lunedì 27 agosto 2007

La fontana delle tartarughe



The Tortoise Fountain was strongly wanted by the Duke Antonio Mattei (a member of an important family of the Middle Ages that had hegemony over the entire left bank of the tiber river).
The lengend tells that the Mattei Duke wanted to marry a beautiful and rich girl but her father didn’t want because as he said: "the duke was of noble origin but he was a penniless (uno squattrinato)!"

Look at the picture: the window at the right side of the main door, the small window...
As the Mattei knew it, he decided to show to his father in law what he was able to do in only one night and… realized the Tortoise Fountain in order to say "Ecco cosa e' capace di realizzare in poche ore uno 'squattrinato' Mattei" (here it is what is able to do a penniless mattei in only one night!!). Naturally the wedding was celebrated and, in order to nobody could never show at window (that one from which he saw the fountain for the first time), the mattei’s father in law decided to wall it and........

nowdays it’s still closed ….

giovedì 23 agosto 2007

Il Vittoriano

The main topic of the monument is represented by the inscription engraved on the propilei: "PATRIAE UNITATI" "CIVIUM LIBERTATI"
(from the latin: “to the unity of the native land” “to the freedom of citizens”)


This magnificent monument was devised when Rome became the Capital of Italy in the 1871 as an attitude of gratitude to the man who makes it happen: King Vittorio Emanuele II. At that time was necessary to create a symbol that point out the passage from the Papal State (until 1870 the so called "Papa Re") to a Laic one.

Today we don’t want to spend time talking about the historical aspects of the monument (if you need look here!), we want to suggest you a nice thing to do when you are there…

take the PANORAMIC ELEVATOR!
35 seconds and you'll be on the top of the city!!
Here is what you'll see looking at your right and...
here what you'll see looking at your left!


The entrance to the monument is free but the panoramic elevator costs 7 euro. Is open all days from 10 am to 16 pm (NO on monday) and it has a forced route, look at the image below...

You'll have a great panoramic view on the city, don't miss!

martedì 14 agosto 2007

Rome's Ghetto

Rome's Jewish community claims to be the oldest in the world, as it is known to exist since the late 2nd century BC, when slaves were brought here from Palestine, under roman rule. During the early years and throughout the Middle Ages, the roman Jews had no problems in living side by side with the local Christian population; their main activity was trade. But hard times came during the late Renaissance, when the Church of Rome, following the Protestant schism, gave a sharp turn of the screw against the non-Christian population. The newly elected pope Paul IV decided to enclose the whole Jewish community within a very small enclosed area, and issued strict discriminatory laws.
Detail of the ghetto in a map by G.B.Falda (1676), featuring the three early gates (in red), the ones opened by Sixtus V (in blue) the Porch of Octavia (1st arrow) and the church of St.Gregory (2nd arrow on the right);a further gate was built in the 1800s on the spot marked with the 3rd arrow below

The neighborhood, known as the ghetto, comprised the few narrow streets located between piazza Giudea (no longer there) by the church of Santa Maria del Pianto, the remains of the Porch of Octavia and the river bank by the Tiber Island. Following Paul IV's bull entitled Cum nimis absurdum (literally "when too much is absurd", actually "when enough is enough"), issued in 1555, the 3,000 members of the community were forced to live within the ghetto's boundary, originally called 'the Jews' enclosure', whose total surface was about 8 acres. The dwellers were allowed to leave this neighborhood only during daytime, while from dusk till dawn the entrances to the district were closed by huge doors, watched over by guards, whose wages the same community had to pay for. Originally the gates were three, but only a few decades later, when pope Sixtus V had the ghetto slightly enlarged towards the river, their number rose to five. Neither the gates nor their doors exist any longer, but old maps still feature them quite clearly. Those who were left outside after the closing time were to face the implacable papal law court. Outside the ghetto all Jewish men had to wear a piece of yellow cloth on their hat, while women had to wear a yellow veil, or a scarf of the same colour, so to be easily recognized.
They could not own any property, the houses where they lived belonged to non-Jews, who rented them to members of the community and the only job they could live on was to sell rags.
On Saturdays, the adult members of the community had to attend the so-called compulsory preaches, sermons whose purpose was to convert them to the Christian religion; only within the ghetto's boundary, the Jews were allowed to follow their own religion.
Besides the discriminations, the ghetto's dwellers had to endure several humiliating traditions and rituals. For instance, during the celebrations for Rome's Carnival, usually held in February, a number of elderly Jews was forced to race along the central high street, while the crowd mocked them, and threw all sorts of trash; this custom was later turned into a horse race.

