Palazzo Doria Pamphilj

Imagine this.

There you are, abandoned as a baby in an English orphanage awaiting adoption.  Along comes an Italian princess, childless, with an immense fortune including palaces, villas and a priceless art collection of Caravaggios, Brueghels and the like.  She adopts you and a younger baby girl and you go and live in an Italian palazzo in Rome. 

Today in Rome the traffic moves constantly from the Vittorio Emanuele monument at the bottom of the via del Corso to the Piazza del Popolo at the top.  A large and very grimy palazzo, spanning a couple of city blocks, fronts the Corso and as you walk along you can glimpse a very beautiful internal courtyard, one of four, in the 1,000-room palace.



Princess Orietta Pogson Doria Pamphilj died in 2000 leaving her two adopted children this palace along with other family treasures, and today you can visit the staterooms, chapel and art- and sculpture-galleries.  And as you walk through you can listen to the current Prince Jonathan Doria Pamphilj explain the history of this incredible place intertwined with stories of the family ancestors.  These include Pope Innocent X and his scheming sister-in-law, the evil Donna Olimpia, known as La Papessa, due to her constant and effective manipulation of the pope and the papal fortune.  Roman legend says the ghost of Donna Olimpia still clatters through the city in her devil carriage.  I'd believe it - just have a look at this marble bust of the woman:

And most sculptors presented idealised portraits of their subjects.

Lovelier things are to be seen in the gallery, including the salon of mirrors -

and this wonderful painting of the sinners in Paradise, by Jan Brueghel.  Note the pair of lions, and the porcupines in the right hand corner.  And in the left background, an elephant and two giraffes.  Brueghel supposedly hadn't seen many of these exotic animals and hence their positioning away from the main detail of the picture.

So the palazzo is very lovely, and probably very difficult to restore and maintain and it is therefore open to the public to help keep it in private hands.  These days the hands belong to the adopted boy and girl from the orphanage, except now they are 50 and 49 years old respectively.  Princess Gesine Margaret Orietta Mary Pogson Doria Pamphilj is a devout catholic, married to an Italian, with four daughters and is a staunch upholder of her religion.  Prince Jonathan Doria Pamphilj is an openly gay man, in a civil partnership with a Brazilian ex-restauranteur and has two children by surrogacy.

The right of these children to inherit the Doria Pamphilj estate after Jonathan's death was called into question by Princess Gesine Doria, on the basis that the children were born of surrogate mothers.  In 2010 a court in Rome declined to hear the case, so it's round one to Prince Jonathan.  But as you can imagine, there's huge family ructions over this one.

First days in Rome

Spring in Rome is lovely.  Everywhere you walk, vines cover buildings, trees are bursting into bloom, and wisteria is tumbling over walls.

 

In a garden near my apartment the scent of orange blossom is so heavy you can almost taste it.  The garden is steps away from the Colle Oppio park, which leads down to the Colosseum, and this park is a meeting place for the neighbourhood - kids, dogs, old people, students, family groups.  No matter what time of the day, there's always people sitting on the park benches, or lazing on the grass.  A little further on the great bulk of the Colosseum looms up, still half covered in scaffolding from a three-year restoration.  In fact, a lot of buildings in Rome are under repair at the moment, with screens shrouding their travertine facades. 

 

Yesterday I met my conversation exchange buddy for a trip down to the Roman houses and amphitheatre lying under the modern day buildings of the via Botteghe Oscure.  At one time, the Crypta Balbi lay within metres of Pompey's Theatre, with the colonnaded Cryptus - a huge covered arcade - annexed to the theatre that Cornelius Balbus built in 13BC.  Today you can descend into a Roman street, following the line of the old structure with the massive outer wall of the theatre still in place, and in fact providing very solid support for the jumble of successive buildings right up to today's modern museum sitting on top of it all.

 

Three years on, I am still meeting and talking with the same people I met and exchanged my basic Italian for their (considerably better) English.  It's incredibly satisfying to now have long and fairly easy conversations, the best reinforcement of how far my language has come.  Of course I am still making stupid mistakes, and often repeating the same basic errors, but on the whole I can now speak Italian :)

 

After a long day of exploring the structures of the amphitheatre, I walked back to my apartment in Monti, past the giant "typewriter" - the Vittorio Emanuele monument - passing the forums of both Caesar and Augustus, Trajan's Markets and the massive tufa wall of the Subura, which kept the rich safe from the constant threat of fires from the slums down below.  At 8pm the light was beginning to fade but Rome was busy, busy with people swarming along the via Foro Imperiale.  Almost a perfect day in the city.  Just need to get my aching feet used to the cobblestones again.

