Page 258 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Rome

256  ROME AREA B Y AREA

crowns of thorns, sacred hearts,
and crucifixes. There are also
some complete skeletons,
including one of a Barberini
princess who died as a child. At
the exit, an inscription in Latin
reads: “What you are, we used to
be. What we are, you will be.”

4 Fontana delle Api
Piazza Barberini. Map 5 B2. @ 52,
53, 61, 62, 63, 80, 116, 119.
q Barberini.
Sidewalk café in Via Veneto
The fountain of the bees – api
1 Via Veneto Casino has no roof, but lies are bees, symbol of the Barberini
open to a cloudy sky, across family – is one of Bernini’s more
Map 5 B1. @ 52, 53, 63, 80, 116, 119, which horses pull the carriage modest works. Tucked away in a
160, and many routes to Piazza
Barberini. q Barberini. of Aurora, the goddess of dawn, corner of Piazza Barberini, it is
from darkness toward light. quite easy to miss. Dating from
Via Veneto descends in a lazy 1644, it pays homage to Pope
curve from the Porta Pinciana Urban VIII Barberini, and features
to Piazza Barberini, lined in its 3 Santa Maria della crablike bees that appear to be
upper reaches with exuberant Concezione and sipping the water as it dribbles
late 19th-century hotels and Capuchin Crypt down into the basin. A Latin
canopied sidewalk cafés. It was inscription informs us that the
laid out in 1879 over a large Via Veneto 27. Map 5 B2. Tel 06-8880 water is for the use of the public
estate sold by the Ludovisi 3695. @ 52, 53, 61, 62, 63, 80, 116, and their animals.
family in the great building 119. q Barberini. Capuchin Crypt:
boom of Rome’s first years Open 7am–1pm & 3–6pm daily.
as capital of Italy. Palazzo Museum: Open 7am–7pm daily.
Margherita, intended to be the Closed some religious holidays. &
new Ludovisi family palazzo, 5∑ cappucciniviaveneto.it
was completed in 1890. It now
houses the American embassy. Pope Urban VIII’s brother,
In the 1960s this was the most Antonio Barberini was a cardinal
glamorous street in Rome, its and a Capuchin friar. In 1626 he
cafés patronized by movie stars founded this plain church at
and plagued by paparazzi. Most what is now the foot of the
of the people drinking in the Via Veneto. When he died, he
cafés today are tourists, since was buried not in a grand
celebrities now seem to prefer marble sarcophagus, like
the bohemian atmosphere of most cardinals, but below a Bernini’s Fontana delle Api
Trastevere or the luxury of simple flagstone near the altar,
the Parioli neighborhood. with the bleak epitaph in Latin:
“Here lies dust, ashes, nothing.” 5 Fontana del
2 Casino dell’Aurora The grim reality of death is Tritone
illustrated even more graphically
Ludovisi in the crypt, where generations Piazza Barberini. Map 5 B3. @ 52,
of Capuchin friars decorated 53, 61, 62, 63, 80, 116, 119.
Via Lombardia 46. Map 5 B2. q Barberini.
Tel 06-483 942. @ 52, 53, 63, 80, the walls of the five vaulted
116, 119. q Barberini. Open for chapels with the bones of In the center of busy Piazza
private groups by appt only; call their departed brethren. Barberini is one of Bernini’s
well in advance. In all, some 4,000 liveliest creations, the
skeletons were used Triton Fountain. It was
The Casino (a stately country over about 100 years to created for Pope
residence) was a summerhouse create this macabre Urban VIII Barberini in
on the grounds of the Ludovisi memento mori started in 1642, shortly after the
Palace. It was built by Cardinal the late 17th century. completion of his
Ludovisi in the 17th century, Some of the bones palace on the ridge
and frescoed by Caravaggio are wired together above. Acrobatic
and Guercino. Guercino’s ceiling to form Christian dolphins stand on
fresco makes it seem as if the symbols such as Pope Urban VIII their heads, twisting

US_256-257_EW_Rome_US.indd 256 15/03/17 4:21 pm
Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
Catalogue template “UK” LAYER
(Source v1.9)
Date 20th August 2012
Size 125mm x 217mm