Nowdays the ghetto's gates no longer exist, but the hinges of one door (far left) are still visible in via della Reginella

Only in 1870, when the papal rule over Rome came to an end, the doors of the hideous enclosure were finally opened. The roman Jews were then let free to leave this area, and were given once again the same civil rights as the Christian citizens. A few restaurants in the neighborhood keep alive Jewish-roman cooking, a very old tradition which blends typical Jewish dishes with roman ones, such as the famous fried artichokes. The so-called "fagottari", patrons who used to carry their own food in a bundle (fagotto), thus ordering only wine, are no longer seen, as this custom has died out (since the moment that a tradition never dies totally......you can still today carry your own food and ordering wine in some wine cellars in Frascati).

Old houses in via di Sant'Ambrogio: the streetwas annexed to the ghetto around 1830

By the turn of the 20th century, not long after the ghetto had been opened, some of the original houses of the district were taken down, the streets were enlarged, and new buildings rose. But the surviving lanes of this neighborhood, a silent nook embedded in the heart of bustling Rome, have maintained their magical atmosphere, a very particular blend of history, architecture and tradition (too see photos look here).

Via del Portico d'Ottavia on one side still hasa row of ancient houses (15th-16th centuries)

Take time to visit the Ghetto & eat kosher is a really nice experience to have!
OPS...don't forget to try the most appreciated pastry called "Il Forno del Ghetto"!

lunedì 13 agosto 2007

La Meridiana di Augusto

Approximately seven meters under the street level in Via del Campo Marzio 48, under ten centimeters of limpid water illuminated by appropriate lamps, appears a great slabs of “travertino” marble on which, in horizontal and vertical bronze lists, like parallels and meridians, are reproduced the zodiac signs of the constellations of the Ram, the Taurus, the Lion and the Vergine. Draft of a “slice” of the great solar clock (a sundial), realize from the Emperor Augusto in the 10 a.C. that extended itself in a wide zone of the Campo Marzio (included between Via della Lupa and the public square of S. Lorenzo in Lucina).
Piazza Montecitorio
The great obelisk, that you can now see in Piazza Montecitorio, served as “gnomone” (the part of the sundial which showed its shadow on the the face indicating hour, day and month).
In the past, every year during the sunset of the 23 september (in the day and at the hour of the Emperor Augusto’s birthday) the sundial projected a shadow on the “Ara Pacis”, as a homage to the Emperor of the peace. The great and magnificent “clock” worked for approximately 50 years then it was ruined by earthquakes and by the alluviums of the Tiber river which, in those circumstances, deposited wide layers of mire on the wide slabs of the clock-calendar.
Ara Pacis

venerdì 10 agosto 2007

Domus Romana

Here we are again with the 2nd part of our yesterday post about the Domus and the Insula.
A domus was the form of house that wealthy families owned in ancient Rome (the middle classes and the poor were housed in crowded apartment blocks, known as insule, while the country houses of the rich were known as villas). The domus included multiple rooms, and an indoor courtyard: the atrium, which was the focal point of the domus, off which were cubicula (bedrooms), an altar to the household gods, a triclinium where guests could lie on couches and eat dinner whilst reclining, and a tablinum (living room or study) and celle (shops on the outside, facing the street).
Glass windows weren't readily available: glass production was in its infancy, and the cost would have been prohibitive, but this exterior blankness did give the occupiers the advantage of protecting themselves from outside noise, intruders, and the elements. Homeowners tended to view their exterior walls as public property, and they quickly became filled with political graffiti. Wealthy homeowners often rented out the two front rooms of their homes to merchants if they lived on busy streets. Thus a wealthy Roman citizen lived in a large house separated into two parts, and linked together through the tablinum or study or by a small passageway.
The house would not face the streets to protect the family from burglars. Because of this, the entrance to the house was directly on the street, providing more room for living spaces and gardens behind. The atrium was the most important part of the house, where guests and dependents (clientes) were greeted. The atrium was open in the centre, surrounded at least in part by high-ceilinged porticoes that often contained only sparse furnishings to give the effect of a large space. In the center was a square roof opening called the compluvium in which rainwater could come, draining inwards from the slanted tiled roof. Directly below the compluvium was the impluvium, a shallow rectangular pool to gather rainwater, which drained into an underground cistern. The impluvium was often lined with marble, and around which usually was a floor of small mosaic.
The back part of the house was centred around the peristyle much as the front centred on the atrium. The peristylium was a small garden often surrounded by a columned passage, the model of the medieval cloister. Surrounding the peristyle were the bathrooms, kitchen and summer triclinium. The kitchen was usually a very small room with a small masonry counter wood-burning stove. The wealthy had a slave who worked as a cook and spent nearly all his or her time in the kitchen. During a hot summer day the family ate their meals in the summer triclinium to stave off the heat. Most of the light came from the compluvium and the open peristylium. There were no clearly defined separate spaces for slaves or for women. Slaves were ubiquitous in a Roman household and slept outside their masters' doors at night; women used the atrium and other spaces to work once the men had left for the forum.
Welcome to our Domus!