 

 

 



 

A presto, Roma

Last full day in Rome today.

The day started with the usual light rain, and after devoting some time to clearing out the fridge of rogue olives, bits of cheese, wine etc  I tackled my packing, having dashed out yesterday to buy an extra carry-on suitcase.  I’m jettisoning some boots and coats too – the cobbles have been particularly hard on my shoes.

So it’s farewell to Rome again, for six months until Jim and I return in August.  It’s been a mixed trip – lots of positive language reinforcement (I can speak Italian – yay!), a LOT of rain, some wonderful catch-ups with language exchange buddies and classmates, and also quite a bit of time watching Italian news and movies, and having casual conversations in supermarkets, boutiques, bookstores and the like.

My lovely fellow language students

On Sunday I spent the day in Cerveteri with my language exchange buddy, Angelo, and we climbed in and out of some very flooded tombs, watched sound and light shows that magically reconstructed the interior of the Etruscan burial sites, and stopped for the mandatory espresso half-way through.  After three and half hours we had a late lunch in the dramatic hill top town of Ceri before heading back to Rome at dusk. 

Tombs at Cerveteri

As usual, after seven hours of Italian I found my ear was quite attuned and I was able to speak relatively easily, which is the great thing about language exchange.  Aside from the very generous people you meet, who are happy to devote time to arranging trips, researching and providing written information in italian, and finding great spots for authentic regional food!

The town gate at Ceri

The hilltop town of Ceri

 

Cerveteri is magical, with around 1,000 tombs spread over 400 hectares – 10 hectares of which can be easily visited.  The tombs vary from dice-shaped tombs (so-called for their regimented and block-like shape – these were for the middle-classes) to the mounds of the exalted families, both types from around 3^rd century BC.  All the objects found inside the tombs are long gone (of course) but originally there were funerary urns, sarcophagi, estruscan urns and figurines, and many of these can be seen at the Villa Giulia, the estruscan museum near the Villa Borghese gardens, and where I headed this afternoon.  Of especial interest and delight is the Sarcophagus of the Spouses, a life-size sarcophagus of a couple reclining, as at banquet, with the bridegroom’s arm protectively around the shoulders of his spouse.  Both are smiling.  It’s a very lovely object to see, and especially today, when I had it to myself.  Apart from the guard, of course, who was hovering to make sure I didn’t take any photographs (the one below is from Wikipedia).

The Sarcophagus of the Spouses, Villa Giulia

So last night, a drink with one of my fellow students in Monti (where I’ve been studying), who is here in Rome with her husband for three years.  We drank red wine from Lazio, started in Italian and switched to English, and talked about spending time in Rome, the vagaries of the Italians, and our struggles with the language.

I walked back to my apartment past the floodlit forums of Trajan and Nerva, the immense white marble of the Vittorio Emanuele monument, and through the busy hum of the Campo dei Fiori and Trastevere.

The night-lit Forum of Nerva

Am I ready to go home?  Yes.  I’ve enjoyed my time here, but I’m really looking forward to getting back to my loved ones.  A presto, Roma. 

Ancora piogge sulla capitale

Still more rain in Rome.

It has rained, and rained, and rained.  The streets are flooded, the Tiber is running high and everyone is staying indoors.  Even the Pope has said we must pray for relief from the rain.

A couple of weeks ago, the Tiber from the Ponte Sisto, the bridge that connects Trastevere with the Campo dei Fiori, looked like this:

The Tiber path was navigable, and the surface of the river was tranquil.

Then the rain started a few days ago and has steadily continued.  Now when I cross the Ponte Sisto, the view is like this:

The path has completely disappeared.  And the river is churning up its mud, and flowing fast.  Even the beggars and the street sellers have deserted the bridge.

Today, going quietly mad from being trapped indoors, I made my way across to Piazza Navona to have some time outdoors and get some exercise.  I ended up having afternoon tea at a café looking out over the deserted piazza:

After a while I headed down the piazza to the Fountain of the Four Rivers.  Even the river god of the Americas, the Rio della Plata, has his hand raised to the heavens as it to say 'Basta!  Basta pioggia!'

