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.

Mario Ceroli: Rome Sculptor

He's hardly a household name.  And doubtless less well known than some of the other unknowns we've featured on the Rome the Second Time blog.  But he has had, and continues to have, an impact, here and there, on Rome and its environs.  He's Mario Ceroli.

Readers of the RST Facebook page may recall that Ceroli is the designer of a very large late- modernist sculpture, a polyhedron in pine, painted red, that now resides in Flaminio, just steps away from Pier Luigi Nervi's Palazetto dello Sport. That piece--a favorite of Bill's, but not Dianne's--was designed for the 1990 World Cup (its title is "Goal"), and its original location was, appropriately, close to the stadium in which important games were played.  It was positioned in Foro Italico.

Incredibly, the sculpture may also have been located, at one time, next to Nervi's other Rome masterwork, the Palazzo dello Sport, in EUR.

Or perhaps this is a fanciful invention--that is, not a real photo.  

Ceroli is perhaps better known for another piece in wood: the Cavallo Alato (winged horse, 1987), at the Centro Direzionale Rai (RAI the television station) at the entrance to via Carlo Emery in Saxa Rubra, a town not far to the north of Rome.  The horse is covered with gold.  We haven't seen it in person.

Ceroli also specialized in church furnishings.  He designed furnishings for the church of Porto Rotondo, Sardinia (1971), and for Santa Maria del Redentore, in lovely (a touch of irony here) Tor Bella Monaca, on Rome's outskirts.   We have been to this church, which is striking on the outside and, we know now, decorated on the inside by Ceroli.  More work in wood. More photos of the interior of this church at the end of this post.

Born in Castel Frentano (in the Abruzzi) in 1938, Ceroli soon found himself in Rome's grasp.  Among his first artistic influences was the Accademia di Belli Arti di Roma.  In the 1960s he was much taken with the new vogue of pop art, and especially with the work - often in wood -  of Louise Nevelson (and see here for more on Nevelson's work) and Joe Tilson.  In later decades, his creative energies were frequently expressed in a series of multiple wood cut-outs, of the sort pictured immediately below.

A typical Ceroli cut-out sequence.  A comment on identity? homogeneity? Postmodern repetition?

A church pew, of inlaid wood

Chapel

Chapel detail

Interior, Santa Maria del Redentore

Bill

Rome Aperitivo Hour: 4 RST "bar" picks.

The tasty "tagliata" at Panificio Nazzareno in Piazzale di Ponte Milvio.

For this go-round – after our trattorie recommendations previously, we are taking a second look at some quick bite places – no slow food here. Two bars that have food and two bakeries that have bars.  As with the trattorie, these are in 4 very different neighborhoods, one in the centro, 1 north of the centro (Piazza Bologna area), and 2 on the other side of the Tevere.

First, the very sweet place in the photo above right is Vesper Cafè and Enoteca, a few blocks from Piazza Bologna.  We were taken there by friends who know the young woman owner and who frequent the spot for its cocktails (mojitos are popular) and filled sandwiches.  You can see from the photos and postings on Facebook that it's a fan favorite.  Some of the tables are outside and look out over a small piazza.  Trip Advisor has a lot of reviews.  Yelp only ones in Italian.  Piazza Massa Carrara 5, 342 553 5344 (that's cell phone; no 06). 

Second, a take-out/eat-in coffee bar, bakery and buffet-type eatery all in one, this in the heart of Trastevere.  Giselda on viale di Trastevere, # 52/58, right at the corner of via San Francesco a Ripa.  Also, a killer Euro 10 buffet with wine.  Yep, RST's kind of place.  Perfect for before or after movies at the Alcazar or Nuovo Sacher.  [See glowing reviews on TripAdvisor,Yelp and Facebook.  Its own Web site is one page with basic info and the slogan, in English (!), "Your home away from home."  We did not see one tourist there.]  

The attractive outside seating at Panificio Nazzareno

Third, if you are in the Ponte Milvio area (across the Tevere from the north end of Flaminio, near Foro Italico), a true trendy hot spot for Romen's nightlife, try Panificio Nazzareno, a bakery that thinks it's a restaurant that thinks it's a bar, and for us, an outside aperitivo.

Panificio Nazzareno's restaurant before dinner hour.

We enjoyed the Ponte Milvio buzz earlier in the evening (not when it gets crazy, late night) and Panificio Nazzareno’s excellent breads and “tagliate” – slices of cheese and meats, with wine, all reasonably priced.  Some drastically different reviews on  various food Web sites, including Foursquare. http://www.yelp.com/biz/panificio-nazzareno-roma  http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187791-d4756623-Reviews-Panificio_Nazzareno-Rome_Lazio.html.  Piazzale di Ponte Milvio, 35; tel:  06 33220720.

The crazy car traffic, not to mention the people, in Piazzale
di Ponte Milvio.

