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Terme di Caracalla - The Baths of Caracalla | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| The
Baths of Caracalla, the second largest baths complex in ancient
Rome, were built between 212 and 219 A.D. by the emperor Marcus
Aurelius Antoninus, better known by his nickname Caracalla. By the 3rd century A.D. the Romans had built many baths, in Rome and elsewhere, and had acquired great skill in designing functional, fully integrated complexes. The water supply and drainage system, in particular, required careful planning to ensure an adequate flow to and from the numerous hot and cold basins: it has been calculated that the baths used 15-20,000 cubic meters of water per day. The main building was built to a symmetrical plan similar to that of other baths of imperial Rome (see below). Someone using the facilities would first enter one of the dressing-rooms (apodyteria), where he could undress and place his clothes on a shelf. Then he might take some exercise in the gymnasium (palaestra) or have a massage in one of the small rooms leading off it. He would proceed to the heated rooms for a sauna or the equivalent of a Turkish bath in the calidarium. He then went through the tepidarium to the large, unheated hall called a frigidarium, which was open on one side giving access to the open-air swimming-pool (natatio). Then he could return to the dressing-room to get his clothes. |
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| Isola Tiberina - Tiber Island | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| It
is a low-seated and stretched small island (about 300 by 80 meters)
which rises in the Tevere between the Garibaldi and Palatine bridges.
It attracted the Romans’ fantasy that interwove several legends
about it. Its form reminds a big boat. It is connected according to a legend to the shipwreck. In the past the ship was underlined by the travertine laying.The remarkable remains are left from it. The sacred image of the watercraft had an obelisk in the middle representing a mainmast. While according to other legends the origin of an island was due to the accumulation of the mud on the grain of Tarquinius which was thrown into the river by the people after the tsar was caught. The left bank of the island is linked to the land by the Ponte Fabricio (62 B.C). It is the most ancient bridge in Rome after Ponte Milvio, with the hermae quadrifrons at four ends. That’s why it was called Four Heads or Jewish bridge because the Hebrews were crossing it to return to the ghetto. The right bank is linked to Trastevere district through the ponte Cestio (I A.C century ) restored in 370 A.C. and reconstructed again in 800 keeping only the central arcade from the antiquity. |
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| Villa Borghese - Park of Villa Borghese | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| It's
considered the city's most important green space. Painted by famous
artists, the muse and inspiration of writers and celebrated musicians,
Villa Borghese is perhaps Rome's best known 'villa', or park. Unique
in the world for its concentration of cultural institutions, the
park contains five museums and is ringed by a string of foreign
academies representing Romania, Egypt, Sweden, Denmark, Austria
and Britain. Villa Borghese stretches across 80 hectares, including
the Pincio area. It's history began in 1580 with the planting of a modest vineyard. In the early 1600s Cardinal Scipione Caffarelli Borghese, favoured nephew of Pope Paul V, decided to acquire the surrounding land to create a "pleasure palace". Villa Borghese has now regained its ancient splendour. Recent work - some 20 building projects - have highlighted both its artistic and environmental value, restoring it to how it originally looked in the 16th century. The Piazzale Flaminio entrance, the Pinciana Gate, Lions Gate, the Piazzale delle Canestre and the temple of Antonio and Faustina have all been restored. Rome authorities have called it the "Park of Museums" and dubbed it the city's cultural cornerstone. It's wide variety of plants have also been taken into account. The Valley of Plantains, also known as the Valley of Dogs, still contains some 400 different species. |
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| Piramide di Caio Cestio | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This
pyramid was built the years 18 and 12 B.C. as a sepulchre for Caio
Cestio, a magistrate, representative of the plebeians and member
of the College of Septemviri Epulones. Taking inspiration from the
Egyptian pyramids, quite fashionable in Rome during the Augustan
age, that of Caio Cestio is the only surviving example of Roman
pyramids. The pyramid itself is enclosed in the Aurelian Walls.
On one face of the pyramid is an inscription which states that it
took 330 days to complete the construction. Measuring some 36 metres
in height, 29,6 in width, its current size seems smaller because
of the raising of the road on which it stands. The structure is
clad in marble from Carrara and, thanks to recent restoration work,
the interior can now be visited and where one can see the refined
frescoes painted onto white backgrounds. |
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| Palazzo del Quirinale | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The building, whose history is linked to the life of many Popes, was erected on the hill to which it owes its name. Under Gregory XIII the 15th-century building was rebuilt to become a residence replacing the Vatican, and it held this function till 1870 when it became The Palace of the Savoia family. The Italian kings turned the building into a royal residence bringing precious furniture, tapestries, and ancient paintings from Piedmont. The magnificent gardens are full of avenues flanked with trees, rare plants and fountains. The Quirinal is, since 1947m the residence of the head of state. The sober façade was built by Fontana, with typical features of the late-Renaissance period. There are two kinds of windows with a wide seventeeth-century door by Carlo Maderno, with pillars supporting a tympanum with the statues of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Above there is the loggia of the blessings by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1638), who also built the tower visible on the left. The 360-metre short right wing, ”the Long Sleeve“, is on the right, built on several occasions by Sixtus V, Alexander VII and Clemens XII. Inside precious works are kept: the Stairs of Honour, the Palace of the Mascherino, the Royal Room with precious frescoes and a bas-relief by Taddeo Landini, the Paolina Chapel, with a highly decorated lacunar vault, the Annunciata Chapel, the Deluge Room, the balcony Room, John the Baptist's Hall. There are aslo works by Sandro Botticelli, Claude Lorrain, Lorenzo Lotto and Lorenzo Monaco. Particularly beautiful and refined are the gardens, where the Organ Fountain stands out with its natural elements, whose plumbing was taken care of by Giovanni Fontana, and the Coffee House, displaying the canvases of Giovanni Paolo Pannini in the Mezzanine Room. |
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