Tuesday Feb. 24 2015

On the first Tuesday of our stay in Rome we wanted the students to experience a walking tour as created by someone else and published in a guide to Rome. I recommended they follow a walking tour defined by the DK guide, but they could do any guide book they wanted. I split them into three groups and assigned them areas of the city: Borghese gardens, Esquiline, and Aventine hill. I just wanted them to experience what it was like to follow a walking tour created by someone else. After they finished their walking tour I suggested they return to their assigned areas to start preparing their own walking tour. I went into Rome with them in order to find some sights I had missed my first two visits to Rome. I especially wanted to explore the area known as Quirinal and a Palazzo on via Del Corso that was technically in Piazza della Rotonda area.

I started out on foot from Termini past the Baths of Diocletion and Santa Maria degli Angeli towards Piazza Della Repubblica. This roundabout and fountain are classic views of Rome.

And then I headed down via XX (venti) Septembre toward the Piazza del Quirinal. At the intersection I stopped to take another picture of the Moses fountain and two churches facing each other. One, Santa Suzanna I had been inside before for mass in English on Thanksgiving 2012.

For some reason the Moses fountain is not well liked. It has been characterized as an inept attempt to copy Michelangelo's statue of Moses in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli. I have pictures of this sculpture in an earlier blog, 2010 I think.

Continuing down via XX Septembre you come to the Le Quattro Fontane. I have included pictures in past blogs of these four fountains on the four corners at a very busy intersection. The fountains are currently being restored and one cannot view them currently. If you notice in past blog pictures they are sculpted by Bernini and were completely blackened by years of pollution.

Continuing down the street I visited a couple of public parks with monuments I had not noticed before while making my way toward Sant Andrea at Quirinal. The Baroque church was designed by Bernini using beautiful roseate marble.

Once in the Piazza Quirinal, you face a large fountain at one end. Known as the Castor and Pollux fountain, because of these two patrons of horsemanship. They are Roman copies of Greek originals.

 

 

From the piazza I wandered my way back down to the Trevi Fountain. I have included pictures of this famous fountain in previous blogs. It was not that crowded because the fountain is being reconditioned. It is covered in scaffolding and the disappointment is clear on many visitors' faces. I spent my time researching some of the churches in the area which I had ignored during my previous trips to Trevi fountain. In particular Santa Maria in Trivio,

 

 

 

 

 

as well as a few other lesser known churches in the area.

 

 

Next I wandered across via del Corso into the area of the Pantheon. specifically I wanted to visit the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj. I had never investigated the museum in this palazzo. The museum has over 400 paintings in the collection, including works by Caravaggio, Raphael, and Filippo Lippi. The museum also houses a Bernini sculpture of the bust of Innocence X as well as Diego Velazquez's famous portrait of Innocence X. Regrettably, the museum charges extra to take pictures. And all of these paintings can be viewed online. So I passed on the expense.

After the museum, I crossed back over via del Corso into the Quirinal area. I was searching for Santi Apostoli. There has been a church on this site since the sixth century. The church includes the tomb of Clement the XIV a huge monument by Canova. The crypt of the church is said to include the tombs of the Apostles Phillip and James. Hence the name, Santi Apostoli

The other claim to fame of this church is that Michelangelo's remains were kept there until his family came to collect his remains and move them to Santa Croce in Florence. I have a picture of the monument below. The remains were actually kept in a Franciscan Friary next door to the church. a very nice Franciscan priest let me into the locked friary. A very nice man. He says that Michelangelo regularly attended mass at this church while he was in Rome. He was considered a member of the congregation which is why his remains were kept there until the family could come and collect them.

Loved the Romanesque bell tower attached to the church. Speaking of bell towers.... As I was wandering back towards Trevi area and trying to decide if I wanted to walk to Spanish Steps or Barberini metro stops I stumbled upon a piazza unfamiliar to me. It had benches and needing a rest I sat down and started looking for the name. It was Piazza san Silvestro. And like many piazzas in Rome it was named after the church facing the piazza. This was a church that I had never seen or heard of before. I like just stumbling onto places like that.

San Silvestro is famous for housing the preserved head of St. John the Baptist.

love those Romanesque bell towers.

Not sure if you can make out the head of St. John the Baptist inside the silver basilica designed by Michelangelo.

sorry for such a long post, but it was a very exciting day in Rome.