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Published: June 16th 2017
01 The River Aniene
The River Aniene, one of the Four Fountains.Geo: 41.8955, 12.4823
I had a great night's sleep and am hopefully over jetlag. We ate breakfast as we got ready for our busy sightseeing day. The most important thing was our travel bible – the Lonely Planet, Rome edition. This morning we were going on a free walking tour. It starts from the Spanish Steps and will last about two hours.
I led the way, we walked up our street (Via Urbana and then turned left at Via Agostino de Pretis. Further along we would arrive at the Spanish Steps. We stopped to photograph the Quattro Fontane (The Four Fountains). This intersection seemed too small to display these large fountains. They were built in the Renaissance period in the 1500's. Two of the figures represent rivers, the Tiber and Aniene and the other two are of goddesses, Juno and Diana. This was quite a busy intersection. Next to the Tiber fountain was a church - San Carlo all Quattro Fontane. This small looking church was designed by Francesco Borromini.
We walked past Palazzo Barberini. It was such a large building and had quite an impressive list of artist's work inside. This building is now the home of the National Gallery of
02 The Goddess Juno
The Goddess Juno, one of the Four Fountains. Ancient Art. Ahead of us was Piazza Barberini. Here we stopped to take a few photos of the Triton Fountain. It was sculpted by the famous Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the 17th century. The sea god Triton is kneeling on the tails of four dolphins and drinking from a conch shell. There is also a papal tiara and crossed keys on the fountain. I think that there dolphins are very strange looking as they have scales, large mouths and big eyes.
Slowly we were getting to our destination. We then arrived at the church of Santissima Trinità dei Monti, but there wasn't any time to go in and see it. Below us were the Spanish Steps. Unfortunately the Spanish Steps were closed for maintenance at the moment. There were steps nearby that would take us down to our meeting spot for our walking tour. We walked through Piazza Mignanelli and then arrived at the base of the steps. Here we spotted our tour guide, handed in our email booking confirmation and were given a sticker to wear on our top.
We had about ten minutes until the tour would start. It was strange to see the Spanish Steps so empty
03 The Goddess Diana
The Goddess Diana, one of the Four Fountains. and no-one sitting on them, but it was a good chance to photograph them without tourists in my way! They lead to the church of Santissima Trinità dei Monti, there are 135 of them and they were completed in 1725. The steps seem to be in really good condition.
At the base of the steps is the Fontana della Barcaccia, which translates as the Fountain of the Ugly Boat. I quite liked the fountain, it's a simple boat, but not ugly in my opinion. The history behind this fountain is that when the Tiber River flooded in 1598, a small boat was found in this piazza. Pope Urban VIII commissioned Gian Lorenzo Bernini's father Pietro to sculpt this fountain. It was completed in the late 1620's. It is decorated with the papal coat of arms and the Barberini family's coat of arms.
I had to pop into a pharmacy and buy a packet of Compeed for our blisters. Our feet were starting to blister from all the walking and from not having worn thongs for so long. We then couldn't resist visiting the bar. Here a bar is very different to a bar in Australia. This is the place to
04 The River Tiber & Church
The River Tiber, one of the Four Fountains. Next to this fountain is the church of San Carlo all Quattro Fontane, designed by Francesco Borromini. go for your morning coffee and with a coffee you need a delicious, freshly backed pastry. An important phrase for this trip is 'Che gusto?', meaning 'what flavours?' as I point to the pastries. The staff will then tell us what each pastry is filled with. We choose pistachio and custard.
Nearby there was the Colonna dell'Immacolata and we sat at the base as we quickly scoffed our pastries. They were delicious and a bit messy to eat. It was now time to find our guide who was working on Italian time for our walking tour. Luckily his English was very good and he was easy to understand. He firstly welcomed us and gave us information about the Piazza di Spagna and its landmarks.
We learnt that the Column of the Immaculate Conception, topped with the Virgin Mary is an important landmark. Each year pontiffs visit with a wreath of flowers that is placed at the base and another wreath is put on her right arm by the fire brigade. It isn't that old compared to other Roman landmarks, as it was built in 1857. Although, the column is an original ancient corinthian roman column of marble. At the base there
05 Sculptures
Sculptures built into the fence of the Palazzo Barberini. are four biblical figures.
The next stop was about 100m down the road in front of an old building that was once owned by the Barberini family. The Barberini family was a noble family in the 17th century and their coat of arms consisted of three bees. Our guide said to look out for their crest as it is all over Rome. This building had the crest above each of the windows. At the end of this street we stopped at a church, Sant'Andrea delle Fratte. He told us information about this church, such as its history in the rival of Borromini VS Bernini. They are two famous, skilled architects from the Baroque period. During their lives they competed against each other to win commissions in Rome and at times they worked together. In 1653 Borromini worked on parts of this church, which is built across the road from where Bernini was living at the time. More recently, two of Bernini's angel sculptures from the Bridge of Saint Angelo were moved into here and are by the altar. Our guide gave us five minutes to have a look inside this church. It was quite nice inside and every part of
06 Palazzo
Part of the Palazzo Barberini, now the National Gallery of Ancient Art. the walls and ceiling were painted with biblical scenes. There was so much to look at and take in. Churches in Italy are like an art gallery. We saw Bernini's two angels by the altar.
Most of the group were already outside waiting for us and then we continued on our walking tour. Our guide stopped to show us one of Rome's many drinking fountains. He told us that this one was supplied water by the city's ancient aqueducts. We then walked for a while and entered a building. It was a small shopping centre called Galleria Alberto Sordi and full of designer stores and not many shoppers. I wasn't too impressed by it but the positive thing was that it was nice and air-conditioned which was a nice relief from the outside heat. This was also a chance for a toilet break.
Then we continued walking, crossed the road and stopped in Piazza Colonna. Here there was a large column, very similar to Trajan's Column that we saw last night. This one is called the Column of Marcus Aurelius and we found out that it was based on Trajan's Column. He was a Roman emperor and the column depicts various
07 Triton Fountain
A Gian Lorenzo Bernini creation of the sea god Triton in Piazza Barberini. wars he was involved in. There are holes in the relief to allow natural light on the internal staircase, but unfortunately the inside is closed to the public. In this square there are various palaces and a fountain. We walked through this piazza and came to another piazza.
Here there was an obelisk and our guide explained that there are thirteen obelisks in the city, some are ancient Egyptian and some are ancient Roman. This one was an ancient Egyptian obelisk and was badly damaged over a thousand years ago. We were in Piazza di Monte Citorio and is named after one of Rome's smaller hills. The main building in this piazza is the Palazzo Montecitorio and is now a government building.
Our next stop was the Temple of Hadrian. All that remains of the extremely ancient temple is 11 Corinthian columns. The columns had been incorporated into a palace and now the building is a bank. Our guide described buildings in Rome being like a lasagne, as there are so many layers to them and this was seen as we looked down at the base of this temple.
Around the corner at Piazza di Sant'Ignazio we stopped to looked at
08 Building
A building at Piazza Barberini. the curved shape buildings. They are now government buildings. The church is Sant'Ignazio is in this piazza. Our guide told us more information about this church, such as there is no dome, the ceiling has been painted to give a visual effect of it being domed but is actually flat. We went in for a look around. This was another beautifully decorated church and quite breathtaking.
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