The Jury is In (Roma part Dieci)

All along the Viale Aventino, the grand avenue that borders the Aventine Hill on the southeast, we found good and great food.  There were some we hadn’t researched but discovered by happenstance.

Rosso is one. 

This was closer to the Colosseum and catered to tourists and locals alike.  But they were efficient in their service and had a clever way of selecting out the undesirable element by putting ‘prenotato’ (reserved) signs on the outdoor tables just in case.

After a week of gorgeous French and Italian dining, sometimes you just gotta have a burger. Rosso didn’t disappoint. In fact, they also proudly displayed great haunches of beef and after visiting there for the third time, the management also offered to serve us a ‘lady steak’ if we were interested.  

The burgers and onion rings were the only things we craved.

Sake Boutique was our first stop after arriving in Rome.  While it didn’t offer sushi, it offered some small plates including katsu chicken, edamame and spicy chicken wings, all of which we devoured with a cold beer and several tokkuri of cheap hot sake.

We returned here too.

Across the wide avenue from Rosso is a really pretty decent French restaurant, La Renardière.

Any place that serves foie gras is just fine with me. 

Because it is also located a little too close to the Colosseum, it is prone to unwitting tourists and those who would prey on them.  We were seated outside against the window, on our second visit, for dinner. My handbag, sitting next to me on the ground, would have been whisked away but for the eagle eye of our waiter who chased the would-be thief off.  

In the gloaming, I watched a woman take money out of the ATM behind Scott.

We figured it was a drug transaction because a guy was loitering around the area and the woman ended up at his car window a few minutes later.

We visited Baccio e i Grandini a couple of times for their Neapolitan pizza, a change from the flatter, crispier dough the Romans like to serve.

I think our favourite of all on the Avenue is Aventina. We stopped their on the way back from Baccio for a glass of wine.  They were graciously accommodating, even though it really is a restaurant.  There were elegantly dressed ladies and men sitting inside along the window. We were outside under the large umbrellas and served exceptional glasses of local Lazio wines.

The server was so nice and the menu we scanned looked so appetising (especially considering we’d just eaten) we booked a table for dinner later in the week.  

Aventina, too, has quite a showcase of big haunches of beef.  In addition, they also have a selection of cured hams from Spain, the famous Jamón Ibérico and Serrano. We were able to charm the young manager into serving us a taste of all four on offer, for our first course. (When I say “we,” I really mean Scott, speaking in Italian)

So, here we are at the end of the Roma saga.  After writing about the food and the people along the Viale Aventino, I’m salivatin’.  Again.

I have been reading Goethe's Italian Journey, of his time in Italy in the late 18th century. He spends half of the book on both Rome and Naples.

What made the biggest impression for me was that he would visit the same places over and over and over again until he really knew them. He couldn't just snap a photo to take with him. On occasion, he would sketch something or have one of his artist friends paint something so that he could take those home as reminders of his trip.

The food, the drink. The mosaics. The art. These are all things I must to return to so that I too can etch them into memory.

That brings me to the verdict that I definitely want to return to the Eternal City.

A Sea of Mosaics (Roma part Nove)

Ostia Antica - the ancient port of the Roman Empire.

About an hour’s train ride from the pyramid in Rome, we stepped into something quite similar to Pompeii: the ruins of a port city, the gateway for the thousands of tons of wheat, olive oil and other comestibles needed to feed the people of Rome: Ostia.

Originally situated on the coast, it now lies several kilometres inland, as the sea receded, just like Pompeii and Herculaneum, both former coastal towns.

The difference between Ostia and Pompeii:  Ostia was an important centre for the business of shipping, both commercial and naval (it was the main seaport for the Roman navy). Pompeii was an upscale town of 10 - 20 thousand people.  At its height, Ostia’s population was 100,000.

There are no roofs left in Ostia, but that makes for the opportunity to see the vast ‘sea’ of floors that are all mosaic:

It was almost as if every single building or dwelling had a mosaic floor.  

