We arrived in Rome on Saturday morning and proceeded directly to our hotel near the American Embassy on Via Venetto. Since none of us had really slept on the plane, we ended up falling asleep on the couches in the lobby while we waited for our room to be ready. Eventually we were able to access our room and we took another nap until it was time to get ready for dinner. We walked to the base of the Spanish Steps to meet up with the other members of the President's Tour.
The Spanish Steps (Italian: Scalinata di Trinità dei Monti) are a set of steps in Rome, Italy, climbing a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the Trinità dei Monti church at the top.
The monumental stairway of 135 steps (the slightly elevated drainage system is often mistaken for the first step) was built with French diplomat Étienne Gueffier’s bequeathed funds of 20,000 scudi, in 1723–1725, linking the BourbonSpanish Embassy, and the Trinità dei Monti church that was under the patronage of the Bourbon kings of France, both located above — to the Holy See in Palazzo Monaldeschi located below. The stairway was designed by architects Francesco de Sanctis and Alessandro Specchi.
We had a wonderful dinner with the group at a nearby restaurant. The appetizers were various spreads on bread including bruschetta, an olive tapenade, cheese and arugula. We also had a variety of fried appetizers including fried olives, fried artichoke hearts, and different kinds of suppli - balls of rice with cheese in the middle that are rolled in breadcrumbs and then deep fried. The main course was a pizza (thin crust) followed by a pistachio sorbetto for dessert. We definitely did not go to bed hungry!
We woke up early on Sunday morning and took a cab to St. Peter's Square to meet the group for a private Mass in The Chapel of the Canons inside St. Peter's Basilica. Four UD students received the Sacrament of Confirmation during the Mass. It was a beautiful service celebrated by Msgr. Thomas Fucinaro. We got to sit in the seats where the choir sits and see the dark wooden bas-reliefs up close.
The design of The Chapel of the Canons was traditionally attributed to Giacomo della Porta (1540-1602), but today it is thought to be the work of Carlo Maderno. It owes its name to the fact that the canons of the basilica used to celebrate the Liturgy of the Hours here as a choir. The gate of the chapel, usually closed, is of exquisite workmanship.
The altarpiece, by Pietro Bianchi (1694-1740), shows the Virgin Immaculate in glory surrounded by angels and venerated by Sts. Francis of Assisi, Anthony of Padua, John Chrysostom. On December 8, 1854, on the occasion of the proclamation of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, Pius IX crowned the image of Mary. To mark the 50th anniversary of the Dogma, St. Pius X added a second crown, consisting of twelve stars, gleaming with twelve brilliants, donated by various nations.
Beneath the altar are the remains of St. John Chrysostom and relics of St. Francis and St. Anthony. The paschal candle stands on a black and white marble column with a porphyry base, in accordance with Paul VI's wishes.
The vault of the chapel, divided by four Corinthian pilasters, is decorated with fine gilded stucco ornaments on a white background, showing the Creation, the Crossing of the Red Sea, the Baptism of Jesus. In the dome are the Vision of the angels and the Elect of the Apocalypse. In the vault are shown: Habakuk and the angel, Daniel in the lions' den, David, Jonah inside the whale. In the lunettes, Deborah and Barak, Judith with Holofern's head, Moses and Aaron, Ozaziah and Uzziah and Jeremiah.
The dark wooden choir against the walls has a triple row of stalls, adorned with magnificent bas-reliefs and decorations; above it on each side are two historical organs
After Mass we walked down the street from the Basilica and got coffee and breakfast pastries while we waited on our transportation to our next tour. Madeleine tried cappuccino for the first time and really liked it! Too bad they aren't as good in the US as they are here...
