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The Vittoriano is open to visitors for the first time in our memory. You can visit the Balbi Crypt, a museum on the Dark Ages in Rome, and go to the roof for an overarching view of the city. |
Dominating the square, the Vittoriano is the monument to King Victor Emanuele, the unifier of Italy. (The 1870 Resorgimento - Italy is a young country, despite its ancient heritage.) Gaudy to some, many Italians derisively call the Vittoriano the Wedding Cake or the Typewriter. The flame in the center and the military guards mark Italy's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
ross the square toward the right side
of the Wedding Cake and go up the street (via del Teatro Marcello). On your left after you
pass the monument you'll see some ruins. They're the remains of a Roman insula (apartment
house). Looking down, you'll see where ground level was 2000 years ago. Insulae were as
tall as 6-7 stories. Roadways were quite narrow (10-20 feet) and so the streets were dark
and smelly.
lmost at the top of the hill on your left
you'll see, first, the Church of Aracoeli (Altar of Heaven), and next to it, beyond, the
Campidoglio. Aracoeli replaces a Roman temple, and the stairs, if not original, recreate
the steepness of Roman temple stairs. They must have had great calves! Visit if you'd
like. However, we recommend you ascend the gentle ramped stairs up to the Campidoglio.
(You can also (often - not always) enter Aracoeli by a rear door found by going to
the left rear of the Campidoglio square.)
Michaelangelo designed the ramp-like stairs to the Campidoglio (the Cordonata). Their grace is a sharp departure from Roman design. Michaelangelo also architected the Campidoglio, called by many the first example of urban planning.
The Campidoglio is atop the Capitoline Hill, the site of the major Roman temples to Jupiter Optimus Maximus and Juno Moneta, the king and queen of the Roman gods. The hill is called Capitoleum in Latin, from which stems the English word, capitol.
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To your left and right are two interesting museums (one admission for both.) Worthwhile if you have the time. You may wish to pass them up unless the weather is bad, and indoors better than out on this morning or afternoon. (Note: closed in 2000 ... reopening date unknown. Many or all of the most important exhibits distributed to other museums.)
Under the center of the staircase/fountain arrangement is a statue of a wolf nursing a child. This represents Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome, reared by a wolf. The wolf is quite ancient (probably Etruscan), but the Romulus doesn't come from the same period. Whatever their relationship in antiquity, this pair didn't start life together ... more likely 1,000+ years apart! View of the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill
Looking ahead you'll see the Forum stretching toward the Colosseum. This original, 'Roman', Forum (there eventually were several) was a marketplace, financial center, seat of government, home to the legislature, site of the courts, shopping mall, city park and general gathering place. To the right of the Forum you'll see the structures and gardens of the Palatine Hill. The Palatine was the Greenwich, CT of ancient Rome, the nicest place to live, adjacent to but away from the hustle and bustle of the city's center, the Forum. In the Imperial age, beginning with Augustus, the emperors built their palaces there. No surprise, then, that Palatine is the source of our word, palace. Here's a birdseye view of the forum
as it looked at 0850 CDT on April 12, 2000. This link will take you to a live
view of the Forum looking east from the back of the At this site you can find several 'thumbnail' views of the Forum and other ancient areas. Click on a thumbnail to see a full-size view as it is today; click again on this view and you'll be able to see more or less the way it looked in ancient times. You'll find the via Sacra (Sacred Way) winding its way from right to left down the hill, turning under the triumphal arch on the left (the Arch of Septimus Severus), then wending down the left side of the Forum to exit at the SE end through the Arch of Titus, near the Colosseum. Triumphal processions passed up the via Sacra, to the most important temples atop the Capitolium. (Much as some parades go down Broadway in New York to the City Hall.) The three columns in the distance on the right were resurrected from the Temple of Castor and Pollux, the Twins (Gemini). The statues flanking the entry to the Campidoglio at the top of the Cordonata are Castor and Pollux. Just beyond the Temple of Castor and Pollux is a reconstruction of part of the wall of the Temple of the Vestal Virgins. You can see from the difference in the color of the materials just how little of the original material is in the reconstruction. To the left of this reconstruction are the relatively low remains of the Altar of the Divine Julius, the temple built to contain Julius Caesar's ashes. Continue this tour on the next page, completing the Forum and Palatine, and ending with the Colosseum. Ranking
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Gehrlein Traveling
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o to Piazza
Venezia. Orient yourself facing the immense marble monument to the south, the Vittoriano.
Take a brief look to your right at the balcony of Palazzo Venezia from which Mussolini
used to orate.
Capitoline Hill atop the Senatorial
Palace. (