There is a large amphitheatre, a forum, a columbarium (burial wall),

 a fast food stall complete with fresco displaying food,

a bar,

bibe means 'drink' in Latin

even a public latrine 

More than 26 bath complexes were found with appropriately water-themed mosaic floors:

The main port’s commercial complex is laid out in a giant square surrounding a temple with shops and supporting enterprises fronting all four sides of the giant piazza.  Each has its own mosaic floor that depicts the business.  

baker

conveyance from port to city

ship builder

Ostia Antica was not buried under volcanic pyroclastic flow, boiling mud or basaltic rubble as were both Pompeii and Herculaneum. It was simply abandoned when the port itself silted up so that it was no longer navigable.

The Hill of Shards (Roma part Otto)

At the bottom of the Aventine, near the Tiber, there is a place where the ancient Romans tossed their used amphorae.  You know, those terracotta vessels that held olive oil. 

They were used to hold many things, including wine and wheat, and were shipped from across the Empire to feed the people of Rome.  These vessels were usually recycled, except for those containing olive oil, because the remaining oil seeped into the terracotta and became rancid. So, they were just tossed onto a public pile. 

Over the centuries, that public pile became a huge hill, expertly engineered, to house over 53 million unrecyclable amphorae, mostly in shards, filling one of the largest spoil heaps ever found in the ancient world. It covers almost five acres as the base and rises to 115 feet.

This pile is the main feature of the neighbourhood called Testaccio.

Being the crack engineers they were, the ancient Romans organised and carefully engineered the creation of this dump. According to Wikipedia, archaeological excavations made in 1991 showed that the mound was a series of terraces and retaining walls filled with shards to anchor intact amphorae in place.

Today, the hill is a literal backdrop for many restaurants, whose grottoes are built into the hill and provide a window onto the ancient mound.

These restaurants are popular with the locals. And serve excellent food.

Casamora, a wine bar with food.  Wonderful place to get a good glass of local, Lazio wine.  

You can tell about the wine, yes? 
(the entry to the restaurant)

Scott, who is very clever, asked the manager what the second-best restaurant is in the neighbourhood (this being the best of course) and she referred us to a couple of others, both on the hill.

The Flavio al Vela Vevo Detto was on of them:

That's the hill there behind the windows

Yes, there were English-speaking tourists having lunch, but so were a lot of local folk. I had an excellent rigatoni carbonara, made with guanciale (pig's cheeks - very much like lardons, only tastier). With another nice local plonk, we like the place enough to return.

There is one restaurant that’s been around for a while, Angelina.  It is situated in a building that was once part of the local slaughterhouse and it honours that tradition by keeping its original architectural features, including sloping floors, ceiling rods (used to hang carcasses) and signs indicating meat breeds. 

One particular specialty is carne alla brace: grilled beef. We sat up on the terrace for lunch one sunny afternoon.

And returned for dinner, the food was so good. As we saw in several of the places we ate, big ol’ haunches of beef are displayed behind glass.  Normally, one must arrive with a large-ish group before the chef will grill one of those haunches. Scott, in his wonderful Italian, went down to talk to the chef and managed to charm him enough to grill us a smallish haunch to share. Worth it, man.

(The vintage photo at the top of this post features a white building abutting the hill.  That building houses Angelina.

The Testaccio Market is an excellent place to buy fresh fruit and veg.  We were happy to have it during our stay at the flat.  One stall was dedicated to small independent wineries from Italy and other European countries.  We visited the very nice gentleman and his wife, who told us about the wines and happily served us samples of the traditional cheeses. 

"Da Corrida" al Banco 18 in the
Testaccio market

Walking away from the hill down a green park, we came across an old cemetery.  I mean really old:  it includes a monumental pyramid, the tomb of one Caius Cestius from BC12. This guy is known basically for his pyramid and nothing else.

tomb of Caius Cestius

There are others of note buried here: the poets Keats and Shelly, and Goethe’s son.

