Remembering Giacomo Matteotti, and the Early Days of Italian Fascism

 

One of Rome's least prominent--and probably least visited--memorials is located on the Lungotevere Arnaldo da Brescia, just steps from the Tevere, near Ponte Pietro Nenni--a 5-minute walk from bustling Piazza del Popolo.

There, on June 1924 (two years after the March on Rome), while walking along the Lungotevere Arnaldo, the Italian politician Giacomo Matteotti was waylaid, thrown into a Lancia Lambda, and stabbed to death. Of the 5 men involved, one was a prominent member of the Fascist secret police. The extent of Benito Mussolini's involvement is not clear. [See the RST post on David Kertzer's book The Pope and Mussolini for more information.]

Matteotti was an anti-Fascist socialist--a member of the Unitary Socialist Party--and a deputy in the parliament. Ten days prior to his murder, he had spoken in the parliament, concerned about violence that had occurred during recent elections and critical of the anti-democratic Acerbo law, which had assigned 2/3 of the seats in parliament to the party of Mussolini--the largest in the body--which had won 35% of the vote. 

The monument to Matteotti occupies a semi-circular green space on an elevated terrace above the river. The space can be accessed by the Lungotevere or from the river bank, via a substantial staircase that appears to be a part of the memorial. 

Inaugurated in 1974 (50 years after Matteotti's death) and paid for by the Socialist Party, the bronze memorial consists of two very different sculptures, both by Jorio Vivarelli (1922-2008), who as a soldier was captured and imprisoned in 1943 by the German forces. The monument includes the words, "Although you kill me, the idea within me can never be killed."

The original plaque was smashed in January 2017, 6 months before we visited the site and these photos were taken.  

Bill 

Elsa Morante's Room - A glimpse into the life of one of Italy's best 20th-century writers

Elsa Morante from her terrazzo at via dell'Oca 27,
overlooking Piazza del Popolo and one of its
almost-twin churches, this one Santa Maria
dei Miracoli..

Elsa Morante was born, lived, and died in Rome. And her sprawling novel, History ("La Storia"), presents Rome during and after World War II as one its main protagonists.  The center of Rome was Morante's life-blood.  She never cooked at home; she ate in the city's restaurants. She was part of the city's most vibrant literary scenes, and the literati too met in the cafes and restaurants.  She lived in many different apartments in different parts of the city, and wrote in her city studio.  She was moody and idiosyncratic, married to and divorced from, and, in the opinion of many today, unjustly overshadowed by, the literary lion Alberto Moravia (whose apartment - which he occupied with his second wife, Dacia Maraini -  we visited and wrote about in a 2013 post).

It seemed, then, a potentially rewarding and easy task to track Morante's life in Rome, starting with Lily Tuck's 2008 biography appropriately titled "Woman of Rome: A Life of Elsa Morante."  But the Rome of today is not the Rome Morante lived in; it's not even the Rome of the 1980s when she died.

La Stanza di Elsa  - Elsa Morante's study, at via dell'Oca 17, re-created in the Biblioteca Nazionale.

What IS available is the re-creation of Morante's study inside the Biblioteca Nazionale ("National Library") in Rome.  Like many creative people, Morante had a particular way of writing, and, with few exceptions, wrote in her study.  The re-assembling of her study, with all of her furniture, books, and art, was made possible through a grant to the library by Carlo Cecchi, her literary executor and close friend.  The library also was given her archive - thousands of pieces.  These include the notebooks on which she wrote - long hand - all but her last novel.  Digital photographs of the notebooks also are available in the library.

Piazza del Popolo today.  The large apartment building to the right is where Morante lived
and where her study was located.  The picture at the top shows her on the terrazzo of
this building, with the church dome behind her.  The building's entrance, on via dell'Oca,
is on the side that is in back of Piazza del Popolo.  

For those of us who appreciate seeing how and where creative minds work, La Stanza di Elsa  (Elsa's Room) is a required stop in Rome.  And La Storia should take its place in the 20th-century canon of best literature. (I take issue with Tim Parks who says it does not have "the charm...and dazzling imaginative richness" of her other works.)