After a short ride in a caravan of microbuses, we arrived at the Villa Farnesina. Our tour guide was UD professor Dr. Elizabeth Robinson. She gave us an excellent summary of the history of the villa and the frescos in various rooms. After seeing the frescos, Madeleine said she wanted to do some sketching herself.
fresco by Raphael
the ceiling of the ground floor loggia
ceiling of the first floor loggia
fireplace in the room of perspectives
grafitti on the wall from when Rome was sacked by German mercenaries
outdoor gardens
The villa was built for Agostino Chigi, a rich Sienese banker and the treasurer of Pope Julius II. Between 1506–1510, the Sienese artist and pupil of Bramante, Baldassarre Peruzzi, aided perhaps by Giuliano da Sangallo, designed and erected the villa. The novelty of this suburban villa design can be discerned from its differences from that of a typical urban palazzo (palace). Renaissance palaces typically faced onto a street and were decorated versions of defensive castles: rectangular blocks with rusticated ground floors and enclosing a courtyard. This villa, intended to be an airy summer pavilion, presented a side towards the street and was given a U shaped plan with a five bay loggia between the arms. In the original arrangement, the main entrance was through the north facing loggia which was open. Today, visitors enter on the south side and the loggia is glazed.
Chigi also commissioned the fresco decoration of the villa by artists such as Raphael, Sebastiano del Piombo, Giulio Romano, and Il Sodoma. The themes were inspired by the Stanze of the poet Angelo Poliziano, a key member of the circle of Lorenzo de Medici. Best known are Raphael's frescoes on the ground floor; in the loggia depicting the classical and secular myths of Cupid and Psyche, and The Triumph of Galatea. This, one of his few purely secular paintings, shows the near-naked nymph on a shell-shaped chariot amid frolicking attendants and is reminiscent of Botticelli's The Birth of Venus. This same "Galatea" loggia has a horoscope vault that displays the positions of the planets around the zodiac on the patron's birth date, 29 November 1466. The two main ceiling panels of the vault give his precise time of birth, 9:30 pm on that date.
At first floor level, Peruzzi painted the main salone with trompe-l'œil frescoes of a painted grand open loggia with city and countryside views beyond. The perspective view only works from a fixed point in the room otherwise the illusion is broken. In the adjoining bedroom, Sodoma painted scenes from the life of Alexander the Great, the marriage of Alexander and Roxana, and Alexander receives the family of Darius.
The villa became the property of the Farnese family in 1577 (hence the name of Farnesina). Also in the 16th century, Michelangelo proposed linking the Palazzo Farnese on the other side of the River Tiber, where he was working, to the Villa Farnesina with a private bridge. This was initiated, remnants of a few arches are in fact still visible in the back of Palazzo Farnese towards via Giulia on the other side of the Tiber, but was never completed.
Later the villa belonged to the Bourbons of Naples and in 1861 to the Spanish Ambassador in Rome, Bermudez de Castro, Duke of Ripalta. Today, owned by the Italian State, it accommodates the Accademia dei Lincei, a long-standing and renowned Roman academy of sciences.
After our visit to the Villa Farnesina, we walked to Santa Maria in Trastevere and visited the church quickly before their Mass started.
The Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere is a titular minor basilica in the Trastevere district of Rome, and one of the oldest churches of Rome. The basic floor plan and wall structure of the church date back to the 340s, and much of the structure to 1140-43. The first sanctuary was built in 221 and 227 by Pope Callixtus I and later completed by Pope Julius I. The church has large areas of important mosaics from the late 13th century by Pietro Cavallini.
The present nave preserves its original (pre-12th century) basilica plan and stands on the earlier foundations. The 22 granite columns with Ionic and Corinthiancapitals that separate the nave from the aisles came from the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla, as did the lintel of the entrance door. Inside the church are a number of late 13th-century mosaics by Pietro Cavallini on the subject of the Life of the Virgin (1291) centering on a "Coronation of the Virgin" in the apse. Domenichino's octagonal ceiling painting, Assumption of the Virgin (1617) fits in the coffered ceiling setting that he designed
We also visited Santa Cecilia in Trastevere...
The first church on this site was founded probably in the 3rd century, by Pope Urban I; it was devoted to the young Roman woman Cecilia, martyred it is said under Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander (A.D. 222-235). Tradition holds that the church was built over the house of the saint. The baptistery associated with this church, together with the remains of a Roman house of the early Empire, was found during some excavations under the Chapel of the Relics. By the late fifth century, at the Synod of 499 of Pope Symmachus, the church is mentioned as the Titulus Ceciliae. On 22 November 545, Pope Vigilius was celebrating the Feast of the saint in the church, when the emissary of Empress Theodora, Anthemius Scribo, captured him.
