The ship docks at Civitavechia which is a train ride away from Rome.
We had a bit of a major faff getting to Rome though, as we expected to just walk to the station as we had before, but things have changed, security has been heightened and no, no one is walking through the terminal, a shuttle bus will take you instead.
Being first on the shuttle bus doesn't mean it's going to go though.
We had to wait for the bus to fill up and all the while the clock was ticking and our pre-booked train journey was getting closer.
We made it though.
The train pulled in at St Peters...
...and we had a very pleasant walk along the River Tiber to
in the district of Trastevere.
VILLA FARNESINA
Wow, what a magnificent villa.
It's considered to be one of the noblest and most harmonious villas of the Italian Renaissance with its
spatial layout and rich interior decoration.
It was built in the early 16th century for a rich banker called Agostino Chigi and is full of frescoes by great masters such as Raphael, Sebastiano del Piombo, Sodoma and Peruzzi. It is named after the Farnese family who acquired it in 1579 but it should really have been named after Agostino Chigi, who was a passionate art lover and who decorated the villa so magnificently.
These canvases depict the story of Psyche. It is about a woman named Psyche, so beautiful that men admired her more than the goddess Venus. Needless to say, the goddess wasn’t pleased. She was out for revenge and sent her son Eros, god of love, to deal with poor Psyche. Eros was to make her deeply infatuated with a miserable and deformed little man. But as it turned out, the son of Venus became completely captivated by Psyche’s beauty at first glance. He kidnapped her to live together with his new wife. One day Psyche was intent on finding out who her husband really was. She dripped some hot oil from the lamp onto her beloved. Eros woke with a startle and fled. He now had to confess his sins to his mother. After hearing what had transpired, Venus went berserk. The girl had to be punished, one way or the other. But time and again, Psyche, with the aid of other Gods, managed to flee. Eventually Jupiter intervened to ensure the beautiful Psyche would stay safe from harm.
The huge hall on the first floor is called
The Hall Of Perspectives
and this is where Agostino Chigi held his wedding banquet on 28th August 1519.
It is fabulous.
Baldassarre Peruzzi decorated the room under the guidance of Raphael, painting urban and rural landscapes through imitation pillars. You can see villages perched on a rock, countryside views, the city, basilica and the like, which demonstrate Peruzzi's gift for perspective and scenography.
It was well worth the visit.
A beautifully decorated building with superb frescoes by the great masters..
Click here for the villa's website.
We continued along the Tiber and we arrived at the Church of St Cecilia.
This was typical of a building that was used as a regular home at certain times and as a church at others. Under this church was a house which is believed to have belonged to Saint Cecilia.
Cecilia was a devout Christian. She converted her husband and brothers. But when the brothers converted an officer, they were executed. The Romans then tried to end Cecilia's life by swinging a sword on her as she was taking a bath, but they didn't do a very good job of it. Her head was not entirely separated and she lived for several days afterwards and amazingly somehow continued to convert heathens before she eventually died.
It was all quite exciting as there was about to be a wedding here and we watched them prepare the church, the chairs, then the flowers arrived, there was a general buzz about the place.
Then we noticed a strange little side door with a little bell.
"Ring the bell to see the frescoes" it said.
So we did.
And we SO did.
Oh my goodness.
It took us up the stairs to the choir stalls which overlooked the church (and the wedding preparations) but then
OHMYDAYS
The frescoes!
They were ancient.
The frescoes were painted by Pietro Cavallini around 1300 but were not uncovered until restoration work in 1900. Imagine the surprise finding these pieces of history.
They were pretty mind blowing when you consider Giotto studied and was inspired by these frescoes.
(Didn't the History of Art START with Giotto? But he was inspired by these?? WOW)
We headed for the Jewish Quarter next.
We were really NOT expecting to see a Harry Potter shop!
Portico d'Ottavia
is one of the first things you see as you enter the Jewish Quarter.
A building of Ancient Rome which also housed two temples, Temple Jupiter Stator and Temple Juno Regina, two libraries, one Greek and one Latin, and a large area for public gatherings.
It was used as a fish market from the Middle Ages to end of 18th century
This magnificent doorway is where triumphal processions began.
It was built by Augustus who dedicated it to his sister Octavia.
Teatro di Marcello
It is known as the Jewish Coliseum.
The building of this theatre started under Julius Caesar but it was Emperor Augustus that put his passion into the project. It was named after Marcus Marcellus who was both Augustus's nephew AND son in law having married Augustus's only daughter Julia. Marcellus died prematurely aged 19 after a two year marriage with Julia.
There were originally 42 pillars(so 41 arches), and it was nearly 100 ft tall.
Today it is more like 65ft tall.
This open-air theatre could hold 15,000 spectators who came here for singing,acting and dancing performances.
According to some sources an accident occurred on the day of the inauguration of the theatre where the Emperor's seat broke and he fell, but Augustus just stood back up, smiling and told the actors to carry on.
One of the Kosher restaurants in the Jewish Quarter.
Santa Maria in Travestere
is one of the oldest churches in Rome and the first to be dedicated to Mary.
Inside the the church are stunningly beautiful 12th century mosaics.
The aspe
Domenichino's octagonal ceiling 1617
Absolutely beautiful.
We made our way back along the Tiber.
And I did a quick plank on the wall with Dan Brown's fictional tunnel in the background behind me.
His fictional tunnel which led to the Pope's private appartment in The Vatican, featured in his thriller novel Angels and Demons.
St Peter's Square
Designed by Bernini and can hold 300,000 people.
The most impressive part of the square, besides its size, are its 284 columns and 88 pilasters that flank the square in a colonnade of four rows. Above the columns there are 140 statues of saints created in 1670 by the disciples of Bernini.
In the centre of the square are the obelisk and the two fountains, one of Bernini (1675) and another of Maderno (1614) The obelisk, which is 25 meters in height, was carried to Rome from Egypt in 1586.
It was a lovely day.
Lovely enough to LEAP by the fountain.
Rome...what a city.
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