Morante with Moravia and Pier Paolo Pasolini.  She was very
close to Pasolini, though estranged from him after he wrote
a devastatingly critical review of La Storia.  She was overcome
by his brutal murder.

We can see that Morante was passionate
about British poet Sylvia Plath.  This
photo is of books on the bookshelves
of "Elsa's Room" in the Biblioteca
Nazionale, part of the trove of her
archives donated to the BN.

All of the materials associated with La Stanza di Elsa, including large panels and a 10-minute impressionistic video with readings, are in Italian.  Head curator Elenora Cardinale said there are plans to provide some materials in English in the future.  In the meantime, if you don't read Italian, look up some material on Morante ahead of time, or use your smart phone while you're there to gather information.

Bill Morrow's paintings in "Elsa's Room"

If you don't know Morante's bio, one piece of information explains the paintings on the walls, most by Bill Morrow, a charismatic American more than 20 years her junior.  She and Morrow planned to live together in Rome, but in 1962 he jumped to his death from a Manhattan skyscraper (presumably under the influence of LSD), before their plans materialized. His paintings hung on her studio walls until her death, more than 20 years later.

Morante's notebooks also are fascinating.  She wrote longhand on one side of the page, using a consistent type of notebook for a work, but a different type for each different work.  Once finished, apparently she would go back and on the reverse side of the page make notes, drawings, and basically develop more fully characters, plot lines, and ideas for the novel she was writing. For reasons of copyright protection, according to Cardinale, the notebooks are not available on the internet.  Some material on Morante is available online from the library (again, in Italian).

A corner of her re-constructed study and a photo of Morante writing
in the study.

Morante was childless, yet wrote often about mothers and children (the mother and son are the main characters in History), and she transferred some of that love to her cats.  You will hear them also in Elsa's Room.

The entrance to "Elsa's Room" with explanatory panels
(in Italian).

The Biblioteca Nazionale is at the Castro Pretorio Metro B stop.  The room is open to any visitor, without a reservation, currently during the hours of 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. Saturdays.  The entrance is before the turnstiles for the library itself.

Since Elsa's Room was conceived and constructed, the Biblioteca Nazionale has added more rooms that focus on about two dozen major Italian writers of the 20th century, called Spazi900 ("20th- Century Space"), which opened within the past year.  This is also a fascinating path through Italian literary history of the last century, and includes a major focus on Pier Paolo Pasolini.  More about Spazi900 in a future post.

via dell'Oca 27 - not much to see here.

And now to my attempt to follow Morante through Rome.  Her studio that is re-created in the Biblioteca Nazionale is from her apartment at via dell'Oca 27, basically in a building on Piazza del Popolo (though one enters it behind the piazza).  She and Moravia lived in the apartment for the greater part of their troubled married life, and she continued to live there after they divorced.

Dal Bolognese, the restaurant under Morante's building
at via dell'Oca 27.  This woman reflected my mood that day.

One of the restaurants she frequented was just below her apartment backing onto the piazza, but I was there on its weekly day of closure.

Building where the gallery
"La Nuova Pesa" - which
exhibited Morrow's work -  is
now located on an upper floor,
via del Corso.

I also tried to find the gallery where Bill Morrow had a major exhibition.  It still exists (or rather has been revived), but in a totally different location - actually one quite close to via dell' Oca 27 on via del Corso.

Instead of artisan shops, one now finds
high-priced boutiques on via Frattina,
but also a plaque indicating James
Joyce lived here.

I also tried to find the stationery shop where Morante bought her particular notebooks, on via Frattina near the Spanish Steps.  It no longer is there, replaced by upscale clothing boutiques.  The address in Prati to which it supposedly relocated and should still be, seems now to be a Chinese-run housewares store.

via Margutta still looks pretty, perhaps as it
did in Morante's day.

Morante spent time on the once (and sort-of-still artsy street of via Margutta (where Gregory Peck had his studio in Roman Holiday), but I saw mostly digital companies there.

but this is the type of enterprise one
sees most of these days.

She also spent a lot of time on via del Corso, which runs in a straight line from Piazza Venezia to Piazza del Popolo, but it's now mostly a tacky tourist shopping street, and I can't imagine she would find it appealing.

