The Campidoglio ... Home of the Dying Gaul

One of my favourite places to take a rest near the Colloseo Metro stop is a little corner in the garden on the right side of the Capitoline Hill, the smallest of the Seven Hills of Rome located between the ancient Field of Mars and the Forum. In ancient times, the Capitoline Hill was for the Romans what the Acropolis was for the Greeks. Here the Romans worshipped their gods in three very important temples, the temple of Juno, the temple of Virtus and the most important, the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus Capitolinus whose size and importance rivalled the Parthenon in Athens. Here too was located the Tabularium (which can still be visited today), and served as the Roman Empire’s main archive.

Model of the Temple of Jupiter Maximus

During the Middle Ages, Michaelangelo was asked to redesign the square and all the existing buildings around it, this is the Campidoglio as it exists today.



The Cordonata leading to the Piazza Campidoglio

 I like climbing the Cordonata, the humongous staircase leading from the bottom of the hill to the piazza. From the top of the hill, behind the piazza, one is treated to a glorious sight of the Forum and the full length of the Via Forum Imperiale. There is a nice breeze that flows almost continuously in this little garden. Benches are there for the weary and there are even times when I’ve sat there with a book and a flask of coffee. The book doesn’t get read much as the peacefulness and the beauty of the garden can lull one into a semi-catatonic state.

There were times; however when I allowed myself to be lured into the Capitoline Museum, the oldest in Rome started when Pope Sixtus donated some bronze statues to the people of Rome and located them on the Capitoline Hill, way back in 1471. Let’s see, I think I’ve gone in 4 times already, once with my daughters, once with friends, and twice by myself.

There’s a lot to see but I do have my favourites. The very first thing, upon entering the museum, located in the courtyard and completely unavoidable because of its size is the statue of Emperor Constantine, rather the dismantled statue with some massive body parts displayed lined up on one side of the courtyard.

In the new wing in the center of its glass covered hall is found the original Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius, a truly awesome sight!

As I walked around and almost under the belly of his great giant horse I caught glimpses of the original shinny bronze through the enveloping patina of age.

The Statue of Marsyas, who challenged Apollo to a singing contest and for his temerity was condemned to being flayed alive is also very unforgetable. The artist used a violet veined marble to render in dramatic fashion the livid color of his tortured body.

In the same room, I came upon a statue in a shadowed corner of the room, with this beautiful face......

Counted in my favoured pieces would be the She Wolf Suckling the Twins,

The Spinario which is a bronze statue of a boy removing a thorn from his foot,

The Little Girl playing dressed to the nines

and Bernini’s Medusa, a most sympathetic rendition of this serpent-haired, hater-of-man, mythical creature.

As I looked at Bernini’s Medusa, I could not help but compare this with Caravaggio’s.

But what brought me time and again to come back into the museum is Him....The Dying Gaul.

I don’t know what it is about this statue, after all it is only a copy but there is something arresting about it. I have taken lots of pictures and like many have sat on one of the viewing chairs time and again, just staring at him! He is a beautiful man and with that anguish on his face, he can melt any woman’s heart.....

Iconic Structures of Rome: The Fountain of Trevi

“Three coins in a fountain”.... a song that made many a young girl of my generation visiting Rome, fantasize about meeting someone as romantic as Rossano Brazi and having that perfect Roman holiday! For my mom it was Felinni's La Dolce Vita, with my teenage niece on the other hand, the movie was the Lizzie McGuire Movie with Hilary Duff. So the world moves on, movies and movie stars fade and new ones take their place but the Trevi Fountain remains what it has been, and may be for a long time to come, an iconic symbol of Rome.

Walking along the Via Corso, there are signs that point you to the more visited spots in Rome. One of these, closest to Piazza Venezia is the sign pointing to the Trevi Fountain. Following this sign in the straightest way possible in the twisting, narrow streets of Rome brought us to Via Stamperia where the sounds of water became more and more audible, letting us know that we were indeed approaching the Fountain. Following the sounds, we turned a corner and almost suddenly it’s there right in front of you...the Trevi Fountain!

The Piazza

The Piazza della Fontana Trevi is a rather small piazza and the Fountain itself is not in the center of the piazza but is actually built into the back of the Pallazo Polli. Because of its size, the number of people you encounter milling around the piazza can be quite overwhelming!

Ocean personified

The Trevi Fountain, the largest baroque fountain in Rome stands at the juncture of 3 waterways, the Aqua Virgine, the Aqua Virgo and one of the repaired ancient aqueducts, hence the name Trevi. The aqua Virgo was constructed by Marcus Vispanius Agrippa, Augustus Caesar's friend and ablest general and also the person who first built a structure on the spot where the Pantheon is today, still carrying his name on it's facade. In the 15th century a simple fountain was erected in this spot to mark the endpoint of the aqueduct as was the practice at the time. In the 17th century Pope Urban VIII asked Gian Lorenzo Bernini to make improvements on the fountain but the project was put on hold due to lack of funds.

Calm Waters

Actual work on this fountain only started in 1732 after Nicolo Salvi won a competition held by Pope Clement II to design the fountain. The funds for the building came from the third drawing of the Lotto game (yes the lotto!) in May 1732. It took Salvi almost 30 years to complete the project and he died in the process, his lungs completely damaged because of the time spent in the dank waterworks of the fountain.

Raging Waters

The fountain is 85.28 feet hight, 160.72 feet wide and spills 80,000 cubic meters of water a day. The facade is made of travetine blocks (from Tivoli) and the statues are of carrara marble. The main statue is a depiction of Ocean riding a shell chariot pulled by two sea horses. One of the horses is calm, the other, restless, signifying the fluctuating moods of the sea, with the water in the fountain representing the sea.

Bring us back to Rome

According to some, the custom of throwing coins in the fountain goes back to an ancient Roman tradition of throwing a coin into fountains, rivers and lakes at the start of a journey to ask the gods to favor the journey and to bring them back safely. However, the more cynical explanation is that someone in the city invented the tradition in order to raise funds for the maintenance of the fountain. Which was a brilliant plan as Wikipedia says around 30,000 euros (some italians don't believe this, saying that a lot of tourists toss in the "little" coin) a day is collected from the fountain!

We slowly made our way forward until we managed to squeeze in right to the front of the fountain, where we tossed the obligatory coins with our backs turned to the fountain. They say three coins held in the left hand and tossed over the right shoulder....or was it the other way around? Whichever way, We embraced the legend (after all this was not our first time to do this) and chose to believe that those coins will bring us back to Rome once again. And by the way, we contributed 3 euros to the total collection for the day!