On to Rome

Part 19:  On to Rome

Sunday October 6:  The sun is just peeking over the old Orphanage and will soon shine on the Piazza SS Annunziata.  And we will be heading to Rome – 3 hours away, but with a stop at a winery near Orvieto.

Le Velette Winery

Tenuta (Estate) Le Velette has been owned by the Botai family since the late 19^th century.  They produce olive oil and fine wines.  The wines are sold on a limited basis in the USA. The estate is above a small valley, across which is Orvieto, one of the most picturesque hill towns in Umbria.  

 
Alessandro the estate's manager gave us a tour of the wine cellars, a primer on cultivating grapes so they become great wines, and hosted a tasting of four of their wines.  

                              Thanks to Kristine Derigne for this picture

                                      Thanks to Gary Ong for this picture and the one below

                 The estate’s buildings date from the 17^th century.  At one time it was a Franciscan friary.

Alessandro told us their wines are sold on a limited supply in the USA, and that one of their distributors is in Portland.  Later Bonnie found out they are sold at New Seasons markets.  O happy day!

Do I have to say that this was one of the most enjoyable couple of hours on our trip?

Rome

I didn’t notice where our bus left the freeway, but we drove through the surface streets of Rome for about 30 minutes before we reached our hotel. So we got to see the mundane, non-tourist areas of the Eternal City, which I enjoyed – but glad someone else was doing the driving.  We got to the hotel about four o’clock.   

The Hotel Aberdeen according to its website is “the perfect base for a visit to the Eternal City on foot or by public transportation.  It is located in a quiet area near the Termini Train Station and the Trevi Fountain.”  That is a pretty accurate statement.  We would learn a lot about public transportation in the next few days.  Rozanne gave each of us 9 passes for the bus or Metro.

Without someone to guide you, the Aberdeen could also be hard to find.  There is only a small plate on the front of the building, and when you open the door you are in a courtyard with several options for where to go.  Aberdeen is on the right, another hotel on the left, and straight ahead is a statue with paths leading to the left and right of that.  But, though it’s in an old building, the interior is surprisingly modern:  tile and marble in the halls, but clean lines throughout them and in the rooms.

In Rome you do as the Romans do. So after getting to our rooms and unpacking, we set off for a visit to the Pantheon and an “evening walk through the heart of Rome” (per our itinerary).  We walked two blocks to the bus stop, hopped on the #40 for a 15 minute ride that will get us to the Pantheon.  But this is rush hour and there is standing room only.  Hold on tight to your valuables.

The Pantheon

 
The Pantheon (a temple to all the gods) is one of the best preserved of Roman buildings.  What we see today dates from AD 126, but an earlier version was built during the reign of Augustus in the first century.   That was destroyed in a fire.  The building is circular with a rectangular front porch supported by Corinthian columns.  The interior is a wide open dome 142 feet across and high.  The “eye” at the top of the dome is open to the sky.  Even today it is the world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome.  It has been the inspiration for St Peter’s in Rome and the Duomo in Florence.

The Pantheon has been in continuous use since its completion in the second century.  Since the 7th century it has been a Catholic church, dedicated to "St. Mary and the Martyrs" but informally known as "Santa Maria Rotonda."  The consecration of the building as a Catholic Church saved it from the abandonment, destruction, and the worst of the despoiling that befell the majority of ancient Rome's buildings during the early Middle Ages.

Since the Renaissance the Pantheon has been used as a burial place:  for the Renaissance artist Raphael and two kings of Italy (Vittorio Emmanuel and Umberto I), and others.  It is still used as a Catholic Church, with masses being celebrated on more important feast days. 
  
There are many niches and side altars.  They were commissioned by Pope Clement XI in the first decades of the 18^th century.  Here is one of them, St John of the Holy Land:

Another side altar with a painting from the 15^th century “The Madonna of Mercy between St Francis and St John the Baptist.” 

And this is the tomb of Raphael, with his bust to one side of the altar.

After he died in 1520, Raphael’s body was interred in the Pantheon.  In 1833 the grave was opened to verify the body’s existence.  The Pope, Gregory XVI, gifted the Pantheon with a marble sarcophagus from the 16^th century with this inscription:  “Here lies Raphael by whom nature feared to be outdone while he lived, and 
when he died, feared that she herself would die.”   WOW!

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Here is another time when it would have been fun to have a camera crew present to record the tension, the danger, the BS-ing of authority that accompanies international travel. 

After wondering inside the Pantheon we were to re-group with Rozanne at a designated spot in the Piazza.  We met, and Rosanne started talking about the Pantheon, the Piazza, Roman History, etc. to all 28 of us grouped around her.  

This went on for about ten minutes until two police officers (one male, one female) approached.  Rozanne stopped; the police woman wanted to know if she was conducting a tour (which would be illegal, if you’re not licensed).  “Oh no!  These people are just some of my relatives, and a few friends, and we were figuring out what we are going to do for the rest of the evening.” 

That sounds believable, doesn’t it?   After a few minutes of consultation and consideration, the nice (actually not very nice at all) police woman relented – Rozanne stayed out of jail, and we escaped a huge fine.  And for the rest of the evening Rozanne was “Auntie Rozanne.”  

Piazza Navona

A few blocks from the Pantheon is the Piazza Navona with the Fountain of the Four Rivers in its center.  Unlike most piazzas, Navona is long, narrow and rounded at the north and south ends.  In the first  century it was a stadium where people came to watch games and races.  For me the Fountain of the Four Rivers (Bernini 1651) is a baroque monstrosity – huge beyond reason.  It was commissioned by Pope Innocent X in 1644.  His family, the Pamphili, had their Palazzo Pamphili adjacent to the Piazza.

There are four of these behemoths, each sitting astride a river:  Danube, Ganges, Nile, Rio de la Plata.

As the sun set we walked to the Piazza della Maddelena for a view of the very baroque Saint Mary Magdalen Church (1699) and a gelato stop.  Since arriving in Florence (world’s greatest gelato), we had a mandatory gelato at least once a day.  And that would continue until we left Rome.

This is the Temple of Hadrian, what is left of it from the first century AD.  Only one wall remains, the others were torn down to use as stones to build the piazza (Piazza di Pietra) we were standing in.  The holes in the walls are caused by the removal of the pinnings that held marble to the wall.

We ate as a group at the Osteria dell Ingegno on the Piazza, a small but very tasty pasta dinner.

Then to the Trevi Fountain, which in spite of being really crowded was very nice. Was it the Fountain?  Was it all the wishing and coin tossing? 

And our last stop for the evening – the Spanish Steps

The church at the top is the Trinita dei Monti

To get back to the Aberdeen, some of us walked (a little more than a kilometer) and some (Bonnie and I) rode the Metro (subway).  It was an easy test; at 9 PM, there are not a lot of other riders.