giovedì 9 agosto 2007

Insula Romana

Today i want to explain you the reason why I’ve chosen, for A Night in Rome Apartments, the name of “Domus” and “Insula”.
Do you know who has invented the modern “condominio” (the building with more plans) ?
The Romans, obviously!
They were the first civilisation to utilise flats and apartments. Let’s see how…
In Roman architecture, insulae (derived from the Latin for islands) were large apartment buildings where the lower and middle classes of Romans (la “plebe”) dwelled. They were called so because of the way they looked from a bird's eye view. It would appear these buildings were spaced out like islands (hence the name), while being surrounded by road. The urbanization of the larger Roman cities caused a great demand for housing which was within a comparable vicinity of the city center and real estate was therefore at a premium.
Insula Romana a Piazza dell'Ara Coeli (Piazza Venezia)
As such, private houses were a luxury which only the wealthy could afford. This led to a majority of the inhabitants of the inner city living in apartment and tenement housing called insulae. The floor at ground level was used for tavernas, shops and businesses with living space on the higher floors. These houses were often constructed at minimal expenses for speculative purposes and for this reanson they dindn’t have running water or sanitation. The insulae were therefore of poor construction and prone to fire and collapse, as described by Juvenal.

Because of the inherent unsafety and extra flights of stairs, the uppermost floors were the least desirable, and thus the cheapest to rent. The insulae could be up to six or seven stories high (some were even 8 or 9 stories high- these very tall buildings were being built before the height restrictions). A single insula could accommodate over 40 people in only 400 square meters (4305 sq. feet), however the entire structure usually had about 6 to 7 apartments, each had about 200 square meters (2152 sq. feet). Because of the dangers of fire and collapse, the height of the insulae were restricted by Emperor Augustus to 70 Roman feet (20.7 m), and again by Emperor Nero down to 60 Roman feet (17.75m) after the Great Fire of Rome. There may have been up to 50,000 insulae, as compared to only 2000 domus in the late 200 A.D, when the city was in decline, and the population was smaller.

We have to say...our Insula apartment is decidedly better !! ;-)

mercoledì 8 agosto 2007

All the world in just one night...


...this is the theme for the 2007 edition of "La Notte Bianca"!
Don’t miss this important cultural event for Saturday September 8th!!!
The Notte Bianca is a great event, always characterised by multidisciplinary characteristics, walking the streets of Rome will be like walking the streets of the world..
...on a journey of discovery to near and distant countries, to the sounds and the cultures of the world, with performances and artists from the five continents and Italian productions that have adopted cultural contamination as their fundamental theme. The programme (get all information here) includes performances, concerts, plays, dance shows, magic and circus arts, contemporary art installations, fireworks, even a concert of church bells, all characterised by tradition and experimentation, merging together for one night an ensemble of artistic capabilities, cultural scope, knowledge, techniques and ways of expressing art and entertainment, all very different one from the other, and that is both multifaceted and harmonious!
You can be sure... we'll be there, won't you? ;-)