Pope Paschal I rebuilt the church in 822, and moved here the relics of St Cecilia from the Catacombs of St Calixtus. More restorations followed in the 18th century.
The church has a façade built in 1725 by Ferdinando Fuga, which incloses a courtyard decorated with ancient mosaics, columns and a cantharus (water vessel). Its decoration includes the coat of arms and the dedication to the titular cardinal who paid for the facade, Francesco Cardinal Acquaviva d'Aragona.
The ceiling of Cappella dei Ponziani was decorated God the Father with evangelists (1470) by Antonio del Massaro(Antonio da Viterbo or il Pastura). The Cappella delle Reliquie was frescoed and provided with an altarpiece by Luigi Vanvitelli. The nave is frescoed with the Apotheosis of Santa Cecilia (1727) by Sebastiano Conca. The church contains two altarpieces by Guido Reni: Saints Valerian and Cecilia and a Decapitation of Saint Cecilia (1603).
Among the most remarkable works is the graphic altar sculpture of St. Cecilia (1600) by the late-Renaissance sculptor Stefano Maderno. The pavement in front of the statue encloses a marble slab with Maderno's sworn statement that he has recorded the body as he saw it when the tomb was opened in 1599. The statue depicts the three axe strokes described in the 5th-century account of her martyrdom. It also is meant to underscore the incorruptibility of her cadaver (an attribute of some saints), which miraculously still had congealed blood after centuries. This statue could be conceived as proto-Baroque, since it depicts no idealized moment or person, but a theatric scene, a naturalistic representation of a dead or dying saint. It is striking, because it precedes by decades the similar high-Baroque sculptures of Gian Lorenzo Bernini (for example, his Beata Ludovica Albertoni) and Melchiorre Caffà(Santa Rosa de Lima).
The Crypt is also noteworthy, decorated with cosmatesque styles, containing the relics of St. Cecilia and her husband St. Valerian. In the apse of the Crypt there are remains of an altar whose inscription indicates that it was dedicated by Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) on 3 June 1080.
After a huge 4 course lunch with the group, we set out on our own to do a little shopping and sight-seeing. Brannon found some comfortable walking shoes that look like dress shoes and I purchased a leather satchel to carry when traveling. We also picked up a few souvenirs for James and Charlotte. Our sight-seeing included the Pantheon, the Area Sacra and the Trevi Fountain.
tomb of the artist Raphael
The Pantheon (from Greek Πάνθειον Pantheion meaning "[temple] of every god") is a former Roman temple, now a church, in Rome, Italy, on the site of an earlier temple commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD). The present building was completed by the emperor Hadrian and probably dedicated about 126 AD. He retained Agrippa's original inscription, which has confused its date of construction as the original Pantheon burnt down so it is not certain when the present one was built.
The building is circular with a portico of large granite Corinthian columns (eight in the first rank and two groups of four behind) under a pediment. A rectangular vestibule links the porch to the rotunda, which is under a coffered concretedome, with a central opening (oculus) to the sky. Almost two thousand years after it was built, the Pantheon's dome is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. The height to the oculus and the diameter of the interior circle are the same, 142 feet (43 m).
It is one of the best-preserved of all Ancient Roman buildings, in large part because it has been in continuous use throughout its history, and since the 7th century, the Pantheon has been used as a church dedicated to "St. Mary and the Martyrs" (Latin: Santa Maria ad Martyres) but informally known as "Santa Maria Rotonda". The square in front of the Pantheon is called Piazza della Rotonda. The Pantheon is a state property, ruled by Italy's Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism through the Polo Museale del Lazio; in 2013 it was visited by over 6 million people.
The Pantheon's large circular domed cella, with a conventional temple portico front, is unique in Roman architecture. Nevertheless, it became a standard exemplar when classical styles were revived, and has been copied many times by modern architects.
We stopped for gelato just off the Piazza della Rotonda. Madeleine and Brannon both opted for a mixed berry flavor whereas I decided upon a Kinder bar mix with dulche de leche. They had lots of flavors to choose from, so I am sure this was just a first of many gelato stops.
Our next stop was the Area Sacra...