About as good as via del Corso can look
these days.

Morante once called Piazza Navona the most beautiful piazza in the world.  Though jammed with tourists, and those hawking wares to tourists, it still may warrant that description.

In Testaccio.
  This plaque has a poetic tribute to her (I'm
taking some liberties in the translation):
"A visionary mind.  A profound sense of pain.
A life that had the humble capacity to
transform history [la storia] into myth. 
A life told in brutal and mysterious stories."

Morante's rather lower-class family lived in various locales in Rome as she was growing up, including in Testaccio, then a working-class district.  We found a plaque on a building where she once lived as an unhappy girl.

We also serendipitously visited the site where Morante's father (in name only) worked as a probation officer - the boys' and girls' reformatories of San Michele a Ripa in Trastevere (which we covered in a recent post).

The boys' "reformatory" at San Michele a Ripa
(restored recently).

Although there are other places I could have gone to 'locate' Morante--the restaurant where she broke her leg, an accident that led eventually to her death (Da Giggetto in the ghetto, on via Portico d'Ottavia) or the nursing home where she spent her last 2 years near Villa Massimo in the Piazza Bologna area--it seemed to me the Rome of Morante was simply not psychologically and physically the Rome of today.  Better to go to La Stanza di Elsa at the Biblioteca Nazionale.

Dianne

Martin Luther: an Itinerary in Rome for the 500th anniversary of his "95 Theses"

On this the 500th anniversary of the day Martin Luther posted his rebuke to Catholicism, his "Ninety-five Theses" (October 31, 1517), we recommend an itinerary reflecting Luther's visit to Rome, 6 or 7 years earlier.

Luther confronting the Catholic hierarchy

                                      
     That four-week visit to Rome was crucial to Luther's observations of the excesses of Catholicism.  For a brief summary of his trip, see the the write-up of scholars Ron and Abby Johnson, St. Mark's Lutheran Church, Springfield, VA.  While this was a seminal period for Luther, the details of his visit remain sketchy, even the dates, as the Johnsons point out. Nonetheless, we think the following itinerary will satisfy those interested in this figure critical to modern religious thought. 

Luther's first view of Rome could have been from this spot on Monte Mario.
St. Peter's dome would not yet have been constructed.

Monte Mario:  Luther described his first sight of Rome as being from the "mountain" outside the city walls.  He is supposed to have said on his first look, "Holy Rome, I salute thee."  Of course, years later he said, "If there is a hell, Rome is built over it."

The city looked very different in the early 1500s than it did even at the end of that century, and of course very different from today, although the views would have been stupendous, as they still are.  Rome in the early 1500s was in the midst of an enormous church building spree.  The city was coming out of its "irrelevance" during the Middle Ages.  The population had grown to over 50,000 from a low of about 12,000, after being almost one million during the Roman Empire.  

The via Francigena on Monte Mario.  Where we encounter 4 British pilgrims
on their way from Orvieto to St. Peter's.

Luther would have seen the beginning of the Renaissance, though not its flowering.  Construction of the modern St. Peter's began in 1506.  In 1508 Michelangelo began painting the Sistine Chapel.  And Luther came before the 1527 Sack of Rome.  We've always found Monte Mario great 'trekking' and recommend it as a starting point for an itinerary for those who can handle the moderate heights and walking.  It's 1.2 miles from Ponte Milvio on the north bank of the Tiber to the entrance to the walk up Monte Mario, and less than a mile (and about 400 vertical feet) up to the top of Monte Mario (Lo Zodiaco).

Via Flaminia: From Monte Mario, it appears Luther came back down to via Flaminia, rather than approach St. Peter's, as do today's pilgrims on the via Francigena (St. Francis's way).  All pilgrims from the north would have walked along via Flaminia, which crosses into Rome over Ponte Milvio.  While we find the modern via Flaminia interesting (much of it is on one of our itineraries in Modern Rome: 4 Great Walks for the Curious Traveler), it has little left of the medieval city.