 

Palazzo Farnese

Rome has had some very changeable weather over the last few days.

See yesterday's sunny blue skies, as I made my way back to Trastevere after school:

Along the Fori Imperiali, my daily school walk - yesterday

At the moment (Wednesday evening) the rain is pouring down, and looking from my window out to the Piazza Sant’Egidio I can see very little activity – everyone is indoors.  The bar downstairs, the Ombre Rosse, is deserted.  This is extremely unusual, as the bar is a favourite with the American students who attend the John Cabot Uni just down the road.  None of the street sellers have set up their stalls, and the tarot guy, who is usually just opposite my window, has disappeared.

Piazza Sant'Egidio, deserted

Tonight I’ve been out to see the Palazzo Farnese, the renaissance palace that sits in one of the (to me) most beautiful piazzas in Rome, the Piazza Farnese.   Built for the Farnese pope John III in 1517, and designed and modified by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, Michelangelo and Vignola over the 16th century, the Palazzo is now occupied by the French Embassy and is not generally open to the public. But it is possible to book a tour through Rome Cultural Association at inventerrome.com.   Tours are in French, English and Italian.

Piazza Farnese, Palazzo Farnese to the left

At night, from the piazza, you can look up into the lighted rooms of the Palazzo and see the frecoes, but tonight, as part of a smallish group (25 of us) I got to see some of them firsthand.  The incredible Caracci Gallery was open for viewing, and this was lucky, as it's about to close for two years for restoration.  The frescoes, The Loves of the Gods, cover the arched ceiling with stories from Bacchus and Ariadne, Venus and Anchises, Pan and Diana, amongst others.

Carracci Gallery, Palazzo Farnese

Our tour of the Palazzo also included the courtyard and the gardens that front the Via Guilia, and some of the loggias and reception rooms of the renaissance building.  It was fantastic to look down on the piazza from the first floor of the Palace, and into the depths of the fountains that are usually above eye level. 

School continues well, with our class remaining stable over the last two weeks, which means we are able to progress faster, rather than having new students join us – which often calls for a recap.  There are six of us at the moment, and we headed out last night for Korean food, with our teacher Claudio and his sister, her very well-behaved smiley baby, and Claudio’s girlfriend.  The food was sublime – we tried just about everything, led by Chiara, one of our fellow students.  It seems usual to eat Korean food in Rome, but this restaurant has a great reputation, even amongst the Italians (who prefer their own food to other cultures).

Gainn Korean, Rome

Afterwards, I took quite a long walk back to Trastevere, after stopping off in Monti to see the fantastic apartment of another fellow student, Tamara, who is here for three years with her diplomat husband.  Their apartment overlooks the Forum of Nerva, and from their tiny balcony, you can look down the Fori Imperiali and see the Colosseum.  It was absolutely magical by night.

 

Palazzo Massimo

After completing  week two of my course, I headed down the Via Nazionale to visit the national museum, the Palazzo Massimo, late last week.  I was particularly was interested in seeing the frescoes from the Villa of Livia, wife of Augustus – the emperor who ruled after Julius Caesar and famously changed Rome from a city of brick, to one of marble.

Livia Drusilla has always been a shadowy historical figure – devoted third wife of Augustus, mother of the dreadful Tiberius, staunch upholder of the family values instigated on the Roman populace by her husband.  In her house on the Palatine Hill - rarely open - there are still fragments of mosaic floors and frescoes to give a sense of the opulence and beauty of her surroundings.  But to experience the refinement and detail of these frescoes, you can see her Painted Garden, the partly submerged room from her villa on the outskirts of Rome, at the Palazzo Massimo. Archaeologists believe the room was used as an escape from the summer heat, and have found evidence of underground water pipes that probably carried water to a central fountain. With its shadowy greens and blues, abundant flora and fauna (all seasons are in flower here) it no doubt gave a beautiful sense of shady coolness and peace.

In the late 1800’s the room was lifted in its entirety from the Villa of Livia to avoid damaging the frescoes from encroaching damp, and it was an incredible undertaking to reconstruct the room, to the same dimensions, on the top floor of the Palazzo Massimo museum.  You can sit in the centre of the room, and look at these 2,000 year old paintings and just wonder at the skill and ability to render such wonderful perspective by the artists of the day.

See the reconstructed room in this video (with breathy commentary!).

