5 MINTUES WALK
Right in the heart of the dense network of cobblestone streets that make up the beautiful and vibrant Trastevere neighborhood, Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere is arguably Rome’s most beautiful square. The steps of Carlo Fontana’s majestic fountain, at the center of the square, are one of the city’s most enduring gathering points, while the imposing mass of the church that gives the square its name dominates the surrounding area.
Although the exact origins of Santa Maria in Trastevere are lost in time, one tradition holds that a Christian place of worship there was the first to openly hold Mass in Rome as early as the 3rd century. Another holds that a miraculous spring of olive oil gushed forth on the site at the moment of Christ’s birth. The magnificent basilica we see today dates back to the 12th century and owes its current form to the bitter end of one of the great crises of the medieval church, when Gregory Papareschi defeated his rival for the papacy, Pietro Pierleoni, and began rebuilding the latter’s titular church in his own image.
5 MINTUES WALK
San Francesco a Ripa owes its name to a supposed visit Saint Francis himself made here in 1219. His austere cell still preserves the stone he used in place of a pillow and the crucifix to which he prayed. The interior is largely 17th-century Baroque, and the highlight is undoubtedly Gianlorenzo Bernini’s final masterpiece, located in the last chapel on the left side of the nave. The elderly master was over 70 when he sculpted this extraordinary tribute to the local pious woman Ludovica Albertoni, who dedicated her life to helping the neighborhood’s poor.
Bernini’s sensual rendering recalls his earlier depiction of the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa on the other side of town; Here, the blessed Ludovica is captured in her seemingly ecstatic throes, an enigmatic sigh escaping her lips as she clutches her breasts, her eyes turned upward, her clothes a swirling, tumultuous flow of fabric and folds moved by the mysterious power of an invisible force. The virtuosity of the carving, the sureness of the composition, line, and form, make it clear that this is not a definitive, wavering landmark in the twilight of a brilliant career.
10 MINTUES WALK
Rome is a vast palimpsest, its buildings intricately layered with history, one upon another, piled upon the other over the centuries. Nowhere is this more evident than in the magnificent church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, built, according to tradition, on the site where the pious saint was martyred for her faith. It is entered through a charming, tree-lined atrium, where an imposing ancient cantharus (drinking vessel) stands in the center of a bubbling fountain. Inside, a richly restored Rococo interior leads to a Gothic canopy soaring toward the ceiling, a masterpiece of medieval art by the renowned sculptor Arnolfo di Cambio. In the apse behind it, a 1,200-year-old Byzantine mosaic resplendent with images of Christ and various saints, date palms, phoenixes, and lambs, testifying to an even more ancient artistic tradition in the church.
15 MINTUES WALK
The Villa della Farnesina on Lungara, in the heart of the Trastevere district, is one of the most noble and harmonious creations of the Italian Renaissance.
It was built as the residence of the wealthy Sienese banker Agostino Chigi, during the most splendid period of his life, far from the worries and gloomy city residence on Via dei Banchi, designed by Baldassarre Peruzzi, between 1505 and 1520.
The residence was frescoed according to an extraordinarily lavish program by the greatest artists of the period, including Peruzzi himself, Sebastiano del Piombo, Sodoma, and Raffaello Sanzio, who, with his school, created the splendid Loggia of Cupid and Psyche and the fresco of the nymph Galatea.
10 MINTUES WALK
The construction of the Acqua Paola Fountain (Fontanone del Gianicolo) dates back to the period between 1610 and 1614 thanks to the architects Giovanni Fontana (1540-1614), Flaminio Ponzio (1560-1613), and the sculptor Ippolito Buzio (1562-1634). It was commissioned by Pope Paul V Borghese (1605-1621) as the terminal point of the Trajan-Paul Aqueduct, whose emblems (dragon and eagle) recur in several places on the monument. Known as the “Fontanone del Gianicolo,” the fountain dominates the large terrace overlooking the city.
The fountain consists of five large arches flanked by columns and a large attic with a dedicatory inscription. For the decoration, white and polychrome marble from the Roman Forum and the Temple of Minerva in the Forum of Nerva was used, while the columns, in red and gray granite, belonged to the ancient Constantinian Basilica of St. Peter.
At the end of the 17th century, the architect Carlo Fontana (1638-1714) modified the facade, giving the fountain its current form: a monumental marble basin was added to replace the five collection basins originally inserted between the columns of the arches.
Via Dandolo, 21 – Roma -Trastevere
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CIN: IT058091B4ZW5G96TP
Authorization: QA/2015/28769 del 30/11/2015