lunedì 6 agosto 2007

The crypt of the Capuchin friars

These are the days in which i would like to write & speak english seriously!But, fortunately, google translater come to me in aid...and today i'll be able to start the week talking about something.... grisly! The crypt of the Capuchin friars.
In this crypt the Capuchin friars, so called thanks to their hood attached to thei religious habit, were buried until 1870. Is estimated that there are the rests of approximately 3.700 persons whose bones were arranged all along the walls !! Over the years this place of interment, prayer and reflection for the capuchins was transformed from a burial place into the work of art that it is today. Also the Marquis De sade visit the cryp in 1775 leaving an evocative descrition of it, as many other foreign writers made after him.
Inside the crypt can be distinguished five different rooms:
1. The crypt of Resurrection
On the rear wall, various parts of the human skeleton form a frame representing the picture of Jesus commanding Lazarus to come out alive from the tomb. The Christian belief in the Resurrection provides the key to interpreting this work of funeral art.
2. Crypt of the skulls
In the tympanum, of the central niche, an hour-glass stands out with wings made of shoulder-blades representing that the time not only passes, but it flies. On the side walls you can see two Capuchins resting in curved niches. In the corridor vault, a lantern hangs from an eight-pointed star.The vault in the passageway is enhanced by a new element: a winged skull, its wings fashioned from shoulder-blades.
3. Crypt of the pelvises
The side walls contain two Capuchins serenely reclining in an arched niche. The rear wall has three niches with Capuchins leaning forward: the two at the sides under an upturned arch, while the middle one rests beneath a large "baldacchino" made of pelvises, from which hangs a fringe of vertebrae. The central "rosette" in the vault is formed by seven shoulder-blades, with hangings made of vertebrae. On either side, the decoration ends with crosses bearing the instruments of Christ's passion: the spear and the sponge on top of a staff
4. Crypt of the leg bones and thigh bones
The side walls each have four niches occupied by a Capuchin, standing and vested in the habit. Along the rear wall, the central block is a richly imaginative composition: up above, a cross enclosed in a circle; underneath, the Franciscan coat-of-arms: Christ's bare arm crossing the clothed arm of St Francis, surmounted by a crown of vertebrae. In the ground, 18 crosses mark the graves of various friars. The central oval frame in the vault contains an arrangement of jawbones decorated with vertebrae and, on either side, two large flowers made of shoulder-blades, with hangings of vertebrae. The corridor vault has three eight-pointed stars, a massive lantern hanging from the central one.
5. Crypt of the three skeletons
The two small skeletons against the rear wall are holding in one hand a skull with wings made from shoulder-blades. Impressed into the center of the vault there is a delicate skeleton enclosed within an aureole, the symbol of life coming to birth. In its right hand it holds a scythe, symbol of death which cuts down everyone, like grass in a field, while its left hand holds the scales, symbolizing the good and evil deeds weighed by God when he judges the human soul. The corridor vault is very rich and varied: four small five-pointed stars surround the other eight-pointed star from which the lamp hangs. On the wall opposite the door you see the striking design of the clock, its single face indicating the continuity of life, in time and in eternity.
"All praise be yours, my Lord,for Sister Death,from whose embrace no mortal can escape.Woe to those who die in mortal sin!Happy those She finds doingyour most holy will:by you, Most High, they will be crowned".
(St Francis of Assisi).

A complete Guidebook is available from the friar on duty.
Via Vittorio Veneto, 27
Opening hours:9-12 a.m.; 3-6 p.m.
Closed Thursdays

venerdì 3 agosto 2007

The most ancient bell and the smallest bell tower

This blog adventure started to help tourists in discovering the city's unknown beauties, small pearls lost in the Eternal city, made invisible by traffic jam, chaos and people coming & going. That's why we want to add a new tag called "A Night in Rome neighborhood" to show you the neighborhood of our apartments and help our guests in imaging how beautiful is Trastevere...
One of the unknown secrets of Trastevere has a really small size...
Where: in the ancient hamlet of Trastevere, in Piazza in Piscinula (in front of the Tiberina island). Turn your back side to the Tiber river and look just in front of you on the left side of the square, what you see is the church of Saint Benedict in Piscinula.
The church, whose name “in piscinula” comes from the presence of some thermal swimming pools rose on the public square during the roman age, rises on the rests of the Aniciorum Domus, the ancient dwelling of the Anicii’s family, to whom belonged Saint Benedict, father of “monachesimo”.
According to the tradition, Saint Benedict lived here during his stay in Rome in order to undertake the studies that, as all of us know, were interrupted by his decision to withdraw itself to Subiaco to lead life as a hermit.
What is sure is that the church, which shows ancient paintings of 1300, rose between the end of 1000 and the beginning of 1100, but nowdays it shows a different facade because it was changed in 1800 (look the first and the last image). The most interesting feature of the church are the bell tower and its bell. Both realized in pure “Romanico” style they are the smallest and the most ancient in all Rome, so lot that, set between the roofs, they seem nearly like toys !!!
The bell has a diameter of just 45 centimeters (like a pc’s keyboard!) and is also very ancient, much more than the bell tower itself ! Infact the date engraved on the bell tells: Anno Domini Millesimo Sexagesimo IX (1069).
This is, probably, the only one bell escaped from the pillage of the 1085 when the great part of the city bells desappeared. Probably the small dimension of the bell saved it from the greed of the plunderers, attracted by the bigger ones and by their powerful sound!!

If you want to take a look on the church it is opened only on Sunday morning and during the religious festivity.