Page 8 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Italy

6  HOW T O USE THIS GUIDE

HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE

This guide helps you get the most from your the help of maps and images. Each section
visit to Italy, providing expert recom mend­ is introduced with features on regional
ations as well as detailed practical information. architecture and food specialities. Travellers’
Introducing Italy maps the whole country and Needs gives details of hotels and restaurants
sets it in its historical and cultural context. and the Survival Guide contains practical
The 15 regional chapters, plus Rome, Florence information on everything from transport
and Venice, describe important sights with to personal safety.

Rome ROME AND LAZIO  387
THE ANCIENT CENTRE
The centre of Rome has been The Capitol, the southern summit of the focus of political, social, legal and commercial All pages relating to Rome have
Capitoline Hill, was the symbolic centre of the life; the Imperial Fora, built when Rome’s
divided into five sightseeing Roman world and home to the city’s three most population grew; and the Colosseum, the the same coloured thumb tabs.
important temples. These were dedicated to
centre of entertainment. Overlooking the
Forum is the Palatine Hill, where Romulus
the god Jupiter Optimus Maximus, protector
areas. Each area has its own of Rome, Minerva, goddess of wisdom and is said to have founded Rome in the
war, and Juno Moneta, a guardian goddess.
8th century BC and emperors made their
Below the Capitol lies the Forum, once the
home for over 400 years.
chapter, which opens with Sights at a Glance Historic Piazzas 6 Mamertine Prison
a list of the sights described. Churches 2 Piazza del Campidoglio 7 Forum of Caesar Area Map For easy
8 Roman Forum pp394–6
3 Santa Maria in Aracoeli
9 Colosseum p397
Ancient Sites and Buildings
0 Arch of Constantine
4 Trajan’s Forum and Markets
Museums and Galleries
All the sights are numbered 1 Capitoline Museums pp390–91 5 Forum of Augustus q Palatine pp398–9 1reference, the sights are
and plotted on an area map. VIA NAZIONALE V. MAZZARINO V I A numbered and located
Each sight is presented in V.D. PLEBISCITO VENEZIA PIAZZA VIA IV NOVEMBRE VIA PANISPERNA D E I on a map. The sights are
VIA S. EUFEMIA
PIAZZA
S. MARCO V. S. AGATA DEI GOTI S E R P E N T I
numerical order within the V. S. MARCO V I A A L E S S A N D R I N A VIA TOR DE CONTI V I A B A C C I N A also shown on the Street
V I A M A D O N N A D . M O N T I
chapter, making it easy VIA DI SAN PIETRO IN CARCERE V. CURIA CORRADO LARGO RICCI V I A VIA DE VIA VIA C AV O U R Finder on pages 451–61.
FORO
to locate. V I A D. TEAT R O D I M A R C E L L O VIA DI VILLA CAFFARELLI V . DEL TEMPI O GIOVE ROMANO VIA SACRA CARDELLO L COLOSSEO Colosseo
DI
V I A D E I F O R I I M P E R I A L I
FRANGIPANE VIA DEGLI ANNIBALDI
V. D.
CONSOLAZIONE V. DEL FORO
ROMANO
PIAZZA DEL
COLOSSEO V I A N . S A LV I
V. DEI FIENILI
V I A D I S . T E O D O R O PALATINE CAMPITELLI V. CELIO VIBENNA A locator map shows where you
are in relation to other areas of
Sights at a Glance lists the V I A D E I V I A D I S . G R E G O R I O the city centre.
chapter’s sights by category: C E R C H I
Churches, Museums and 0 metres 250 PIAZZA DI PORTA
CAPENA
Galleries, Historic Buildings, 0 yards 250 See also Rome Street Finder
maps 3, 6, 7, 10
Streets and Piazzas. View of the Colosseum’s Ionic and Corinthian tiers 436  ROME AND LAZIO For keys to symbols see back flap ROME : A VENTINE AND LA TER AN  437
Street-by-Street: Piazza della Bocca della Verità 1 Temples of the
The site of Rome’s first port and its busy cattle Forum Boarium
market, this is an odd little corner of the city, Piazza della Bocca della Verità.
