maggio

Welcome springtime! Benvenuta primavera!
Rome at this time of year is spectacular, don't you think?
I've not been posting as often as I should, I know. It's that I'm always out with my DSLR, phone and point-and-shoot compact digital camera capturing the beauty of the Eternal City in this amazing light and perfumy air.


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la notte

Piazza Venezia and Piazza del Gesù at night.
First image participates in this month's Theme Day in the CityDailyPhoto community.

basilica di san pietro

taxi

I love taking taxis. If I could afford it, I'd take taxis to go everywhere. I have fantasies of selling my car and using only taxis to get around the city. I even worked out that it could cost me less to take taxis than it is to keep a car, mintenance costs, gas, insurance, etc.
But then I never do it. I keep taking the bus, and when I absolutely must, I use my car and regularly get parking tickets. Which never would have happened if I'd just taken a taxi.

altar of peace

Richard Meier museum, housing the Augustan Ara Pacis

The Ara Pacis is an altar to Peace envisioned as a Roman Goddess. You can see a portion of it to the right of the picture. It was commissioned by the Roman Senate on 4 July 13 BC to honor the triumphal return of the Roman emperor Augustus, from territories now known as France and Spain. It was then consecrated 4 years later to celebrate the peace established in the Empire after Augustus's victories. The altar sought to portray the peace and fertile prosperity enjoyed in Rome as a consequence of the Pax Augusta, The Augustan Peace.

The 2006 Ara Pacis Museum, designed by the noted American architect Richard Meier, was at one point in danger of being demolished or relocated to a suburban site.

Rome’s newly elected Mayor, Alemmano had announced at a news conference that “Meier's building is a construction to be scrapped.”

What is your opinion on this Roman controversy?

In the meantime, while you ponder this, head over to Newton Area Photo for more  

Weekend Reflections

una passeggiata

A brief stroll in the Centro ~ Via della Dogana Vecchia, past l'Institut de France | Sant'Eustachio for a lovely coffee | the Pantheon 

santa maria sopra minerva

Elly, Bernini's Roman chick

The Basilica di Santa Maria sopra Minerva is a nominal minor basilica and one of the most important churches of the Roman Catholic Dominican order in Rome. The church–located in Piazza della Minerva virtually beside the Pantheon–is considered the only Gothic church in the city. It houses the tombs of St. Catherine of Siena and the Dominican painter Beato Angelico; and the marble Cristo della Minerva, also known as Christ the Redeemer or Christ Carrying the Cross. This stunning sculpture by Michelangelo is located to the left of the main altar. 

Funny that the father of modern astronomy Galileo Galilei, after being tried for heresy in the adjoining Dominican monastery, was forced to abjure his scientific beliefs in this church in 1633–considering it was built directly over (sopra) the foundations of a temple dedicated to the sultry Egyptian goddess of fertility Isis, and later erroneously assimilated to Minerva, the Roman name for pagan Athena.

In front of the church stands one of Rome's most curious monuments, the Pulcino della Minerva. It portrays an elephant and it is the base supporting an ancient Egyptian obelisk. The sturdy appearance of the elephant earned it the popular nickname of "Porcino" (pig-like) for a while. The name eventually changed to Pulcino, Italian for a little "chick."

Gian Lorenzo Bernini was not only the person responsible for designing this interesting sculpture. Along with Pope Alexander VII's complicity, he was the mastermind behind one of history's most irreverent artistic pranks. His plans and drawings of the pachyderm–later completed in 1667 by his pupil Ercole Ferrara–placed the elephant in such a way that its rear end faced towards the obtuse Dominicans in the adjacent convent, while the trunk and the tail–wagged naughtily to the left–accentuated the mischievous prankster's offensive intentions. 

That cheeky Bernini...

piramide cestia

fine print

The tiny inscription on the east facing side of the Pyramid of Cestius below the larger dedicatory one, records the circumstances of the tomb's construction: "This work was completed in accordance with the will in 330 days under order of Lucius Pontus Mela, son of Publius of the Claudia family, heir; and Pothus, freedman."

In his will, Cestius expressly asked his heirs to build his Egyptian-style pyramid tomb in 330 days. If the deadline was not met, the heirs would not benefit from the rich bequeathed inheritance. 

Lucius and Pothus hurried in delivering the testament order, so much so that rumor has it the monument was completed a few days early. 

A freedman is a former slave who has been released from slavery, usually by his owner. 

Hollywood material, if you ask me.

dettagli

A papal miter... keys... a fierce looking dolphin... 

which Roman fountain do these elements belong to?

...more hints...

The fountain and obelisk "della Rotonda," in front of the Pantheon, right!

mattina presto

I went straight, towards the Basilica

I love Rome in the early hours of the morning. No traffic, awesome light and great photo ops.

la rotonda

**

Pantheon, 126 A.D.

Almost two thousand years after it was built, the Pantheon's coffered, concrete dome is still the world's largest unreinforced cupola. From this angle, it's invisible! The best way to see it is from the inside...

**This photo was taken a few days ago. I am posting it today because I am homebound with a migraine and the rain is not inviting me out to shoot pictures. Technically, it's cheating–I know.

il leone e l'obelisco

Obelisco Flaminio (13th century B.C.)

Towering at the center of Piazza del Popolo is the Flaminio obelisk native of Heliopolis–one of the most ancient cities of Egypt–where it originally stood across from the Temple of the Sun. Its hieroglyphics spell the name of Pharaoh Ramses II and his son Mineptah, who dedicated the 34-meter monolith to the Sun God Rhà.

The Flaminio obelisk was the first megalith to be imported by the Roman Empire as a decoration for the Circus Maximus in 10 A.D. by Augustus. As the stadium fell in disuse, the obelisks adorning it collapsed and in time were buried under layers of soil as the street level rose. In 1587 the ruins of the circus and the broken obelisk were found, and in 1589 Pope Sixtus V had the monument fully restored and erected in its current location. The four Egyptian-style lions and underlying fountain basins surrounding it were added in 1818.