Started the day early with a short ride on the subway (Barberini Station to that of Ottaviano-San Pietro, 4 stations away on Line A). Walked to St-Peter’s Piazza to queue up and visit the Basilica; it’s only 9am and already there is a queue but it takes less than 15 minutes to get in. It’s a quick tour- to the Bernini’s baldachin papal altar at the front, and sight of Michelangelo’s Pieta at the back – partly because we both have been there before, and partly because we’ve got to be at the Museums by 10am.
Short walk back towards the entrance of the Museums, enough to measure the folly of a visit there! It is not 10 o’clock yet and the queue of those who don’t have tickets to visit extends a good kilometer-long, if not 2, along the streets leading to the entrance. I would never had dreamed to go without booking in advance on the Net, which gave us immediate access (but not without some pandemonium!) to the entrance. They give you 2 hours to visit, which is essentially just enough walking along the various galleries – the Pinacoceta first, then the Museo Chiaramonti and Museo pio-Clementino, followed by a series of others where I lost interest – surrounded by hordes of tourists, mainly guided tours, capped by a visit of the Sistine Chapel, packed jammed with swarming visitors, and with officials trying to hurl the crowd toward the exit and to lower the noise level by shouting to keep silence! Not a pleasant experience in my book, and not one that I would want to repeat in these conditions for at least another 20 years!
Once out and back in St Pietro Piazza (and after a few errands), walked to nearby Castel Sant-Angelo – first Emperor Hadrian’s mausoleum, then a fortification for the popes; also immortalized by Pucini’s opera Tosca – to cross the Tiber on the bridge of the same name, decorated by Bernini’s angels standing along. Walked along Corso Emmanuel Vittorio II until we reached Rome’s principal Jesuit church (St-Ignace de Loyala, lived and was buried there), Chiesa del Gesu, and had lunch at the Enoteca Corsi (see separate blog) on Via del Gesu.
Could not avoid having a coffee (and a sweet thing!) at Sant’ Eustachio, the most celebrated coffee in Rome (see the dithyrambic review in the New York Times a few years back!) on a small square behind the Pantheon, before visiting the latter, this impressive if eclectic (with its rotunda and Greek-inspired square portico!) converted-into-a-church temple dating back to the second century AD. (Paolo was telling me, the day after, that the marble blocs that served to erect the enormous pillars of the portico had to be brought from Egypt, down the Nile...the marble from nearby was not strong enough!)
Carried on to Piazza Pavone – we lost the “vue d’ensemble” of the elongated piazza with Bernini’s 3 fountains and its surrounding buildings (notably Borromini’s baroque Chiesa di Sant’ Agnese in Agone) with the kermesse that was occupying the whole square! Carried on Via dei Baurrali through Campo di Fiori market to Farnese Piazza where we had some refreshments sitting at a café of the same name, facing the beautiful and large Palazzo Farnese which now houses the French embassy.
On the way back made an attempt to visit the Palazzo Mattei di Giove in the Ghetto, home now of the Center for American Studies, on Via Michelangelo Caetani, but to no avail as it was closed (we had to remind ourselves that this is a Monday 31st of December!) Too bad, as this was identified as one of the “quiet corners” of Rome in Downie’s book (p. 21 & 22) – the Palazzo, built at the very beginning of the 17th century, contains, according to him, several sculptures (mainly busts) that were the product of loots of antiquity’s artifacts found around Rome during the Renaissance. Did notice however the plaque on the wall across the street commemorating the death of Aldo Moro, found in the trunk of a car on that street. Moro, a former prime minister and at the time president of the Christian Democracy, the party in power, had been kidnapped many days before, and then assassinated by members of the terrorist Red Brigades, in May 1978. There is quite a controversy around this assassination (did the government/Andreotti do the outmost to avoid it?) This was a very troubled period in Italy’s political history!
Carried on to the hotel by the now familiar itinerary, along Via del Corso, plus another pit-stop at Trevi’s fountain!
Roma, January 1, 2013