After Italian unification, it was decided to reconstruct part of Rome (1909), demolishing the zone of Torre Argentina. However, during the demolition work in 1927, the colossal head and arms of a marble statue were discovered. The archeological investigation brought to light the presence of a holy area, dating to the Republican era, with four temples and part of Pompey's Theater.
Julius Caesar was killed in the Curia of the Theatre of Pompey, and the spot he was believed to be assassinated is in the square.
The four temples, originally designated by the letters A, B, C, and D, front onto a paved street, which was reconstructed in the imperial era, after the fire of AD 80. The area was delineated to the North by the Hecatostylum (one-hundred columns porch) and the Baths of Agrippa, and to the South by the buildings related to the Circus Flaminius, to the East by the great porched square of Porticus Minucia Frumentaria, and to the West by the Theatre of Pompey.
Temple A was built in the 3rd century BC, and is probably the Temple of Juturna built by Gaius Lutatius Catulusafter his victory against the Carthaginians in 241 BC. It was later rebuilt into a church, whose apse is still present.
Temple B, a circular temple (tholus) with six columns remaining, was built by Quintus Lutatius Catulus in 101 BC in fulfillment of his vow at the Battle of Vercellae.[6] The temple (aedes) was devoted to Fortuna Huiusce Diei, "the Fortune of This Day." The colossal statue found during excavations and now kept in the Capitoline Museums was the statue of the goddess herself. Only the head, the arms, and the legs were made of marble: the other parts, covered by the dress, were of other materials, probably a wooden frame. This is known as an acrolithicstatue.
Temple C is the most ancient of the three, dating back to 4th or 3rd century BC, and was probably devoted to Feronia the ancient Italic goddess of fertility. After the fire of 80 AD, this temple was restored, and the white and black mosaic of the inner temple cell dates back to this restoration.
Temple D is the largest of the four, dates back to 2nd century BC with Late Republican restorations, and was devoted to Lares Permarini (Lares who protect sailors), but only a small part of it has been excavated (a street covers the most of it). It was vowed by the praetor, Lucius Aemilius Regillus, while engaged in a naval battle with the fleet of Antiochus the Greatin 190 B.C., and dedicated by M. Aemilius Lepidus, when censor, on 22 December, 179.
But really, the most interesting parts of the Area Sacra (at least to an 11 year old girl who loves animals) were the cats living in the ruins.
And then we finally made it to the Trevi Fountain...
But really, the most interesting parts of the Area Sacra (at least to an 11 year old girl who loves animals) were the cats living in the ruins.
And then we finally made it to the Trevi Fountain...
The Trevi Fountain (Italian: Fontana di Trevi) is a fountain in the Trevi district in Rome, Italy, designed by Italian architect Nicola Salvi and completed by Pietro Bracci. Standing 26.3 metres (86 ft) high and 49.15 metres (161.3 ft) wide, it is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world. The fountain has appeared in several notable films, including Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita and the eponymous Three Coins in the Fountain.
The backdrop for the fountain is the Palazzo Poli, given a new façade with a giant order of Corinthian pilasters that link the two main stories. Taming of the waters is the theme of the gigantic scheme that tumbles forward, mixing water and rockwork, and filling the small square. Tritons guide Oceanus' shell chariot, taming hippocamps.
In the centre a robustly-modelled triumphal arch is superimposed on the palazzo façade. The centre niche or exedraframing Oceanus has free-standing columns for maximal light and shade. In the niches flanking Oceanus, Abundance spills water from her urn and Salubrity holds a cup from which a snake drinks. Above, bas reliefs illustrate the Roman origin of the aqueducts.
The tritons and horses provide symmetrical balance, with the maximum contrast in their mood and poses (by 1730, rococo was already in full bloom in France and Germany).
Coins are purportedly meant to be thrown using the right hand over the left shoulder. This was the theme of 1954's Three Coins in the Fountain and the Academy Award-winning song by that name which introduced the picture.
An estimated 3,000 Euros are thrown into the fountain each day. In 2016, an estimated US$ 1.5 million was thrown into the fountain. The money has been used to subsidise a supermarket for Rome's needy; however, there are regular attempts to steal coins from the fountain although it is illegal to do so.
It has been a very full day - I am off to bed!
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