Thursday, March 21, 2013 -- Rome -- Ancient and Modern, Side by Side

Glorious sunshine greeted us this morning and so we headed across the Tiber and the Isola Tiberina, past a couple of ancient temples along the embankment and then climbed a cobbled road to the top of the Aventine, one of Rome’s seven hills.  There, we visited the church of Santa Sabina, and the adjacent Parco Savello, which offered a panoramic view of the city from a park filled with orange trees. A short stroll down the road brought us to the Basilica of Sts. Boniface and Alexis and the complex of the Knights of Malta.  The only thing on offer to the casual visitor at the latter is an amazing keyhole view of the dome of St. Peter’s, perfectly framed by a row of arching trees. Somehow, between guided groups of camera-wielding tourists, each queued for his chance at that amazing shot, Tom was able to find a few uninterrupted moments to work on changing cameras, lenses, and filters to find something that satisfied him.

Then, it was down the Aventine Hill to the Circus Maximus, the site of a Roman arena that hosted races and games on a massive scale.  It is situated at the foot of the Palatine Hill, home to the elite of ancient Rome.  We found the late-morning crowds at the Forum and the Palatine Hill too daunting, so opted to postpone our visits there and, instead, enjoyed the mosaics at the church of Sts. Cosmos and Damien, built atop the Roman Temple of Romulus in the Forum. 

As is so often the case in Rome, the Imperial Forums offer the sidewalk stroller a look at ancient ruins right alongside a busy modern thoroughfare.  We followed a walking tour of them, ending at the monumental Trajan’s Column on the busy Piazza Venezia at the foot of the Vittorio Emanuele II monument. After a visit to the church of Santa Maria di Loreto to see the painting of the Madonna flanked by St. Sebastian and ST. ROCHE (!) (on the right), we stopped in a park overlooking the piazza for a quick sandwich.

 

 

We climbed Michelangelo’s beautiful Cordonata, more ramp than staircase, to his glorious Campidoglio, atop the Capitoline Hill.  From there, we enjoyed his graceful piazza and the view of the Roman Forum “out back”. 

We had reserved tickets to tour the newly-unearthed Domus Romane this afternoon.  This massive home of an elite Roman Family sits beneath the city offices housed in the Palazzo Valentini.  As we walked on Plexiglas floors above the excavations, an excellent multimedia show helped us understand just what the opulent house beneath our feet had been like.  Marble floors and walls, mosaics, indoor plumbing, and a thermal bath complex must have made for quite a lifestyle.

After checking out the mosaics at the church of San Marco and the ruins at Largo Argentina (once more, antiquity side-by-side with a busting urban transit hub), we arrived at Il Gesu, the headquarters of the Jesuits.  This over-the-top baroque church houses the remains of St. Ignatius, the order’s founder, in a gilt vault within a gilt altar, topped by gilded altarpieces.  We had timed our visit so that we’d be able to witness the illumination of the altar, accompanied by sung and spoken prayers in Italian.  The grand finale was the lowering of the painting of the saint above the altar to reveal a bejeweled, gilt (of course) statue of Ignatius – nothing subtle there!

After happy hour at home, we walked to a local restaurant for dinner al fresco, then a stroll through Trastevere to have a look at “our” old apartment before calling it a day.