Rome, August 9 & 10, 2014

Having had a coffee at Sant’ Eustachio coffee house near the Pantheon (which we peeked at only, this time around),

we walked to the ticket office on San Gregorio (going by the Via Dei Fori Imperiali and through the Arch of Constantine) and spent the Saturday (until lunch anyway) visiting the Palatino, and later on, walking down the Foro. I had got tickets on line; it included a visit to the Coliseum (we had seen it before and it would take too much of our time to visit again!).

The Palatino, just above the Foro, was the place to live in ancient Rome! For well over 300 years, that is where the emperors lived (the “golden ghetto”) and virtually the whole place was covered with palaces, temples, and gardens in between! We saw pretty well what remained (ruins) including Domus Augustana, the official residence of the emperors where there might have been 1000 rooms! It provides a great view of the Circus Maximus far below, on the south side of the Palatino! Livia’s House and the Palatino Museum were close! (to celebrate the 2000^th anniversary of the death of Augustus, the 1^st emperor, as one of the announcements said – I can only surmise it was said sarcastically!). We did the tour following the descriptions contained in the “Key to Rome” guidebook written a few years back by the former US ambassador to Rome, Frederick Freeland, and his wife, Vanessa (and the little guidebook provided by Pierre Grimal at the end of his monumental book “Voyage a Rome”!)

We then walked down along the Via Sacra in the Forum, admiring what is left of temples and palaces. We were struck how dense and condensed the place was!

Walked back through Rome (from the Campidoglio – we decided not to visit the Capitoline museum in spite of a special exhibition on Michelangelo – back by the Pantheon and the back streets in front) to take our lunch at the same place as the day before, the Lagana (it was really good!) Rested for the rest of the afternoon, before going to dinner at the Ar Galetto (as recommended in Downie’s book “Food, Wine, Rome”) on Piazza Farnese!

 

Sunday morning, museums time! First the Ara Pacis (photo below), an altar built following Augustus 3-year “visit” to Gaul and Spain; it was dedicated in 9 B.C, exposed for the first time in 1938 (Hitler visited it then!) and now comfortably nested by Augustus’s mausoleum in a very modern-looking museum built by the American architect studio of Richard Meier, at the request mind you of the city’s administration, in the new millennium! Not too far from where we are staying going north, it is quite impressive! Spent a lot of time (especially Cynthia) examining the altar, which is well reconstituted!  We visited as well the current exhibition in the complex on the exercise of power since Augustus in the antiquity. It is worth reading the Ara Pacis website as well!

Then walked back towards Piazza Pavona (built first as a stadium –its oval form gives it away!) to visit one of the 4 campuses of the National Roman Museum, the Palazzo Altemps, an old palazzo owned at the time by Cardinal Altemps (funny name for an Italian, I would think!) where the collection started during his time, in the 16^th century, to include artifacts (much of which we are told have been dispersed among other museums!) going as far back as Egypt civilization of the very long past. There is also sculptures showing the dramatic Gaul suicides (“The Gaul killing himself").

Enough to build an appetite for the last decent meal in Rome (and of the day!) at the Maccheroni, on Piazza delle Coppelle, on the way from the hotel to the Pantheon (another suggestion from Downie’s book – Gino again was close (we had tried before, on our last visit in Dec. 2012)!

Back to the hotel afterwards, and off by taxi to the airport (Cynthia, flying back to Paris, me, to Malta!) The weather was hot throughout our stay (we could hear the sacada most of the time, especially on the Palatino!)

Next time, we have to see this time the museums on the Capitoline Hill!

Roma, August 10, 2014