Spring time arrives when the azaleas vases are displayed on the Trinita' dei Monti Staircase, better known as Spanish Steps.
This view is one of my favorite, I don't know how many times I took a picture from the same angle of the Trajan column in contrast with the doomed church.
Rome is a wonder of artistic contrasts! It’s a 75 meter long gallery with a splendidly vault decorated in trompe d’oeil executed in 1789. On the walls are displayed tapestries belonging to two different periods and manufactures: on the left wall there are tapestries woven in Rome by the Barberini workshop and commemorating important moments in the life of the Barberini pope Urban VIII. Wonderful weather today in Rome!
By the Constantine triumphal arch the band of the street policy was performing this morning and enjoying the visitors of the coliseum with beautiful music. Every month they perform in a different roman square. Today it was coliseum square turn. After a wonderful morning spent discovering Rome with Yvonne, Lee, Teresa and Cathy I left with my family for the mountains.
We've been welcomed by the rainbows ... Easter rainbows!!! The famous Keyhole is located in a gateway leading to the Knights of Malta gardens in piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta on the Aventine hill in Rome. The square was designed by the famous architect and painter Giovan Battista Piranesi, a 18th century famous architect and engraver also known for his romantic etchings depicting Rome, who also realized the palace and the small church called Santa Maria del Priorato, both within the extraterritorial properties. The beautiful and impressive square has splendid decorations rich in obelisks and military trophies full of symbols and references and the famous doorway with the keyhole. March 13th 2013, 7.44 pm. The Swiss guards are on the sagrado together with the Vatican band, the Carabinieri band and everyone else is waiting for the new Pope who's going to be introduced to us from the benediction loggia in the facade of St Peter basilica.
March 12th, 2013 at 12.30.
sPeople who attended the mass in St Peter are exiing the church. The atmosphere is very alive! This morning service was open to everyone to join the cardinal in prayer for the successful election of the new Pope. An historical moment that many faithful participated to. Today the Harley davidson bikers had a meeting with the Major of Rome.
They were driving along the imperial forum road in a kind of triumphal procession! We still love parades as in the ancient roman times. I spoke with one of them and he was happy since they were also going to dine with the major.. Today, while walking along the imperial forum street, instead of the abitual mummies or golden sphinx, I saw this unusual mime that definitively attracted my attention!!
Me and my friend noticed the resemblance with John Paul II and his extremely relaxed attitude. The ancient senate house or Curia in the roman forum was an imposing but sober building.
Externally the decorations were simple: travertine in the lower part and large bricks realized in plaster in the rest of the building. A remain of this plaster decoration is still visible today in the facade, below the roof. The interior of the senate house was very different. The walls were covered with the most valuable variety of exotic marbles as the splendid floor. Luckily the flloor dating to the ancient times survived throughout the centuries and it's still visible today. The building changed function in the middle ages to become a church, the original decoration were kept and not spoiled. A brief video of one of the most precise description of ancient roman hunting.
In empirial age the hunting shows were frequently offered to the roman citizens throughout the roman empire in both circuses and arenas. Several species of wild animals were extinguished in the roman empire, as the lions and elephants in north Africa. The video shows wild beasts taken in the boats to be shipped. From the Villa Romana in piazza Armerina, Sicily. Comparing the two sandals you can see they’re just the same! As you see fashion comes back after 2500 years!!
The marble feet belongs to an exceptional sculpture depicting Hera, made in Parian marble and dating to the Antonine age: 2nd century AD. The sculpture was discovered in the Palatine stadium in 1878 and is now located in the wonderful Antiquarium of the Palatine hill. It’s a roman copy of the after a Greek original of the late 5th century BC. From. The human feet belongs to my friend Jessica.
In the middle of the XVI century the pope Pius V would have liked to banish the prostitutes from the eternal city, but this proved impracticable. He tried to isolate them in a restricted area of their own near Ripetta, rome's harbor area. The pope Sixtus V, coping again with the problem, orderedn the cortigiane off the main streets of the city and forbade then to go abroad after Ave Maria, at sunset. A detail of a fascinating canvas painted by Antonio Canova, renewed neoclassical sculptor and leading personality of the neoclassical artistic movement.
This little cherub attract me for it's freshness, tenderness and curious attitude. Palazzo Braschi Museum Soon the largest Colosseum's restoration in the past 70 years will start. It's supposed to last till 2015 and will be divided in different phases. The first will consist in cleaning the building with jet spray, mapping the state of preservation of the amphitheater, removing the 'ugly ' metal fencing on the ground floor arches and replacing with new railing. The northern and southern prospect will be restored too. Today, during this extremely pleasant walking tour with my dear friends we got this nice surprise of a raimbow by Spanish steps, or Scalinata di Trinità dei Monti, the real name of it.
Believe it or not it was my first time to see a rainbow downtown!! |
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