Paula's Tour Talk

An Evening in Rome

It's taken me a while to recover from pneumonia, and to sort through my memories of a fabulous month in Italy. I'll be writing about the highlights of the trip and The Best of Tuscany Tour in the next few weeks.

Today I wanted to share one of my favorite evenings in Rome.

My friend Karen and I decided to follow Rick Steves' suggested route for a stroll past monuments, piazzas, and fountains lit up at night. We started with a delicious dinner of the traditional Roman pasta, cacio e pepe, salad, and white wine while sitting outside at a small trattoria watching the people go by.

Then we set off to the Piazza della Rotunda in front of the Pantheon. It's a big lively piazza, with cafes and a fountain, and a popular meeeting place. This Saturday evening it was also the spot to hear a fine tenor with a boom box, singing famnous arias to a crowd.

Here's a video of the closing moments of his Nessum Dorma:  

 

Our walk took us to the Piazza Navona with its spectacular fountains, the grand  obelisks, Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.   We stopped for gelato, listened to many street musicians (most were playing old Frank Sinatra standards), and I even had my palm read on a tiny street lined with fortune tellers offering their wisdom.

We ended the evening with an espresso in true Italian fashion and made our way back to our rooms.

It was the best night I ever had in Rome.

Angels & Demons' Rome: Castel Sant'Angelo

This is the last in the series about the locations in Angels & Demons.

Time is running out when Langdon rushes to the Castel San't Angelo, an unmistakable Roman landmark.
He approaches the building from the Ponte Sant' Angelo (Bridge of the Holy Angel). It's one of Rome most beautiful bridges, lined with Bernini's marble angel sculptures.

In 1688, these 10 sculptures replaced a row of gallows that had decorated the bridge previously, and must have been a welcome change. However, since each angel holds an instrument of torture from the Passion of Christ, such as the crown of thorns, they are not exactly cheerful.

Bernini's angels have been  dubbed his "Breezy Maniacs" because they all appear to be battling the wind with garments fluttering. 

The Castel Sant'Angelo, originally a mausoleum, was built in 130 AD by Emperor Hadrian, who also built the bridge over the Tiber River that leads to it. The building served as a burial place for emperors for almost a century. In those times, the structure was covered in marble and topped with a mound of earth planted with cypress trees, decorated with statues, and crowned with a gilded statue of Hadrian driving his chariot.

When threats from barbarian invaders increased in the late days of the Roman Empire, Hadrian's Mausoleum was converted into a fortress and served an important role in the city's defenses.

By the 9th century, it was claimed by the papacy who remodeled and added to the fortress over many centuries. Its appearance today is that of a massive fortress on a square base with circular towers at the four corners (known as the towers of St. Matthew, St. John, St. Mark, and St. Luke) onto which a circular body has been grafted.

It's linked to the papal apartments in the Vatican by way of a covered passage known as the passetto. This escape route came in handy quite a few times when popes need to escape attackers.

The Castel Sant'Angelo got its name from Pope Gregory the Great who had a fiery vision of St. Michael the Archangel standing on top of the fortress sheathing his mighty sword. Gregory interpreted the vision to mean that the plague devastating the city would soon end, and named the castle in the angel's honor.

At various times, it has served as the Vatican's stronghold, prison, and even treasury. It contains everything from dank dungeons in the basement, to lavish living quarters on the upper floors. It's a rabbit's warren of rooms and corridors. Today it is a museum, open to the public for a small admission fee.

Although it's in Italian (and does not seem to have an English version), the Castle's official website offers a good virtual tour with lots of diagrams and photos. (If anyone can find this website in English, please let me know).

I hope you have enjoyed this series on the Roman locations in Angels & Demons. I skipped St Peter's because you can easily find more information than you ever wanted about that online and elsewhere.

I'd love to know if this series added to your enjoyment of the movie Angels & Demons.

Angels & Demons' Rome: Piazza Navona

(Well, let's see if I can recreate the article that mysteriously disappeared just as I was finishing it. Maybe next time I'll remember to save it as I go...)

So far, Langdon and Vittoria have successfully deciphered the clues that led them along the Path of Illumination. Unfortunately, they have not been able to save the first three cardinals who were so cruelly branded and murdered.

Their luck changes when they arrive at the next spot, the Piazza Navona, in time to retrieve Cardinal Baggio from Bernini's magnificent Fontana dei Quattro Fuimi (Fountain of the Four Rivers).

The huge oval-shaped Piazza Navona has been a center of Roman life for millennia. During the Roman Empire it held a stadium where athletic contests and horse races were run. The name "Navona" is believed to come from a corruption of the Latin word agones (games).

Like many of the structures of the Empire, the stadium eventually fell into ruins. But the site still functioned at various times as a major city market (later transferred to the Campo Fiori), and as a place for theatricals and festivals. 

The Piazza was rebuilt during the reconstruction of Rome carried out by the popes of the 16th and 17th centuries. Bernini's Fountains of the Four Rivers occupies the center of the piazza (he also designed the Fountain of the Moor at the southern end).  It was unveiled with great pomp and cermony in 1652.

