 | Rome Off the Beaten Path | Tips 1 - 10 of 851 |  |
This is posted on the "off the Beaten Path" category because I've spoken with so many people who have enjoyed an espresso in AnticoCaffe Greco but completely missed the drawing room in the back. Cafe Greco is one of the three most ancient cafes in the world (one of which is Bagdad's 416-year-old al-Mustansirya cafe by the Tigris), with a very classical atmosphere, red-velvet chairs and marble tables. There are two rooms divided by a broad arch with the library and piano in the first room (Photo 2) and the lovely group of tables and setee against the far wall (Photo 3).
It is easy to envision Rossini composing here - Gogol writing Dead Souls - Goethe, Keates writing poetry - Byron and Cassanova were regulars - Hans Christian Anderson lived above and list goes on........ If you've lost your muse or simply lost track of her - most likely she's here!
You don't want to miss the rear salon when you're there..........
Just off Piazza Spagna on Via Condotti. Phone: 06 67.82.554Other Contact: Via dei Condotti 86
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When in Rome with children between the age of 4 and 18, you may want to give them a unique experience of learning to operate an Italian vehicle on Italian streets.
Parco Scuola del Traffico is where children learn to drive mini cars and ride scooters.
Many public agencies and private corporations (Ministry of Infrastructures and Transportation, Automobile Club, Commander General of Carabinieri, etc.) sponsor this brainchild of the Society for Traffic Education. The school's main purpose is to educate the future drivers and motorcyclists by teaching them to respect traffic rules at a tender age.
Located in Parco del Ninfeo in EUR, the streets inside the school have the same layout as in real life (scale 1:2) with street signs, stoplights, crosswalks, roundabouts, a petrol station, billboards, etc.
In this safe environment, 4 and 6 year-old children learn to drive in mini electric cars, 6 to 12 year-old in mini motor cars, and 12 to 18 year-old on motor scooters.
Instructors keep watchful eyes on the children’s behaviors behind the wheels (or the scooter handles), stop them when they violate traffic rules, take points off and/or revoke their “licenses” when needed.
Each lesson last half an hour at the cost of € 8.50 for a mini car, € 9.50 for a motor scooter, plus € 3.50 for the license (bring your own picture if you wish to have it attached and stamped, but it’s not a requirement). You can also have two lessons back to back.
The school is located on Piazza Barcellona 10. It's open only in the evenings except Mondays, Tuesdays, and the whole month of August. On Sundays and legal holidays, it's open mornings and evenings. There is only one instructor who speaks passable English so you need to understand Italian enough to translate for the children.
Directions: Take Metro B toward Laurentina, get off at EUR Magliana. After exiting, turn left and walk to the fork on the road. Cross the street to Via Delle Tre Fontane. Walk along the park until you see the school sign next to a line of flagpoles. Leave a Comment
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I love windows. I love the hand-embroidered lace curtain and the small pot of flowers on the ledge. I love the glimpse of the life behind the shutters. Bookcases and light fixtures, fresco and round moldings, the back of a chair and the top of a wardrobe, all are the norm.
Then one day, I saw something out of the norm. It was a day in late July, the room was still dark inside, the window was opened to allow in the early morning fresh air. It was summer in the city, shouldn't the statue accompany the people to the seaside or the mountain to escape the heat? Leave a Comment
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There was an equal opportunity beheading in the IV century. The powers-that-be back then did not care whether you were a man or a woman, young or old, the only thing mattered was you would lose your head, literally, if they thought you intentionally annoyed them. That was exactly what happened with little Agnes.
At 12 or 13 years of age, Agnes was just a girl who went about her life like all other girls of her age. Then one day, she found herself in the court of Diocletian (Valerius Diocletianus). How she got there, no one knew, but as we learned later, there was somebody in Diocletian’s court who took a fancy to her, and she refused his advance. That was not good, but it became worse when Agnes took the opportunity (not now, Agnes!) to declare herself a Christian.
The declaration didn’t go over well with Diocletian who was actually a pretty decent person in the beginning of his reign, then became a persecutor of the Church when he started listening to Galerius. The Emperor ordered Agnes to strip off her clothes in front of the court. Little did he know, there were miracles in the world, and miraculously, Agnes’ hair grew immediately to cover her naked body.
Diocletian was really furious now -- not to mention embarrassed, and no one should embarrass an Emperor if she treasured her life -- and that’s how Agnes was decapitated in Stadio di Domitianus.
Her body was buried where the church of Sant’Agnese Fuori le Mura is now located, but her head has stayed where the tragic event happened. The Domitian became Piazza Navona. The site of her beheading became the church of Sant’Agnese in Agone. Her head rested in the room to the left, marked by the sign “Sacra Testa di Sant’Agnese”. Leave a Comment
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The thing about being beheaded is the act doesn't always bring forth a swift death. St. Cecilia experienced that three times. Three strikes and her head still did not leave her neck, this was just as strange as when she did not die after being boiled for one day and one night over a roaring fire. The executioner gave up after the third strike and left her bleeding to death instead. Three days she was laying there in her own blood, and three days she meticulously made all the arrangements of her life. She gave away the last of her assets, she preached to the crowd who gathered around her, and she made the request to Pope Urban to turn her home into a church, which he did.
In 1599, during the restoration of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere Church, Cardinal Sfondrato examined the high altar and found the sarcophagi with the relics of the saints (Cecilia, Valeriano, Tiburzio, and Massimo) and the Popes (Urbano I and Lucio I) just as Pope Pasquale I Bonosus had transported thither.
The beautiful XVI century marble statute beneath the high altar was the creation of Carlo Maderna, depicting St. Cecilia just as she had received the blows from the executioner. Leave a Comment
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Most visitors to Rome never see this church, or even hear of it, for that matter. It's just one of the more than 900 churches in Rome, most of which never get visited.
