Page 438 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Italy

436  ROME AND LAZIO

Street-by-Street: Piazza della Bocca della Verità

The site of Rome’s first port and its busy cattle market,
this is an odd little corner of the city, stretching from the
heavily trafficked road running along the Tiber to the
southern spur of the Capitoline Hill, a place of execution
from ancient times until the Middle Ages. Although best
known for the Bocca della Verità (Mouth of Truth) in Santa
Maria in Cosmedin, which is supposed to snap shut on
the hands of liars, there are many other sites in the area,
notably two temples from the Republican era. In the
6th century the area became home to a Greek community
who founded the The Casa dei Crescenzi, studded
with ancient fragments, incorporates
churches of San Giorgio the ruins of a 10th-century tower
in Velabro and Santa built by the powerful Crescenzi
Maria in Cosmedin. family to guard the river Tiber.
Sant’Omobono stands
on an archaeological
1. Temples of the site where finds date
back to the 6th century.
Forum Boarium
These two buildings are
the best preserved of
Rome’s Republican
temples. V I A D E I F I E N I L I

L U N G O T
E V I A D I S A N G I O VA N N I D E CO L L ATO
V
E
R
E
D
E
I

T P
I
E
Ponte Rotto, as this forlorn ruined V E
R
arch in the Tiber is called, simply E R L
means “broken bridge”. Built in the E E O P I A Z Z A D E L L A
2nd century BC, its original name N B O C C A D E L L A
was the Pons Aemilius. I
P O N T E P A L A T I N O V E R I T À
The Fontana dei Tritoni,
built by Carlo Bizzaccheri in
1715, shows the strong
influence of Bernini.
2. Santa Maria in Cosmedin
The Bocca della Verità, a V I A D E I C E R C H I
medieval drain cover, is
set into the portico.
Key V I A D E L L A G R E C A
Suggested route
San Giovanni Decollato
belonged to a confraternity
0 metres 75
that encouraged condemned
0 yards 75 prisoners to repent.
For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp573–6 and pp596–600

436-437_EW_Italy.indd 436 4/4/17 5:36 PM
Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
Catalogue template “UK” LAYER
(Source v1.9)
Date 20th August 2012
Size 125mm x 217mm