Last, a straight-forward bar.  Caffè Perù, in the Centro Storico, is an old-time favorite of RST's.  Maybe it's the cheap buffet aperitivo (with wine, of course), or the highly decorated bathroom, or the crowd that tends to grab stools and chairs and sit outside, literally in the street.  Not without ex-pats, but definitely a local locale.  

Caffè Perù does not have the wine list of nearby Il Goccetto, but it's a wonderful pit-stop after a day of seeing sights in the Centro.  (See TripAdvisor and Yelp.  It even rates a review on Slowtravel Italy; not he does not provide the correct address.)  Via Monseratto, 46, 2 steps from Piazza Farnese and around the corner from Camp de' Fiori.  Open every day pretty much all day.  tel: 06 6879548.  

Dianne

Backstreet Rome: the Tevere side of Marconi

Ready for rehab

We don't recommend the Marconi district for tourists, whether first or second time.  It has its virtues: an active street life, a wine bar and good mix of coffee bars, a book store that holds readings now and then, an outdoor market, easy access to the Tevere. But it's one of the dirtiest sections of the city, is a trifle removed from the action for our tastes, and--in our opinion--has no worthy restaurants.  When we lived there some years ago, our 2-cycle scooter broke down frequently, and we found bus service into the center inadequate.  The Trastevere train station is a 15-minute, rather unpleasant walk from the heart of Marconi.  

We recently returned to to the quartiere, not to revisit our earlier haunts, but to explore the backside of the neighborhood, the area between its commercial core (a triangle of streets to the south of Piazzale della Radio--viale Marconi, via Grimaldi, and via Oderisi da Gubbio) and the Tevere, to the east of viale Marconi.  The area was once industrial, and it retains some of that character, in stages of preservation and decay.  A series of recent interventions has fashioned a pleasant post-industrial, post-modern space, full of surprises--enough that we recommend this itinerary (for intrepid Rome explorers).

Homeless camp

Our walk began across viale Marconi from Piazzale della Radio, at via Papareschi, walking east toward the river.  Passing a school with sanctioned graffiti by Alessandra Carloni (2015), we turned right on the Lungotevere di Papareschi.  Just ahead, a homeless encampment--no one present at mid-day, but plenty of evidence of human habitation.  

Beyond (walking south), on the right, a massive early 20th-century industrial complex, today anchored by the Teatro India, now in the process of being restored along with other buildings in the group.  Don't hold your breath.  

View from the tower, to the west.

At the southern end of the industrial complex, a long, narrow park appears at the right, heading toward Marconi proper. A short tower with stairs offers views of the river. A recent construction, the park, in standard Roman fashion, is already in a state of deterioration, brickwork crumbling, facing on the sides missing in spots, and graffiti, of course--in this case lacking official approval. 

Elevated walkway, looking east toward the Tevere.  Left, the gazometro
on the far bank.  Right, redeveloped buildings housing businesses.

 

Walkway graffiti, ironic mode

Urban vineyard.  Unusual in its proximity to high-rise
residences.   

Redeveloped apartments

The walkway ends about 200 meters on, in a piazza of smaller, redeveloped buildings in Roman red--apartments and offices--and, on the north side, a tiny vineyard (above).  

Hotel.  It reaches out to you.

Redeveloped offices or apartments

We turned back here, working our way below the elevated walkway and to the right, to the front of the H10 Roma Città hotel in late modernist non-style.  We can't imagine why any tourist (or for that matter, anyone) would stay in a sterile structure in the middle of nowhere, with taxis the only convenient outlet to civilization.  Even so, the tented patio--just to the left in the photo above right--looked inviting, even at mid-day.

All stairs

After snooping around inside, we walked south in front of the hotel and took the first left, onto via Blaserna.  To the right, what appears to be a rehabbed, modernized older building. Nothing special except an elaborate set of stairs on its north side.  

Santi Aquila e Priscilla

To the left, at the end of the block, one of Rome's modern churches: Santi Aquila e Priscilla, complete with bell tower and tall cross, covered in vines and resembling an anchor.  The stained-glass windows are exceptional, but they should be seen from the inside.  

Turning left (north) on the Lungotevere Papareschi, you'll see another modern building with a substantial glassed atrium--an interesting if not compelling feature--and, beyond it, one of Rome's newest bridges, the Ponte della Scienza, a walking bridge.  

Take the bridge--sweet views of the river, without the 50-foot brick embankments found in the Centro--and turn left on the bank opposite.  

The standard graffiti.  A wonderful, up-close look at the iconic gazometro--the shell of a gas storage system.  This was once a busy working waterfront, and some businesses remain active here. 

Still a working waterfront.  The cranes once moved goods from the river to processing buildings.

A concrete watertower on the right would normally not be worthy of mention, but a special effort has

A watertower reminder of the Mussolini regime

been made to reveal and emphasize a Fascist fasces, complete with dating (A VII, or 1929).  

From this point, you can continue your walk north to the next, much older, bridge, and turn left, or backtrack, cross the Ponte della Scienza, and turn right.    

Bill