Ponte Milvio:  Luther would have crossed the Tiber at Ponte Milvio, where on October 28, 312 Constantine, who later converted to Christianity, the first Roman Emperor to do so, defeated his rival Maxentius.  The bridge retains its medieval style, though it's mostly known now for lovers who put padlocks on its rails. Once across the bridge, it's about a two-mile walk to the northernmost entrance to the city, Porta del Popolo, and the church for which it's named. 

Ponte Milvio.  Part of the 14th century toretta (little tower), which Luther would have seen, is still standing.

Porta del Popolo: Today's highly decorated, enormous "porta"--city gate--is vastly remodeled from the smaller porta Luther came through.  The porta had been built in the 1400s, as had the renovated church (1477), but on a smaller scale than they would have once rebuilt and remodeled.

The porta is on the far left; the church of Santa Maria del Popolo to the right of it.  Luther came through a smaller porta and was at the church. No cars and scooters in Luther's day.  Nor was the obelisk in the piazza.  Though brought
 to Rome in 10 BC, the obelisk was lost, then discovered in 1587 (in the photo the base is covered for restoration).

Inside Santa Maria del Popolo today - with crowds viewing the Carravagio
paintings.

Santa Maria del Popolo.  Luther no doubt next went to Santa Maria del Popolo, the small church on the piazza, now famous mostly for its 17th-century Caravaggio paintings of Saints Paul and Peter.  Even in the 1500s the church was a favorite of the Popes and had been substantially enlarged and remodeled from earlier versions.  

There is some debate over whether Luther stayed in the rooms adjacent to the church.  They would have been the only lodging in Rome belonging to an Augustinian order.  There is agreement that he either stayed at or visited Santa Maria del Popolo - so we've kept it on the itinerary.  Luther's journey was connected to disputes between the Observant and Conventional monasteries of the Augustinian Order.  Luther belonged to the Germanic Observant group, and Santa Maria del Popolo belonged to an order of Observant Augustinians as well, although Luther seems to have rejected the lavish meals he was served at whatever monastery at which he lodged. 

We recommend a two-part itinerary, and you can end part one at Piazza del Popolo.  You can make a very un-Luther like stop at the famous cafe Canova, where Director Federico Fellini had his morning coffee.

Scala Santa: Even though his 95 Theses rejected the concept of indulgences, Luther, on his trip to Rome, "was as eager to rack them up as anyone," according to one scholar.  "He even regretted that his parents were not still alive so he could earn a few for them."  (For more on what indulgences meant to Catholics, and Luther in particular, see Tom Browning's piece.)  Luther earned indulgences for ascending these steps on his knees, an act you can still see pilgrims performing.  One story states that Luther said, "Who knows whether this is true?" when he got to either the top of the stairs, or possibly when he quit half-way through.  Again, the details of his trip are sketchy, but it is clear his doubt was developing.  The Scala Santa, supposedly the stairs Jesus climbed on his way to his trial with Pilate and that were later transferred to Rome, are across a road (now) from San Giovanni in Laterano.  If you are doing the seven churches, described below, you can add these to your itinerary when you visit San Giovanni.

San Giovanni in Laterano, rebuilt after Luther was there.

The Seven Churches:  Another way to earn indulgences was--and is--to walk to the seven churches of Rome (see suggested itinerary below).  Luther surely did that.  They are worth a visit, even without an indulgence at stake.  Besides Saint Peter's and San Giovanni in Laterano, the historical seven are three outside the city walls--San Paolo fuori le mura ("St. Paul's without the walls"), San Sebastiano, San Lorenzo fuori le mura--and two more within: Santa Croce in Gerusalemme and Santa Maria Maggiore.  The street by the name "Sette Chiese" ("7 churches") still runs between San Paolo fuori le mura on via Ostiense and San Sebastiano on the via Appia Antica.  

Luther would have seen the 7th century mosaics
of St. John the Baptist at the San Giovanni baptistery

While you are at San Giovanni in Laterano, don't miss the Lateran Baptistry behind it, which Luther must have visited  It is one of the oldest buildings in Rome, dating to the 4th century, although substantially remodeled over the years, including by Borromini (post-Luther).  Luther would have seen an exterior much like the one today, however, and much of the same interior, since Borromini kept most of the existing building.  And it's one of my favorites in Rome.