The statues on the fountain depict four continents:

• the horse: Europe
• the palm tree and snake: Asia
• the lion: Africa
• the armadillo: the Americas

Each also has a river god representing a great river on each of the continents: the Danube, the  Ganges, the Nile, and the Rio de la Plate. All have allegorical meanings.

The Nile's god (shown on the right) is veiled as a sign that the source of the river was unknown. The Ganges' god carries an oar to signify its navigability. The Rio de la Plate figure sits on a pile of coins representing the riches of the New World (Plate comes from the Spanish "plata" for silver).  And, the god of the Danube touches the Papal coat of arms since the Danube was the closest of the rivers to Rome.

There's a legend that tour guides are fond of that the reason all the gods face away from the church of Sant'Agnese, built by Bernini's arch-rival Borromini, is to show the sculptor's disdain for the church's facade. A good story, but it can't be true. The church was not even commissioned until a year after the fountain was installed.

All the river gods recline in a semi-prostrate position, gazing up at the tall obelisk in the fountain's center topped by symbols of the Papacy and its power, most notably the dove of Pope Innnocent X.

Langdon realizes that this lone dove is also the pagan symbol for the Angel of Peace, the final guide for his quest.

The Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi is a must-see sight is Rome. It's especially beautiful all lit up at night with wildly splashing water crashing down on the rough marble under the statues.

But, if you want the good luck and guarantee of returning to Rome, don't toss coins in this fountain. For that, you'll have to go to see the Trevi Fountain in the Piazza di Trevi.

I'm planning on doing one last article about the Castel Sant'Angelo to conclude this series on Angels & Demons. Hopefully, I'll remember to save as I write next time!

Angels and Demons' Rome: St. Maria della Vittoria

The story continues as Langdon and Vittoria discover the next clue at St. Peter's Square, a tile  depicting the West wind. This emblem of the air, created by Bernini, sends the pair racing to the small basilica of Santa Maria della Vittoria.

If you want to see Baroque, then this is the church for you. Built in the early 17th century, and designed by architect Carlo Maderno, called the father of the Baroque, Santa Maria della Vittoria is an over-the-top sight to behold.

"Baroque" is a term applied to art created between the Mannerist and Rococco styles. It's characterized by emotional drama and tension, movement, vitality, and sensuous richness.

Bernini's famous sculpture, The Ecstasy of St Teresa is considered one of the finest examples of the Baroque, and art lovers flocked to see it long before Dan Brown wrote his novel. Brown made a brilliant choice in locating the element of fire on the Path of Illumination in this church and with this amazing piece.

The sculpture is the centerpiece of the Cornaro Chapel which Bernini designed as the eventual burial site for the wealthy Cardinal Cornaro, whose lavish lifestyle shocked the people of his diocese. Considering that he served Venice, his spending habits must have been truly obscene. The good cardinal thought it prudent to have his memorial chapel built in Rome.

The Chapel, is a riot of colored marble and architectural details, designed to resemble a theatre. Statues of the Cornaro family sit in boxes on the sides, watching St Teresa in the throes of religious ecstasy just as if they were at the opera.

Golden (well, actually, bronze) rays, lit by a window above the piece, illuminate St. Teresa with a fiery glow. The sculpture captures a moment in  her autobiography when she describes her most famous vision:

I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron's point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it.

As Langdon points out in Angels & Demons, the angel holding the fiery is a seraphim, a type of angel whose name literally means "fiery one."  

I watched way too many awful videos showing the interior of Santa Maria della Vittoria, and found the one posted below to be the best. You can see the richly embellished decor of the church, and also see how high up St. Teresa is placed. You have to crane your neck to see her.

When in Rome, you can visit Santa Maria della Vittoria located at the intersection of  Via 20 Settembre and Via Barberini Monday through Saturday from 9am -noon and 3-6pm and Sundays from 3-6pm.  

Angels & Demons' Rome : Santa Maria del Popolo

Once Langdon and Vittoria decipher the clue and realize they are in the wrong place, they race to the Piazza del Popolo. Here they find the Obelisk of Ramses II (topped with stars and a mountain, the symbols of Pope Sixtus V who had it placed there in 1589).

Of course, they also find the church of Santa Maria del Popolo and head to the Chigi Chapel.

Although the Pantheon is where Raphael is buried, the clue referred to a tomb he had created for wealthy banker (and notorious playboy) Agostino Chigi. Chigi commissioned Raphael  "to convert earthly things into heavenly" in the decoration of his tomb.

Chigi died in 1520, and so did Raphael. The work was completed and added to by Bernini in 1652.

In the movie, the pyramids in the Chapel signify that it's the First Altar of Science. And the "demon's hole" is found beneath a floor mosaic of a kneeling skeleton.

The angel in Bernini's statue of Habakkuk and the Angel point them to the next step on their quest.

Like with the Pantheon, you do not need to be a fan of Angels & Demons to visit Santa Maria del Popolo. The church contains one of the richest troves of Renaissance art in Rome. In addition to works by Raphael and Bernini, you'll find exquisite frescoes by Pinturicchio (who painted my favorites in the Piccolomini Library in the Siena Duomo). And, there are two Caravaggio masterpieces.