And of course there are mosaics even here:

One other place we visited in Testaccio was Dandy’s, an upscale men’s shop where Scott bought himself a nice jacket. 

I liked the place because this was featured on the floor in front of the desk:

Told ya, about the mosaics

Beheaded (Roma part Sette)

Early in our Rome adventure, we visited one of the more entertaining exhibits on offer.

Think back on Part Cinque called More Mosaics - the one that included the not-mosaic frescoes we found in Saint Stefano Rotundo.  Those frescoes of gruesome acts of torture and murder of martyrs in early Christendom, painted in 1582.

Enter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - we know him as the Italian genius of Baroque art, Caravaggio. He was born in 1571, making him 11 years old when those frescoes were painted. And while there is no evidence he was influenced by these macabre frescoes, he remains an artist of some really violent subjects.

His life was equally violent, running from more than one murder conviction in Milan, to Rome, to Naples, to Sicily and Malta, then dying of disease or being murdered because of the price on his own head. We aren’t sure which. All along the way, he was producing some spectacular work between his bouts of violence and mayhem.

He is considered one of the most important artists of the Baroque Period and regarded as the master of the chiaroscuro technique, the use of light and dark to heighten the drama of his subjects.

Whilst in Rome, we spent an hour or so in the presence of 24 of his works gathered together at the Palazzo Barberini. On the tail of those horrifying frescoes mentioned above, we were especially drawn to Caravaggio’s own gruesome works.

You be the judge:

Beheading of John the Baptist

The beheading of Goliath by David

The beheading of Holofernes by Judith

Medusa, just beheaded by Perseus

The last two, especially, give us the impression they've just been done in, with blood gushing. Holofernes was a nasty dude in the Old Testament whom Judith was sent to dispatch when he was in a drunken stupor. 

The Medusa was painted on an actual shield as a gift for the Duke of Tuscany. Caravaggio used his own image as the face of the Gorgon here.

We had a great lunch after.

Across the River (Roma part Sei)

Across the river from the Aventine Hill is the area known as Trastevere.  Tevere is Italian for the Tiber River that flows through Rome.

The neighbourhood used to be a bit down-market, working class area, but it’s coming up in the world.

A poster in nearby Testaccio caught Scott’s eye:  

an exhibit at the WeGil gallery in Trastevere of “Warhol and Banksy”, an interesting juxtaposition of two opposite personalities: one the most photographed artist in the world and the other anonymous; but both icons known the world over.

We happened upon another Warhol exhibit, this time in Padua, back in 2022:

Of course we had to visit this one in Rome:

Yes, it's his favourite shirt

I’d forgotten how depressing both Banksy and Warhol are. These two, flanking Scott, are some of the more wistful ones.

After our visit, we wandered over to the Piazza San Francesco d’Asissi to have lunch and visit the church of San Francesco a Ripa, for an altogether different kind of art: Bernini

This church is nothing special, except the one statue tucked away in a side chapel at the back. I consider it one his most sublime, and perhaps the last one he did alone.  “Ecstasy of Beata Lodovica Albertoni”, from 1674. (I won't say it looks more like 'Orgasm of ...') She was a noblewoman who became a nun after her husband died, and who herself died in 1533. The sculpture was commissioned by Pope Clement X, more than 100 years later.  (Apparently he was especially fond of one of her descendants.)

After the small church visit, we repaired across the piazza to a little joint with chalkboard menu, red checkered tablecloths, for an excellent lunch. Mine was ossobuco alla Romana - pretty good, especially because of the tasty tomato sauce (the Romana part) and a generous bone marrow.  Scott was equally pleased with his rigatoni with clams.

Trattoria da Paolo

One other restaurant had been highly recommended and we tried that one earlier in the week, because it was 'off the beaten tourist track' (according to something Scott read) and accepted no reservations: Trattoria Da Enzo al 29. While the food was actually excellent, the place had become overrun with tourists and they were already selling T-shirts and baseball caps. 

