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.

The Mosaics (Roma part Quatro)

Ever since our private tour with our beloved Elissa in Naples, I have been more interested in the art of mosaics.  It permeated ancient Rome and it carried over into early Christian art.

Rome is a treasure trove of early Christian mosaic art and we were not disappointed. Some of the churches we visited were built before the fifth century AD and you can see how their art and architecture spilled over from ancient Roman art and architecture.

Old and New

Right at the top of the Aventine Hill, two short blocks away from our hotel, are the Santa Sabina church and the Benedictine Abbey.

Santa Sabina is the oldest original ecclesiastical basilica in Rome, built in the early fifth century and named for the woman whose house was originally on this site. She was probably an early converted Christian who was beheaded under Hadrian’s rule for her faith.

What makes this church remarkable is its surviving architecture that takes its form from the Imperial Roman style.

The Pope visits here as part of the Ash Wednesday Penitential Procession from the Benedictine Abbey to Santa Sabina. (As an aside, Thomas Aquinas used to stay here from time to time.)

There are only two mosaics here, but they are doozies:

Tomb of the Master General of the
Dominican Order,
Munio di Zamora (early 14th c)

One other thing about this church:  it has the original cedar carved doors from AD432 one panel of which contains perhaps the oldest known publicly displayed depiction of the crucifixion of Christ. 

The uppermost left-hand panel, courtesy of
Wikipedia

The newer church on our hill is the chapel in the Primatial Abbey of Sant' Anselmo. This is a much newer building, dating from the late 19th early 20th century.  It’s a massive complex: 

The chapel is open to the public.  

The mosaic dome at the front of the chapel

Two side altars

 A whole lot of gold embellishes this chapel.

The cool thing about their Sunday morning mass:  the brothers perform a Gregorian chant throughout the mass.  

And they don't pass the hat! (They must have really rich patrons.) They have a great shop with all sorts of handmade stuff, including candles and rosaries and herbal teas, etc.

This little area on top of the Aventine and adjacent to the Benedictine Abbey, the piazza Cavalieri di Malta,

The Piazza Cavalieri di Malta with the Benedictine 
Abbey in the background

has one other interesting tourist attraction. We call it The Holy Keyhole of Malta. It’s really called The Knights of Malta Keyhole.  Take a peek through it and see St. Peter’s Dome:

Next up, more mosaics.

Bob's Your Pope! (Roma part Tre)

The first full week of Leo XIV’s papacy occurred while we were in Rome. We hadn’t planned it that way having arranged this trip last year, before the late great Papa Francesco was even ill.

But here we are, among hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and tourists. 

We also didn’t know it would be Mother’s Day on our first Sunday here.  And on our second Sunday, well, that was Pope Leo’s first mass in St Peter’s Square, where 200,000 people crammed into the Square and spilled down the street toward Castel Sant'Angelo, better known as Hadrian’s Tomb.  We were miles away, thank the gods.

But it was fun to see all the pageantry of the Pope’s first Mass, held for the throng outside on the steps of St Peter's Basilica.  

On television. 

We did not attend. 

This was also the moment when he was given the pallium (a kind of shepherd’s crook only gold) and the ring of the fisherman that symbolises his direct connection to the first pope, St. Peter.

Let me back up to the preceding Saturday: before the big celebration in the Square. We decided to visit the baths of Caracalla - the ruins of, that is.  These baths were the second largest in ancient Rome, after those of Diocletian.  They were free and open to the public, with daily visits by six to eight thousand bathers.

The Baths of Caracalla

We were wondering why many of the busy routes around the Colosseum were blocked off, not knowing about a parade about to happen. On our way to two other churches (there were purported mosaics worth seeing), it soon became clear to us that something big was going on: dozens and dozens of volunteer first aid workers, lots and lots of police.  After finding both churches closed and the roads around them crowded with costumed and uniformed people, we realised we’d stepped into the middle of the Jubilee of Confraternities, featuring 100,000 faithful from 100 countries around the world.  They parade their religious statues through the streets, some so heavy it takes 100 men to carry it, with bands playing and children in costume, proceeding from just about where we were down past the Colosseum and into the site of Circus Maximus.

Look at all the men carrying that thing!

We decided to wait another day to visit the churches.  We fled.

Roma Part Due

In spite of our disappointment with the flat, we fell in love with the Aventine neighbourhood.

For good reason: the hill is mostly residential and, except for a couple of tourist hotspots at the top, the Aventine is blissfully tourist-free.

During the height of the Empire, most Roman noblemen and patricians built their villas and palaces on the Palatine Hill, across the Circus Maximus from the Aventine.  But it was the Emperor Nero who pretty much kicked everyone else off the Palatine to make it his own, exclusively.

Site of the Circus Maximus with the Palatine Hill in the
background.

The nabobs all moved next door, onto the Aventine.  Today, there are still some really pretty villas scattered among the apartment houses, some of which are actually converted villas.

Down along the border of the neighbourhood is the Viale Aventino (Aventine Avenue) where we were treated to all manner of good to excellent eateries:

A Sake bar with a small menu (no sushi)

A regular sushi restaurant

A Roman-style pizza joint

A Neapolitan-style pizza joint

A French restaurant

A great burger joint, and 

A much-better-than-average Italian restaurant

And these but a fraction of all the eateries along this one long avenue!

There is one restaurant and one bar up on the Hill I want to lavish with praise:

The bar at Hotel San Anselmo, a sister hotel to our own Hotel Aventino:

A tiled mural of medieval times

Shortly after our arrival in Rome, we made this our first stop of the evening, before venturing out for dinner. Even though we were not yet guests of the other hotel, we could see this as our ‘local’ for prosecco and a gin & tonic. 

It’s what we ordered almost every evening.  

That is until I discovered Franciacorta a step (or two) up from prosecco in the Italian sphere of sparkling wines.

The barkeepers got to know us since we haunted their territory pretty much every evening for two weeks.  Walking the 2 blocks from our hotel, we enjoyed the fragrance of night blooming jasmine which filled the air throughout the Aventine, even climbing up the umbrella pines.

The restaurant on the hill, and a short two blocks away, is Apuleius, named after the Roman novelist, whose most famous work is the novel Metamorphoses, otherwise known as The Golden Ass. It is the only Latin novel that has survived in its entirety.  

Walking into this establishment was like walking into the dining room of a Pompeiian villa, pre AD79.

The desk was flanked by a most beautiful mosaic:

Literal translation from the Latin: Bowl that you are thirsty

And the rooms were decorated with frescoes as seen in the House of the Faun in Pompeii:

As for the food:  all is sourced from farms and wineries in Lazio, the province of Rome, including this wine from an Etruscan estate 

That fine print beneath "Sant'Isidoro"
is Etruscan (!)

We were so happy to find such a lovely place to dine so close to home. We visited several times during our Rome adventure.