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This Woman Was Here

A Do-It-Yourselfer's Life Journey

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Category Archives: Rome

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Ostia Antica

There was a bit of a bump getting off the boat on Monday because the port in Civitevechia was closed due to high winds, so they took us to Naples instead and bused us back to Rome. Luckily, they had one bus that went directly to Termini, where we caught a cab to our hotel, Hotel Montecarlo, which at 10:30 at night was the way to go (10E with tip). The concierge recommended a restaurant two minutes down the street, and we had a lovely dinner of roast chicken, truffle fettuccine, and 1/2 liter of white wine for around twenty dollars.

On Tuesday we slept in a bit and took off for Ostia Antica just before noon. It was an easy jaunt to the blue line metro just down the street to Piramide (San Paulo) where we caught the train toward Ostia Antica (direction Roma Lido). One 1.5 E ticket for the whole trip of maybe 30 min. To get to the archeological site, just walk straight from the station for 5 minutes.

Ostia Antica was the ancient harbor town on the Tiber that supplied Rome. It dates back to the Etruscans and before (8th century BC). In the 4th century BC, Ostia was the first colony of Rome, intended to control the river route. It then became a military headquarters and evolved into a commercial center with huge grain warehouses filled with wheat and other goods destined for Rome. The Roman road led 16 miles from Porta San Paulo (where we caught the train) to Ostia. 

We were amazed at the size of the site (at least 3 hours needed to explore it) and how few people were there.  You enter the site through what had been the cemetery outside the city walls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the first century AD, the entrance would have been lined with covered porticoes.

One of the first large structures is the Neptune Bath complex with its gorgeous black and white mosaics.

Neptune Baths

mosaic from Neptune bath

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The theater, which seated 4000 people would have had a backdrop of  columns and statues.

Theater

Theater as it once looked

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It faced the Portico of Corporations, a roofed double arcade of columns surrounding a garden.

Portico of Corporations in first century

Each shop had mosaics out front.

mosaics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Forum (early 1st century AD) was the center of political life where citizens came to discuss news of the empire.

The Capitoleum  (120 AD) that faced out onto the forum had six fluted columns and statues of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva.

Capitoleum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Temple of Rome and Augustus, built by Tiberius, faced the Capitoleum.

fragments from temple of Rome and Jupiter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Round Temple (3rd century) was round like the Pantheon in Rome.

Round Temple now

It had a porch with Corinthian columns and two spiral staircases that led to the dome.

Round temple then

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tavern of the fishmongers has a mosaic of a dolphin swallowing an octopus.

entrance to meat market

fishmonger’s tavern

Two columns mark the entrance to the meat market.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first Christian basilica in Ostia from the second half of the 4th century.

Christian basilica

The Temple of Hercules just outside the city walls.

Temple of Hercules

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s remarkable to imagine this busy market town thriving from the first century BC to the 4th century AD. The port eventually silted up and the town was abandoned. Ostia Antica is definitely worth a day trip from Rome.

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Tivoli and Villas

We headed out this morning for Hadrian’s Villa and Villa D’Este in Tivoli. We took the metro nearest our hotel, Castro Pretoria to Ponte Mammolo (direction Rebbibia). At Ponte Mammolo, the Cotrel bus stop is just outside the station, but you need to go downstairs to buy bus tickets. Outside, we found a marquis that said Tivoli and when I asked, I was told it would take us to Villa Adriana (Hadrian’s Villa). It did but dropped us 1200 meters from the villa, quite a walk. There is a bus that drops you right outside the villa but we didn’t find it. It took us two hours to get to Villa Adriana from our hotel.

Hadrian’s Villa was immense, covering 300 hectares. Only one fifth of the original buildings are visible today.

Model of Hadrian’s Villa

Rome was at the height of its power under Hadrian, who was the second Spanish born Roman Emperor (after Trajan). He had a special passion for architecture. He rebuilt London in 122 AD (after the fire) and he built Hadrian’s Wall to protect against invasion from the north. Hadrian’s Villa was built between 118 and 134 AD.

When the villa was abandoned after the 3rd century AD, the statues, columns, and decorations were looted to be used in other villas (and even taken to Constantinople, the new capital of the eastern empire, by Constantine.

The entrance to the villa is through a high brick wall around the Poecile, a rectangular lake surrounded by covered porticoes. One hundred rooms (thought to be slaves quarters) occupied the structure that supported the Poecile.

The Poecile

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Poecile then

The great Baths had floors of black and white geometric mosaics.

The Great Baths

Great Baths then

The Canopus is a rectangular pool, again surrounded by a covered walkway. Four caryatids (copied from the Acropolis in Athens) and statues of Mars, Mercury, and Venus look out over the pool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Imperial Palace had three sections, each with a covered walkway supported by columns. The portico of the Piazza D’oro was supported by sixty columns of alternating granite and marble.

Golden Square now

Golden Square then

The Fish Pond might have been used to entertain visitors by allowing them to catch fish.

Fish Pond

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Room with Doric Pilasters may have been used as a tribunal.

three doric columns then

Maritime Theater

The Maritime Theater is a circular structure with forty Ionic columns surrounding a moat with a tiny island in the middle. Because no records remain, no one knows exactly what its purpose was.

Maritime Theater then

We caught the bus to Villa D’Este by the ticket office (you can buy your bus ticket at the same place you buy the ticket for the villa). It’s about a 15 minute ride to Tivoli where the bus drops you in the town center, a five minute walk to the villa (well sign-posted). There is also a tourist info kiosk right where bus drops you off.