Yet it is incredibly beautiful and has a wonderful, interesting history. The polished red marble columns alone are enough to make my knees week! The altar and tabernacle by Rainaldi is impossibly, beautifully ornate.
So what and where is this little gem of a church?
Santa Maria della Scala (of the stairs), in Trastevere, the now trendy working-class neighborhood. Trastevere literally means "across the Tevere" or the Tiber River, from the historical center of Rome. The church is not far from the more famous Santa Maria in Trastevere.
Next to the church (on the right as you face it) is a preserved antique pharmacy from the 18th century, which used to service the Vatican.
For more information on the church, the reason for it's creation, and the pharmacy and how to visit it, see:
Farmacia
and
Church
Like many churches in Rome, it is closed between noon and 4 p.m. most days.
An interesting sidelight of this church involves my favorite painter, Caravaggio. He was commissioned to produce a painting for the church; the subject was the death of the virgin. The work was rejected (this happened to Caravaggio a lot, he was always getting in trouble.) In this case, perhaps because the model for the virgin was a prostitute, perhaps because her legs were exposed, or perhaps because her belly was too realistically swollen in death. In any event, the painting now hangs in the Louvre. You can see a copy of it here.
Death of the Virgin
(click on the small painting for an enlargement, then click on "Fit Width" at the top)
Address: 23 Piazza della Scala, Trastevere
Less than 300 meters northwest of Santa Maria in Trastevere, where Via della Scala turns into Piazza della Scala. Leave a Comment
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One of the most beautiful views in Rome can be seen on Aventine Hill at the Giardino degli Aranci. Giardino degli Aranci -- the orange grove -- is the common name for Parco Savello, the public park that offers a panoramic view of Rome.
Depending on where you are, take the Metro Line B towards either Laurentina or Rebibbia. In either case, get off at Circo Massimo.
If you follow Via di Santa Sabina past Giardino degli Aranci, you will reach Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta. When you are at the piazza, pay attention to the keyhole on the green door at number 3. Through this keyhole, you can see St. Peter Basilica beautifully framed by a line of cypress trees.
It has been said that from a certain part of the Aventine Hill, you can see and be in three countries at the same time. The countries are the Vatican (St Peter Basilica), Italy (a large part of Rome from Victor Emmanuel II Monument and Campidoglio to the neighbourhoods of Trastevere), and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (the ground where the piazza is situated and where the Order flag flies). Leave a Comment
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What would you do if the 14 year-old daughter of your new lover said that to you? Would you tell her no, that was outrageous? If that were your answer, you are a much better man than Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee.
At the time the request was made, Herod was married to Herodias, his half-brother’s wife who was also his niece. John the Baptist was his adviser who had publicly condemned this incestuous union and thus, annoyed Herodias a great deal.
Herodias asked Herod to put John in jail, which he did, then she decided that wasn't enough and came up with a better scheme.
She organized a birthday party for her husband and invited all his influential friends. During the feast, she presented her daughter Salome, a great dancer, as the star of the entertainment. Herod was completely charmed by Salome, he promised to give her anything her heart desired including half of his kingdom.
“Well, half a kingdom sounds very nice, great-uncle, um, I mean stepfather, but I would rather have the head of John the Baptist instead. On a silver platter, if you will?”
Herod was taken back for a moment. That was a large order indeed. He thought and thought, then decided to keep the promise. He despatched a soldier to the prison where John the Baptist was held without legal formalities. The soldier came back with a covered platter. The governor gave it to his great-niece/stepdaughter.
Without shudder, Salome accepted the dish and gave it to her mother. Herodias was gleeful. John the Baptist had became a corpse with neither a head nor a voice, thus, no one would be around to condemn her marriage to her uncle any longer.
In the mean time, the party went on; everybody ate, drank, and were merry.
Note: The head of St John the Baptist has been preserved since the XIII century in the church of San Silvestro in Capite, in a reliquary on the left of the entrance.
While you are in the church, don't miss the beautiful and moving Pietà. Leave a Comment
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The mutilated marble bust of a priestess of Isis was the property of Lady Lucrezia d'Alagno. Lady Lucrezia was a Neapolitan who was very much in love with the married King Alfonso di Aragona. She tried to obtain from the Pope the concession of the divorce for the monarch, but her attempt failed. When King Alfonso died, she left Naples, went to Rome and settled in Piazza Venezia. After her death in 1478, the statue was found in a corner of Palazzetto Venezia in Piazza San Marco.
The statue was named Madama Lucrezia after the late Lady, and it soon became a female voice and perspective to the Congress of the Witty (Congresso degli Arguti), often carried a conversation with Marforio.
Madama Lucrezia is located in Piazza San Marco. Leave a Comment
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The statue of Abate Luigi was built in the late Roman era and placed on the side of Palazzo Vidoni. It has been moved around quite a bit since then; it is now standing in Portico delle Cento Colonne, between Piazza Vidoni and Largo di Torre Argentina.
The base of the statue is engraved with this epigraph:
As an ancient Roman here I stand
With Marforio and Pasquino
'Tis the fame of satire I tend
Oh how I had offended, disgraced, and buried
But at last, life is safe and merry.
(Translation by Nathalie)
In actuality, life isn't safe and merry for Abate any more now than it was then: People often come around to steal his head (the head you see in the picture is not his). The cause of this repeated vandalism act is linked partly to his famous role of being a member of the "Congress of the Witty" (Congresso degli Arguti), or the so-called "talking statues" -- together with Pasquino, Marforio, Madama Lucrezia, Facchino, and Babbuino.
Abate Luigi is standing by Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, near the corner of Corso del Rinascimento. Leave a Comment
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on July 8, 2006
on August 8, 2005
on April 1, 2006