stretching from the heavily trafficked road running along Map 6 E1. Bus 23, 44, 81, 160, 170,
280, 628, 715, 716.
the Tiber to the southern spur of the Capitoline Hill, a place
of execution from ancient times until the Middle Ages. These wonderfully well-
Although best known for the Bocca della Verità (Mouth of preserved Republican-era
Truth) in Santa Maria in Cosmedin, which is supposed to Locator Map temples are at their best in
snap shut on the hands of liars, there are many other sites Santa Maria della Consolazione See Rome Street Finder map 6 moonlight, standing in their
was named after an image of the
grassy enclave beside the Tiber
Street-by-Street Map In the 6th century the area became home to a Greek The Casa dei Crescenzi, studded Virgin placed here in 1385 to give sheltered by umbrella pines.
in the area, notably two temples from the Republican era.
consolation to the
During the day, they look less
community who founded
condemned.
romantic, stranded in a sea
with ancient fragments, incorporates
2This gives a bird’s-eye the churches of San the ruins of a 10th-century tower built of traffic. They date from the
2nd century BC, and were
Giorgio in Velabro and
by the powerful Crescenzi
saved from ruin by being
family to guard the river Tiber.
Santa Maria in Cosmedin.
Sant’Omobono stands consecrated as Christian
view of the heart of 1. Temples of the on an archaeological Ages by the Greek
churches in the Middle
site where finds date
community then living in
back to the 6th century.
Forum Boarium
the area. The rectangular
each sightseeing area. These two buildings are San Teodoro is a the Temple of Fortuna Virilis,
temple, formerly known as
the best preserved of
Rome’s Republican
temples. V I A D E I F I E N I L I circular church on the was probably dedicated to
edge of the Palatine with Portunus, the god of rivers and
exceptional 6th-century ports. Set on a pod-ium it has
apse mosaics. four Ionic travertine columns
fluted at the front and 12 half-
San Giorgio in Velabro, columns embedded in the tufa
a 7th-century basilica, was
wall of the cella – the room that
damaged in an explosion in
housed the image of the god. In
converted into the church of
Stars indicate the sights that L U N G O T E V E R E D E I P I E R L E O N I V I A D I S A N T E O D O R O 1994, and has now been restored. the 9th century the Temple was
Arco degli Argentari
Santa Maria Egiziaca, after
a 5th-century prostitute who
re formed and became a hermit.
no visitor should miss. Ponte Rotto, as this forlorn ruined T E V E R E The smaller circular Temple,
V I A D I S A N G I O VA N N I D E CO L L ATO
which is made of solid marble
arch in the Tiber is called, simply means
columns, was dedicated to
“broken bridge”. Built in the P I A Z Z A D E L L A and surrounded by 20 fluted
2nd century BC, its original name B O C C A D E L L A Hercules, though it was long
was the Pons Aemilius. believed to be a Temple of Vesta
P O N T E P A L A T I N O V E R I T à because of its similarity to the
The Fontana dei Tritoni, one in the Forum.
built by Carlo Bizzaccheri in
1715, shows the strong
influence of Bernini.
2. Santa Maria in Cosmedin
432  ROME AND LAZIO ROME : THE V A TIC AN AND TR ASTE VERE  433 V I A D E I C E R C H I
The Bocca della Verità, a
medieval drain cover, is
set into the portico.