Here's a suggested route for the seven churches: Start with Santa Maria Maggiore, the most central of the seven churches.  Walk 1.6 miles to San Lorenzo (outside the walls).  From San Lorenzo, walk 1.2 miles to Santa Croce in Gerusalemme (which is inside, and abutting the walls); then .9 miles to San Giovanni in Laterano (again, abutting the walls - you'll walk along the inside of the walls for this stretch; it was part of one of RST's wall walks--there's a google map here to guide you on that walk); then 2.6 miles to San Paolo fuori le mura; and from there, the walk along via Sette Chiese to San Sebastiano (again, outside the walls), 2-plus miles due east.  To add St. Peter's to the walk, begin with St. Peter's and then walk to Santa Maria Maggiore, 2.3 miles. Total: about 10.5 miles.  

San Sebastiano. 1610 facade.

More specific directions and a slightly different order of churches are available here.  Some suggest a modern version that substitutes the sanctuary Divino Amore, 9 miles from San Giovanni, for San Lorenzo.  I'm a San Lorenzo fan and, of course, Divino Amore would not have been on Luther's route.  And, if you go to Divino Amore, take a bus.

Piazza Martin Lutero:  In a nod to ecumenism, a piazza in Rome recently was renamed for Luther.  It took 6 years to get the piazza named for Luther, and the delay meant it did not get renamed in time for the 500th anniversary of his 1510 (if that's the date) trip to Rome. The Vatican went along with the re-naming, even though Luther was excommunicated in 1521. This piazza seems an appropriate end point for the itinerary.  The piazza is in a park, away from streets and therefore unlikely to be paved over anytime soon.  It's near the Coliseum, with a large Fascist-era fountain (1928-29 by Raffaele De Vico, for trivia lovers), trees, and views.  It's on the southeastern side of Colle Oppio, not too far from the Domus Aurea and above via Labicana.  The piazza is less than 1/2 mile from San Giovanni in Laterano, in the direction of St. Peter's.  You will note Luther's first name is not converted to Italian (that would be Martino), and his last name is.  But not even "Luther" was his name at birth; he chose it.  See the Johnsons again.  The sign erected in the piazza in 2015 describes Luther ("Lutero") simply as a "German Reform Theologian."  

Dianne

Aurelian Wall Walk VII: Piazza Fiume to the Gianicolo with the Vatican Thrown In: The Finale

One of the majestic portions of the wall past Piazza Fiume.  We are walking INSIDE here.  Note the use of the wall
for rooms inside (windows), but also the fence, in theory protecting passers-by from the deteriorating wall.  The sign
reads:  "Danger, Access Prohibited."

Spoiler alert - Yes, RST completed the trek all the way around the 12-mile circumference of the third century Roman Aurelian Wall.  Some caveats.  Only about half the wall is still intact (but isn't that amazing!); we sometimes could not follow where it was or should have been because it went onto government or private property.  We have a few places where we could have done a better job of following it.  But that aside, let's have a victory lap!  Or maybe just a virtual one.  And for this post, you'll have enough to do just to follow this final stretch - with about 50 well-culled photos - a stretch no doubt that should have been broken into 2, but one of us did not understand the enormity of the Vatican and how many kilometers it would be to go around it (which IS the wall these days).

For those of you who just joined us, or who weren't paying attention, RST made it a project to walk the entire circumference of the Aurelian Wall.  We did it in 7 stretches, 2 with unsuspecting visitors along. [The links for the previous 6 walks are given at the end of this post. And here are the links to 2 Google maps that give the routes for all 7 walks: Walks I - V and Walks VI and VII.]

The weather this day, somewhat unusually cloudy, and the first stretch (left) both were inauspicious.  We found the wall here cradled in orange fencing, in other words, a deteriorating wall and likely an overly optimistic repair zone. But of course we soldiered on (get used to that phrase, it's a repeated refrain).  And, I should add, walking on the outside is not an option here, because of the Corso d'Italia tunnels AND the racing viale del Muro Torto (below).

And (right) we found even more creative repair work, allowing Roman vehicles (pedestrians are on their own) continuing use of the passages through the wall.