You can see a whole series of images of the gorgeous church interior here.

Santa Maria del Popolo is well worth a visit when you are in Rome. It's a functioning church, free and open to the public. Usual dress code enforced (no shorts or sleeveless tops), and quiet respect is requested.

I'll leave you with a story of its earliest days.

In the Middle Ages a legend arose that Nero's ashes were buried beneath a walnut tree growing on the site where the church now stands. Local people believed the area was haunted by the evil emperor's ghost. It was said that the large ravens roosting in the walnut tree were demons tormenting Nero for his crimes.  When the first church was built here in 1099 by Pope Paschal II, he ordered the tree cut down, and blessed the site to end the hauntings and supernatural events that had terrified people for so long.

Next time, we'll follow the Angels & Demons heroes to Santa Maria Vittoria.

Angels & Demons' Rome: The Pantheon

I am happy to report that Angels and Demons is a much better movie than The Da Vinci Code. You can follow the story whether or not you've read the book. It's exciting and interesting and made fine entertainment for a rainy day in Seattle.

Perhaps in retaliation for all the controversy stirred up by The Da Vinci Code, Ron Howard and his film crew were not allowed to film inside any of the Roman churches or other buildings for Angels and Demons. And, no one can shoot movies inside the Vatican ever.

So, they filmed the exteriors and built sets for the interiors. I think it was a clever idea to make the church interiors "under construction," filled with rubble, and strung with plastic sheeting.

Whether you see the movie or not, I thought you might enjoy learning some of the "secrets" of the Roman locations. All are places worth a visit when you are in Rome.

 

The Pantheon is the best preserved and most magnificent monument of Roman antiquity. It's been a  sacred site since at least 25 B.C. and the current building is the third temple constructed there. Although the Emperor Hadrian was personally responsible for the design of this temple, completed in 126 A.D., he retained the original dedication, boldly printed in bronze across the front pediment:

M AGRIPPA LF COS TERTIUM FECIT

The abbreviated Latin means:  Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, Consul for the Third time, built this.

The word pantheon means "all gods" and it was a temple to the 12 most revered Roman Gods whose images were in niches in the rotunda.  Julius Caesar had a statue there too.

The reason it's so well preserved is that in the 7th century Pope Boniface IV consecrated it as a Catholic church. Naturally, he first stripped it of all its pagan artwork. Boniface then decreed that the removal of so much as a single stone was a mortal sin. 

Nonetheless, the Pantheon was mined for materials in later centuries. The roof was once covered in gilded bronze tiles that reflected the sun--long gone. The original doors were plated in gold--removed and replaced with the ones you see today. Much of the marble facade of the temple exterior--gone.

When Bernini need bronze for his baldacchino (the canopy over the altar) in St. Peter's, he scavenged more than 200 tons of bronze from the Pantheon's roof.

Despite all this, it is a magnificent building and amazingly well preserved.

One of its most impressive features, and the reason Langdon starts his quest here in the movie, is the huge oculus in the domed roof. 

Oculus means"eye," and it's the large round opening that serves as the Pantheon's source of light. It's open to the sky and lets in rain, too, which flows out again via special drains in the floor. The oculus was Hadrian's idea to symbolize a link between heaven and earth.

The dome has a span of 141 feet and it's the largest free-standing dome anywhere in the world, the supreme achievement of the ancient Romans' craft with concrete. 

In Angels and Demons, Professor Langdon rushes to the Pantheon based on the only clue he has, four lines from a poem by Milton:

From Santi's earthly tomb with demon' hole,

'Cross Rome the mystic elements unfold

The path of light is laid, the sacred test,

Let the angels guide you on your lofty quest.

He is correct in determining that Santi is an alternate name for the Renaissance artist Raphael Sanzio, whose tomb is indeed in the Pantheon, but the oculus is not the demon's hole. Milton and those of his time considered the oculus a marvel of invention, nothing demonic about it at all.

And, of course, Langdon soon realizes his error and races off to the next site, Santa Maria del Populo, which I'll tell you about in the next post.

I hope you get a chance to visit the Pantheon some day. It's free and open from 8:30 until 7:30 (9-6 on Sundays). 

Although everyone calls it the Pantheon, the official name of the church is Santa Maria Rotunda (also called Santa Maria ad Martyres) and it's still functions as a church.  Mass is said there on special occasions and holy days, and it's a favorite spot for Roman weddings.

If you go, step around the corner onto Via degli Orfani to La Tazza d'Oro for an espresso. It's said to serve Rome's best coffee.

Or perhaps you'd prefer a gelato. A short one minute walk from the Pantheon on Via della Maddalena is the Gelateria della Palma, one of Rome's best ice cream shops. Here's a  link to a YouTube video showing the vast array of flavors in this famous gelateria that will make your mouth water.

If you are interested in more about the movie, check out the Angels and Demons website, for a host of interactive features, including a great map of the locations.