You could happily spend days in the Palazzo museum – and along with the regular exhibitions, currently there is a special exhibition of Monsters. Fantastic Creatures of Fear and Myth from the ancient world – the collections of sculpture, jewellery, mosaics and frescoes are fantastic.  But the other great things to see in this museum are the relics from the ships of Nemi, those pleasure boats sailed by Caligula in the first century A.D. on the shores of this volcanic lake 30km south of Rome.

These boats were enormous – 240 feet in length - and the technology was most advanced for the time.  It’s thought the ships were built solely for recreation, incorporating sculpture, mosaics, hot and cold bathing, and even rotating platforms.  A year after their construction, they were stripped of their valuables and deliberately sunk after the assassination of Caligula.

In 1927, a fantastic undertaking to recover the ships involved draining the volcanic lake into nearby farmlands.  Ordered by Mussolini, a combined effort from the navy, army, industry and private contributions saw the first ship break the surface of the lake in 1929.  By 1931 the second ship was uncovered; unleashing 500,000 cubic metres of mud and causing 74 acres of the lake floor to subside. 

The ships were displayed in a museum on the shores of the lake, and tragically destroyed in the Second World War by fire, purportedly by the retreating German army. Some material, stored in Rome, can be seen today in the Palazzo Massimo.

Of particular beauty is the bronze handrail to the first ship, with alternate busts of gods and goddesses.  And the incredible medusa head in bronze, so finely worked you can see the flowing lines of the hair, and the lines of the face. 

Underneath Rome

What to do when it’s raining in Rome?  Head underground.

The streets have been awash the last few days – it hasn’t rained all that heavily, but it has rained consistently, which means any time spent walking in the open results in sodden shoes, wet clothes and minimum photo opportunities.  I mean, who wants to take photos from under a dripping umbrella?

Looking towards the Palazzo Farnese, raining

Wet weather is a great opportunity to explore the Rome that lies underneath the surface.  It’s certainly drier, and at this time of the year there’s also the likelihood of having any underground site to oneself.  At least, that’s been my experience over the last few days.

A little further along from my apartment in Piazza San Egidio is the Church of San Crisogono, built in the 4^th century and, as is usual here in Rome, built again – over the existing structure – in the 12^th century.  As Christianity in the 4^th century was off to a shaky start under the Emperor Constantine, churches consecrated at that time began as private houses and were converted to public places of worship.  So, through a heavy door (that was shut behind me as I descended - quite disconcerting) it is possible to descend a spiral staircase to find the rounded form of the 4^th century apse, with a shrine to the martyr Saint Crysogonus in the centre.  

San Crisogono apse

As I’m finding with all multi-level churches, the lower structures can be quite difficult to distinguish, as foundations to support the upper churches have altered the structure and symmetry of the earlier buildings.  It was tricky to explore the lower church of San Crisogono and make out where the church ended and where the remains of the private houses began.  Here and there sarcophagi were dotted about –from an intricate marble sarcophagus from the 2^nd century with maritime themes, to some smaller terracotta sarcophagi below frescoes, now heavily faded and almost undiscernible, from the 6^th century.

San Crisogono sarcophagus

I have to say, it was very spooky down in the depths of San Crisogono.  The structure twisted and turned, and I had this horrible feeling I’d get lost in the maze and be unable to find my way out.  Thankfully, in the murk and gloom I did relocate the iron stair and made my way up into the modern church without any grief.  And very pleasant it was, too, to stand in the middle aisle of the church and hear the roar of traffic, and see daylight outside.

A little further along, and escaping today’s rain, I made my way over to San Nicola in Carcere, another church which hides ancient structures underneath.  In this case, however, those structures are three Roman pagan temples from the Republican era:  the earliest being the Temple of Janus Bifrons from 260 B.C.  Under the altar, marble steps lead to a vaulted crypt, and sharply to the left, a narrow arch leads to the first of the three temples, with walls of solid tufa blocks.   I’m particularly fascinated by legends associated with the middle temple, to the mother queen Juno Sospita, in which annual offerings were made by virgins to the holy snakes bred in a cave by her shrine.  Any refusal of the food by the serpents was considered a bad omen and required the girl’s sacrifice.  What an incentive to make those offerings palatable..

San Nicola middle Temple

The exterior of San Nicola is surprising, too, in that it was constructed around the ruins of a Roman forum, with columns from ancient sites incorporated into the façade of the church.

San Nicola exterior with Forum columns