Some principles we learned:  The wall has clearly been chopped off for traffic in many places, and it also has been used for monuments of varying ages and types.  We can't recall the name of the memorialized young man in the picture below, but no doubt a loyal reader will fill us in.

Below, a particularly lovely set of passages through the wall between Villa Borghese and the beginning of Via Veneto.  At left, in white, a war memorial we had never noticed before (small photo right, large photo below).  This is the very old Porta Pinciana, though the "largo" here is named for Federico Fellini.

We were sailing along here, and then the wall disappeared onto private property (photo left, below), at least on the inside.  We think these are, yet again, private church gardens.

The outside was not particularly inviting either, with the wall disappearing alongside the entrance to the famous Villa Borghese parking garage (right),

and then blocked by a sports center (photos left and above).  You can't knock us for trying!

The above and 2 photos below are our attempts to follow the wall as viale del Muro Torto plunges down from the heights to Piazzale Flaminio (way) below.  If you look hard, you can see - but not touch -  the wall in all these photos.

Re the photo at right, we're fairly certain the wall here (on the other side of the weeds) encloses the private gardens of the French-owned Villa Medici, above the Spanish Steps.  And, for a price, one can tour these gardens, but we have not.

We gave up on trying to follow the wall at this point and went straight into the Borghese gardens. Good pick! We found people enjoying the afternoon in the park, including this young boy tipping a quite good saxophone player (right).  We saw statues we hadn't noticed before (above).


Perhaps best of all, from a bridge across the viale del Muro Torto (photo below) we found a great perspective of the wall, again illustrating some wall walk principles, besides what an incredible engineering feat this is and was: 1) There are sections that are simply too dangerous to walk (the outside here), 2) the wall often is high on the outside but low on the inside (the better to pour boiling oil down on one's enemies), 3) one discovers monuments hidden in the bushes, 4) the Fascists were everywhere and had some audacious civic projects (that structure with glass windows is part of a 1920s elevator that would have taken one up and down between viale del Muro Torto - presumably walkable then - and the Villa Borghese). (An aside, there's a Web site that lists the viale del Muro Torto as "very walkable" and then shows a photo with absolutely no place to walk!  Check it out for a laugh.)

Left, the Fascist-era elevator (and another no trespassing sign).

Right, was this designed to keep people from falling onto the Muro Torto below?

This section of the wall also is called the "Muro Torto" (crooked wall) and in the old Papal state days, prostitutes, thieves, homeless people, and suicides were buried in the wall, it is said.  And so the "net" was constructed. This portion of the Aurelian wall actually was here before the 3rd century; it was built in Republican Rome to hold up the Pincio gardens above it.

And, right, a (yet another) monument to the one-legged World War I hero, Enrico Toti, this one in neo-Roman, aka Fascist style, discovered for the first time by us along the wall in the Villa Borghese.


Below, view of Piazza del Popolo from the Pincio (Villa Borghese) - We couldn't resist this lovely view once again (St. Peter's dome in background).

Right, heading down to Piazzale Flaminio from the Pincio/Villa Borghese.  That low wall to the right IS the wall, from "inside."

And, left, this lovely statue of the Borghese griffin, on the "roof" of a ceremonial entrance to the Villa Borghese in Piazzale Flaminio, seen well from above as we wandered down. And, below, the majestic "porta" or gate to Piazza del Popolo, again, a gate as part of the wall.  The inner side of this porta (as in the photo) was majestically redesigned by Bernini, commissioned by Pope Alexander VII, for the 1655 visit of Queen Christina of Sweden.

We seem to be running out of wall here, but this fountain outside the porta and next to a flower stand - all in Piazzale Flaminio -  is a nice flourish.  And here (photo below, left) we look up the Tevere, because we have truly run out of wall and now must cross the river.  Any sane folks would have called it a day here, but one of us thought it was just a hop, skip and a jump around the Vatican; so we both soldiered on.

Once across, we meander for awhile before picking up the wall as part of the moat around Castel Sant'Angelo (right).  And, of course, the wall between the Castel Sant'Angelo and the Vatican property itself gets interesting.  Here is the walkway that supposedly was built so the Popes could escape from the Vatican grounds to the safety of the fortified Castle (even Dan Brown in "Angels and Demons" uses this passageway) (photo below, left).