4 Villa Farnesina 6 Botanical Entirely rebuilt in the 1680s
Via della Lungara 230. Map 2 E5. Gardens by Cardinal Pallavicini, the The 4th-century Arch of
Tel 06 68 02 72 68. @ 23, 280. Largo Cristina di Svezia 24. Map 2 D5. Key church is rich in 17th­ and V I A D E L L A G R E C A Janus, a four-
8th­century sculptures. Not to
Open 9am–2pm Mon–Sat. & ^ Tel 06 49 91 71 07. @ 23, 280. Open Suggested route be missed in the Altieri chapel faced marble-plated arch at
9am–6:30pm (Oct–Mar: 5:30pm) the edge of the Forum
The fabulously wealthy Sienese Mon–Sat. Closed public hols. & 8 (fourth left, along the nave) is San Giovanni Decollato Boarium market, was
banker Agostino Chigi 0 metres Bernini’s exquisite late work, belonged to a confraternity that an ideal place for merchants
75
commissioned this villa in 1508 Sequoias, palm trees, orchids the Ecstasy of Beata Ludovica encouraged condemned and customers to do The Ionic façade of the Republican era
from his fellow Sienese and bromeliads are among the 0 yards Albertoni (1674). prisoners to repent. business in the shade. Temple of Portunus
75
Baldassare Peruzzi. Chigi’s main 7,000 plants from all over the
home was across the Tiber, and world represented in the For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp562–77 and pp580–605
the villa was designed purely for Botanical Gardens (Orto
lavish banquets. Artists, poets, Botanico). Indigenous and
cardinals, princes and the pope exotic species are grouped to
himself were entertained here illustrate their botanical fam ilies
in magnificent style. Chigi and their adaptation to different
also used the villa for sojourns climates and eco systems.
with the courtesan Imperia, Queen Christina of Sweden’s bedroom in There are also some curious Apse mosaic of the Coronation of the Virgin, Santa Maria in Trastevere
who allegedly ins pired one of the Palazzo Corsini plants like the ginkgo that have
the Three Graces painted by survived almost unchanged from the 12th century, and Cambio and the fresco of The A suggested route for a
Raphael in the Loggia of Cupid 5 Palazzo Corsini from earlier eras. show Mary, Christ and ten lamp­ Last Judgment by Pietro Cavallini
and Psyche. and Galleria bearing women. Inside in the can be reached through the
The simple, harmonious Nazionale d’Arte apse is a stylized 12th­century adjoining convent; they date walk is shown in red.
design of the Farnesina, with a Coronation of the Virgin, and from the 13th century, one of
central block and projecting Antica below, a series of realistic scenes the few periods when Rome Bramante’s circular Tempietto at San
wings, made it one of the first Via della Lungara 10. Map 2 D5. from the life of the Virgin by the had a distinctive artistic style. Pietro in Montorio
true villas of the Renaissance. Tel 06 68 80 23 23. @ 23, 280. 13th­century artist Pietro In front of the altar is a delicate
Peruzzi decorated some of Open 8:30am–7:30pm Tue–Sun. Cavallini. The oldest image of statue of St Cecilia by Stefano 0 San Pietro in
the interiors himself, such as Closed 1 Jan, 25 Dec. & 8 7 ^ the Virgin is a 7th­century icon, Maderno, which is based on Montorio and the
the Sala della Prospettiva = ∑ galleriaborghese.it the Madonna di Clemenza, sketches made of her perfectly
upstairs, in which the illu­ which depicts her as a preserved relics when they were Tempietto
sionistic frescoes create the Built for Cardinal Domenico Byzantine empress flanked by a briefly disinterred in 1599. P San Pietro in Montorio 2. Map 5 B1.
impression of looking out over Riario in 1510–12, the Palazzo guard of angels. It sits above the Tel 06 581 39 40. @ 44, 75, 115.