Villa d’Este

Villa d’Este was originally a Benedictine monastery but was rebuilt by Cardinal Ipolito d’Este, son of Lucretia Borgia. At the age of ten he was named Archbishop of Milan and later became the Governor of Tivoli. He commissioned the gardens and fountains for which the villa is known. It was eventually owned by the Hapsburgs and became the property of Italy after the end of WWI.

The many rooms of the palace are filled with frescoes.

but the gardens and fountains are the main attraction.

 

 

 

 

 

The Rometta is directly to the left as you enter. The central statue is of victorious Roma, with the she wolf nursing Romulus and Remus just beneath it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The walkway of the Hundred Fountains is one of the most remarkable sights I’ve seen, with three tiers of fountains beside a mosaic walkway that leads from one side of the garden to the other and connecting the Roma fountain to the Fountain of Ovato on the far side.

Walkway of Hundred fountains

The Fountain of the Organ was once connected to a water driven mechanism that imitated the sounds of an organ.

Fountain of the Organ

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Fountain of Neptune is below the Fountain of the Organ

The Fish Ponds, three large pools, cross the center of the garden.

Fountain of the Dragons

The Fountain of Dragons is below the palace. The walls surrounding it are richly decorated with mosaics.

We caught the bus back to Ponte Mammolo on the same side of the street as the villa, past the public fountains. The bus was full of high school kids and took an hour an a half to get back to Ponte Mammolo.

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Rome

Today we headed out early for a walking tour of the Vatican arranged by Gate 1. Our guide met us outside the Vatican Museum and we were able to skip the lines and go directly into the garden where our guide gave us information on the Vatican, which is an independent state established in 1860’s when Italy was unified by Garibaldi. Before that, the Pope was king of Rome, but after unification, the Pope withdrew to the Vatican on right bank of the Tiber outside the city. In 1929 Mussollini recognized it as an independent state.

When the Sistine Chapel was built in 1476, painting masters came from Florence to paint the frescoes on the side walls. In 1508, the new pope asked Michelangelo to come to Rome to sculpt his funeral monument but changed his mind and asked him to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo refused because he was a sculptor not a painter but nine months later he was persuaded to return and painted the ceiling frescoes in 4 years. The frescoes depict the Creation in nine panels. Because no photos are allowed inside the chapel, I took photos of the panels in the garden.

In the panel depicting the creation of man, notice that God appears inside the shape of a brain.

 

 

Thirty years later, another Pope asked Michelangelo (at the age of 62) to paint the Last Judgement on the wall over the altar.

Just before the unveiling, the highest Cardinal objected to the figures being naked. As a result, Michelangelo painted him in hell with a serpent biting his genitals. When the Cardinal objected to the Pope, the Pope said he had no jurisdiction in hell and the Cardinal would have to live with where Michelangelo put him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twenty five years later, yet another Pope hired a student of Michelangelo to cover the genitals of the figures.

The map room has frescoes of the geography of Italy which are geographically accurate even though they were done at the end of the 1400’s.

Map room

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Venice on right and Alps on left

Afterwards, we visited St. Peter’s Basilica, which is the largest church in the world (the length of two football fields). The first church was built on the spot where Saint Peter was martyred under Emperor Nero. The current basilica was built in 1503.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

La Pieta was done in 1499 when Michelangelo was 24 years old. He depicts Mary as a young girl holding her adult son as if she were rocking a baby to symbolize eternal motherhood.

 

 

 

 

 

The bronze canopy over the altar was done by Bernini (the great artist of the 1600’s) from bronze taken from the roof of the Pantheon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We exited through the main entrance to the Basilica where the Pope delivers his Sunday blessing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we left the Vatican, we wandered across the river toward Piazza Navona and had a delicious pasta and wine lunch on a tiny side street. 

We then wandered toward Piazza Navona, where there are three fountains, the central one designed by Michelangelo with one of many obelisks taken from Egypt.

Michelangelo’s fountain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On our way we came across this unnamed ruin in the Piazza de Pietri. 

Then the Pantheon, the oldest Roman temple in Rome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was surprised at how close most of the sights are. The Trevi Fountain was five minutes further.

Trevi

After that we managed to get spectacularly lost, ending up at the Monumento Vittorio Emanuele when we thought we were at the Piazza della Republica. We must have walked ten miles today.

Vittorio Emanuele

 

 

 

 

 

 

On our second day in Rome, it rained all day. We ventured out at midday to find a restaurant I had looked up before I left, Amadeo, near Termini. Our shoes and the bottom of our pants were wet by the time we got there in spite of umbrellas and jackets, but we had a long, lovely lunch of Ozzo Bucco, truffle pasta, and a bottle of wine. Afterwards, we visited the Basilica de Santa Maria Degli Angeli, built inside one of the domes of the Baths of Diocletian, the largest bath in the Roman world. Michelangelo designed the basilica.

The basilica is immense, which makes you realize how large the baths must have been. The first room has a dome like the Pantheon but with a stained glass covering the opening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the things the basilica is known for is the Meridian clock added by the Pope in the mid 1800’s (because Bologna had one). This one was said to be more accurate. The rays of the sun fall through a tiny hole in the ceiling and trace the time of day on the inlaid marble clock on the floor.

The giant cherry-picker seen in the photo was being used for restoration on the ceiling.