walked toward the river crossing over the Ponte Garibaldi. Stopping to take photos of Isola Tiberina the island in the middle of the river, we continued to walk along the river heading toward Circus Maximus and the Colosseum.
We made a brief stop at Chiesa Di S. Maria in Cosmedin taking a moment to look at the portico containing the "Bocca della Verita" the Mouth of Truth. After picking up a snack at a nearby truck, we sat on the steps watching the comings and goings of tourists. The snack by the way was a slice of pizza (avoid truck pizza at all costs!) but it filled the hole in our empty stomachs.
I was disappointed that very little of the original structure of Circus Maximus exists today, but the nearby ruins of the Palatine were interesting. We walked along the tree lined Via di San GregorioVII toward the Colosseum, taking in the spectacular views of the ruins of the Palatine on the way. The Palatine was the mythical founding place of Rome where wealthy Romans built their homes during the era of the Republic. It later became the realm of the emperors. We approached the Arco di Constantino, the arch built to honour Constantine following his victory over Maxentius at the battle of the Milvian Bridge in AD 312.
I was overwhelmed by my first sighting of the Colosseum, the three levels of arches, which are articulated by columns topped by capitals of the Ionic (bottom level), Doric and Corinthian (at the top) was an architectural marvel. I could only imagine what it must have originally looked like originally covered in travertine and accentuated with marble statues. It was easy to imagine what the area might have been like in AD 80, except for the vast number of tourists wandering from one souvenir booth to the next, and the noise of the traffic nearby.
We spent a couple of hours people watching and waited for the sun to begin to set, before grabbing a taxi back to Trastevere to go for dinner. Spent the evening in the Piazza at a wonderful restaurant, Ristorante Galeassi, (fenced in area in photo of piazza) sitting outside listening to the live concert, watching the comings and goings of the people and enjoying fabulous food and way too much wine. We enjoyed the after dinner drinks, and the after after dinner drinks while sitting at our little table. After closing the restaurant, we wandered up the alley to a little bar and had a few more drinks before turning in for the night.