16th­century Rome through a Corsini has numbered altar in the Cappella Altemps. 9 San Francesco Open 8:30am–noon daily, 3–4pm
marble colonnade. Bramante, the young Michel­ Mon–Fri. Tempietto Open 9:30am–
Other frescoes, by Sebastiano angelo, Erasmus and the Palm trees in the Botanical a Ripa 12:30pm, 3–4pm Tue–Sat.
del Piombo and Raphael and his mother of Napoleon among its Gardens, Trastevere 8 Santa Cecilia Piazza San Francesco d’Assisi 88.
pupils, illustrate Classical myths, guests. Queen Christina of in Trastevere Map 5 C2. Tel 06 581 90 20. @ H, 23, The Tempietto, a diminutive
while the vault of the main hall, Sweden died here in 1689. The 7 Santa Maria in Piazza di Santa Cecilia. Map 6 D1. 44, 75, 280. Open 7am–1pm, masterpiece of Renaissance
the Sala di Galatea, is adorned palazzo was rebuilt by Tel 06 589 92 89. @ H, 23, 44, 280. 2–7:30pm daily. 7 architecture completed by
with astrological scenes Ferdinando Fuga, who planned Trastevere Open 9:30am–12:30pm, 4–6:30pm Bramante in 1502, stands in the Detailed Information
showing the position of the the façade to be viewed from Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere. daily. Cavallini fresco Open 10am– St Francis of Assisi lived here in courtyard of San Pietro in
stars at the time of Chigi’s an angle, as Via della Lungara is Map 5 C1. Tel 06 581 48 02. @ H, 23, 12:30pm Mon–Fri. a hospice when he visited Montorio. The name means
birth. After his death the too narrow for a full frontal view. 280. Open 7:30am–9pm daily. 7 = Rome in 1219 and his stone “little temple” and its circular 3All the sights in Rome are
pillow and crucifix are
business collapsed, and in 1577 When the palazzo was St Cecilia, aristocrat and patron preserved in his cell. The church shape echoes early Christian
the villa was sold off to the bought by the state in 1893, Santa Maria in Trastevere was saint of music, was martyred here martyria, chapels built on the
Farnese family. the Corsini family donated their probably the first Christian place in AD 230. After an unsuccessful was built by a follower, a local site of a saint’s martyrdom. This
collection of paintings, which of worship in Rome, founded by attempt to suffocate her by nobleman called Rodolfo was erroneously thought to be described individually.
formed the core of the national Pope Callixtus I in the locking her in the hot steam Anguillara, who is portrayed on the spot in Nero’s Circus where
art collection, and was soon 3rd century, when emperors bath of her house for three days, Franciscan habit. St Peter was crucified. Bramante
his tombstone wearing the
augmented. The collection is were still pagan and Christianity she was beheaded. A church ringed the chapel with Doric
now split between Palazzo a minority cult. According to was built, possibly in the columns, a Classical frieze and Addresses and practical
Barberini and Palazzo Corsini. legend, it was built on the site 4th century, on the site of her fine balustrade.
Although the best works are in where a fountain of oil had house (still to be seen beneath
the Barberini, there are miraculously sprung up on the the church, along with the information are provided.
paintings by Van Dyck, Rubens, day that Christ was born. The remains of a tannery). Her body
Murillo, and, notably, an basilica became the focus of was lost, but it turned up again
androgynous St John the devotion to the Madonna, and in the Catacombs of San Callisto
Baptist (c.1604) by Caravaggio although today’s church, and its (see p446). In the 9th century it The key to the symbols used
and a Salome (1638) by Reni. remarkable mosaics, date was reburied here by Pope
The strangest work is a portrait largely from the 12th and 13th Paschal I, who rebuilt the
of the rotund Queen Christina centuries, images of the Virgin church. A fine apse mosaic
as the goddess Diana by continue to dominate. The survives from this period. The in the information block is
Raphael’s Three Graces in the Villa Farnesina J Van Egmont. façade mosaics probably date altar canopy by Arnolfo di Bernini’s Ecstasy of Beata Ludovica Albertoni, San Francesco a Ripa
shown on the back flap.
For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp562–77 and pp580–605
006-007_EW_Italy.indd 6 26/04/16 4:30 pm