That's what happens when someone finds a great little place and spreads the word online.

More Mosaics (Roma part Cinque)

There is no dearth of mosaics in this city, both ancient and pagan, and neo-Christian. They are really something to behold and be admired, if only for the talent required to make them. Scott was particularly interested in the older churches. They're pretty fun to see, especially for the more gruesome aspects:

Stefano Rotondo,  dating from the mid-fifth c. AD, it was built on top of both a Roman barracks and a temple to the god of Mithras (the early Christians hated this religion). It is the oldest church with a circular plan in Rome.

There is one, sublime mosaic from the 7th c AD.

What is more remarkable, however, are the rounded walls surrounding the central altar: they depict, in all their gruesome detail, the many and myriad ways to torture and kill early Christian martyrs.  This type of fresco represents proper martyrology, painted in the mid-fifteenth c.

One famous author visiting from England said:

To single out details from the great dream of Roman Churches, would be the wildest occupation in the world. But St. Stefano Rotondo, a damp, mildewed vault of an old church in the outskirts of Rome, will always struggle uppermost in my mind, by reason of the hideous paintings with which its walls are covered. Such a panorama of horror and butchery no man could imagine in his sleep, though he were to eat a whole pig raw, for supper. 

- Charles Dickens, Pictures from Italy 

Rather than display the 34 frescoes in this post, may I refer you to https://www.througheternity.com/en/blog/art/santo-stefano-rotondo-frescoes-rome.html#  it really is worth looking at them, if you're into gory horror.

San Clemente al Laterano 

We wanted to visit this minor basilica for the golden mosaic in the apse, one of Byzantine design:  

We got more than we expected, but let me set the stage:  

San Clemente is actually owned by the Irish Dominicans since 1667, but it is also the burial site of St. Cyril of the famous duo, Saints Cyril and Methodius, the guys who created the Cyrillic alphabet (originally the oldest Slavic alphabet was called the Glagolitic alphabet), named after, guess who! They also converted the Slavs to Christianity. 

Saturday 25 May was the national holiday in Bulgaria celebrating the two saints.  We visited San Clemente on the preceding Friday and were treated to a Bulgarian Eastern Catholic Mass complete with chanting, and a bevy of middle aged women in national costume and Bulgarian nabobs in attendance.

A Bulgarian Mass in an ancient basilica in Rome, owned by the Irish.  Go figure.

Baptistery of San Giovanni in Laterano 

Founded by Pope Sixtus III in AD440, it is the first structure expressly built as a baptistery and has been the widely followed model for all others.  For generations, it was the only baptistry in Rome. 

There are two side chapels, both of which have exquisitely intricate mosaic decorations:

It being a baptistry after all, the central focus of the building is a large octagonal basin which was originally filled with water and where the converted could be totally submerged in the holy water. 

Photo by Ken Wang

Santa Maria Maggiore 

Okay, here comes the main attraction for the mosaics we visited.  Santa Maria Maggiore - Basilica of Saint Mary the Great, in English - was built in AD 422-432, right after Mary was proclaimed Mary Mother of God at the Council of Ephesus in 431. Legend has it that the church was built on this site because the Virgin appeared to the rich couple who funded the building of the church. She told them it would snow on the exact spot where they should build. In August. Don’t you just love miracles?

Anyway, we paid to visit the rooftop of the church for the vistas of Rome, but more important to me, the mosaic walls in the triumphal arch. I hope the following do it some justice:

The mosaics are on the right side, to give you an idea of the size

 

An extreme closeup so you can see the detail of the tiles

The artist inlaid his name under the toe of Jesus, but the sun eradicates it on this photo. Sorry.

A couple of parting notes on this church:  the crystal and silver reliquary under the high altar houses fragments of the Holy Crib. (Uh huh) And it’s where Pope Francis was buried just before we arrived in Rome.