The large photo below is one of our favorite views, because it shows three distinct eras: The Roman wall, The Bernini colonnade around the square of St. Peter's, and Fascist-era office buildings.  And, above right, a close-up of what look like original 3rd-century building stones of the wall.

We also couldn't resist this shot (below, left) of tourists appreciating the water from a Pope's hat fountain in the Vatican.  Perhaps even the Popes have a little sense of humor.  But the wall, nicely maintained with crenelations and towers, appears to be disappearing into the Vatican itself (below, right).  Those are the Pope's residential quarters in the building back middle, and a couple of Bernini's columns from the colonnade at right.

We exit the Vatican sovereign territory through the gate at right.  It displays the twin symbols of the Pope and the city (with crown, indicating the Kingdom - until the "conciliation" of 1929 an anathema to the Papal state - we've featured this "porta" in an earlier post).  At this point we begin the long slog along the wall with tourists, many pilgrims excited about the new Pope Frances. The tourists are here because it's the route to the entrance to the vast Vatican Museums.

We have the luxury of being able to 1) walk on the other side of the street, 2) notice the embellishments on the wall, such as the elaborate Pope's symbol on a corner, and the "remains" of the once important Porta Angelica, and 3) watch the street sellers ("ambulatori) leaning against the wall and doing their own watching.

Once doors and windows in the wall?

As we pass the entrance to the Vatican Museums, the tourists disappear completely, and we can entertain ourselves (distracting ourselves from the vast distances we now seem to be in for) by noting various wall interventions, as well as men out for their afternoon chat  - complete with chairs they've hauled onto the grounds beneath the wall.

Pretty sweet afternoon locale (left).  And, below, finally a view of the cupola of St. Peter's.  We can see we actually might get around the Vatican after all.

As we try to follow the wall down the hill, we discover to our surprise a railway that once (it appears no longer) went right INTO the Vatican, and that the Fascists were here too (small photo above right).  And we finally close in on our immediate target - back to St. Peter's (below).

But it's decision time.  The wall goes above the road (or the road goes through the wall - it's a large tunnel).  Do we go outside the wall (as we are now outside it) and try to find it on the back side of the Gianicolo hill - or do we go under the tunnel, "inside" and up the familiar Gianicolo route?  We selected through the tunnel and inside, perhaps a mistake.  We might try the outside  - just for fun  - next time we're in the area.

There goes the wall, with tunnel below.

We take a break to watch the bus drivers try to get out of, yes, a bus gridlock coming up the Gianicolo.  Now we know how a lot of those tourists got to the Vatican.  And from this perch along the wall we also can see the storm clouds that we had assumed would stay well north of the city.

This bird was checking out
 the weather and buses too.

And going up the Gianicolo, instead of behind it, probably was a mistake, because, left, we lose the wall again into religious territory.  This section of the wall seemed quite lovely and tempting, but even we understand (some) barriers..                                                                    

As we run to get in our final few meters, we can't help but stop for a brief shot of our favorite view of Rome, from the Gianicolo, and this one with the beautifully-colored, though destructive storm above.

And, then, the end truly was in sight.  At the statue to Anita Garibaldi we would complete our total wall circumference.  Here the wall is just in back of Anita's statue.  The light is particularly interesting here, because the storm is bearing down on us with rain and high winds.  But we have done it!  A mad dash to Bar Gianicolo for a toast in celebration.  Yes, RST had completed the circumference of the 3rd century Aurelian Wall.

Dianne

Posts of the previous six parts of walking the Aurelian Wall:

Wall Walk I: Porta Metronia to Porta Maggiore.
Wall Walk II: Porta Metronia to Porta San Paolo.
Wall Walk III: The Tame and the Wild Sides (Porta San Paolo to the Tevere).
Wall Walk IV: Porta Portese to the Gianicolo, or Brian's Lament.

Wall Walk V: Porta Maggiore to Castro Pretorio, or Annie's Reward.

Wall Walk VI:  From the University to Piazza Fiume, or Glad No One Was With Us
and again, links to the maps, Walks I-V and Walks VI and VII.