This guided virtual tour takes you a little deeper into the historical sights of Rome, in other words things that anyone planning a trip to Rome should know. What stories do the sights of Rome and works of art tell us about the colourful past of the city? Why was the statue of the goddess Venus once worshipped? What did Hadrian’s villa look like in its original outfit? What kind of equipments did Leonardo da Vinci design? Interview with museum director Federico Beciani and archaeologist Marina De Franceschini.
Rome is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world,1 but for a week or two of vacation, the meaning of triumphal arches, marble statues and ruins can easily be obscured without prior planning or background information. The perception of the whole is not made easier by the images coloured by Hollywood movies and travel ads, or by the fact that the city is historically and culturally multilayered, a former world power, today a metropolis of just over 4 million people,2 a hub of fashion and business.
The imperial monuments were intended to remind the citizens of Rome of the magnificence and splendor of the city. In his book Civilization and Its Discontents, Sigmund Freud compared Rome to the human psyche, which can simultaneously have many different levels of time:
“As a flight of fancy, we shall imagine that Rome is not a place of human habitation but a mental entity with a similarly long and rich past – an entity, then, in which nothing that has once occurred has disappeared, and in which all earlier developmental phases continue to exist beside the latest one.”3
In Freud’s analogy, historic Rome comes to life; it is not dead, but lives in the subconscious of man. Buildings and sculptures leave behind images that reinforce one’s identity, with which one positions oneself in time and place and in relation to others, to the past and to the present.
Ancient Romans also saw the monuments adorning the city as an indication of continuity and permanence. Today, history is part of the cityscape in Rome and the Romans are proud of it. The past, the traces of which are directly related to one’s own physical habitat, may be closer to the ordinary Roman than to the casual traveller. The city’s colourful past is easily encountered with piazzas, fountains, Renaissance and Baroque churches, parks which are often within walking distance. But what stories do they tell us?
It takes some time to travel in Rome and comfortable footwear is needed. A tourist who speaks a local language is treated with kindness and courtesy. Midsummer is usually hot, but fortunately there are ancient water spots everywhere. The taxi driver says that during the holiday season the Romans head to the countryside, Sardinia or Spain. Therefore, in midsummer, the most likely person that you meet is another tourist. The best time for those planning a trip to Rome would be spring or autumn. In the centre, the best means of transportation is the “apostle’s ride,” that is, your own feet. Further destinations can be conveniently reached by bus or metro. Vespa can also be rented. A lot of traffic, congestion, but everything goes smoothly as everyone give space. In Italy 60 million people live in 300,000 square kilometres, which requires quite a bit of adaptation!
In the 1990s, significant amounts of public money were spent on the restoration and repair of historic heritage sites for the Millennium Celebrations. Nowadays, exploring Rome has been made easy. Museums’ websites can be visited in advance. Opening hours have been extended and often museum staff is happy to guide you. The exhibits are usually equipped with a presentation text in Italian, English and French. Both tourists and locals interested in their own cultural heritage are welcomed.
Forum Romanum was the centre of politics, commerce and the judiciary. There were e.g. temples dedicated to the gods, the Senate House (Curia Julia), the court assembly room (Basilica Julia) and the Rostra Ruins, a place where political speeches were made. The Forum, as the name implies, was a meeting place for Romans of different backgrounds. Plautus tells in his book Curculio that when walking on the Forum you can meet almost anyone; politician, cheater, money lender, lawyer or prostitute. The fact that many of the Forum’s buildings remain only ruins is largely due to the fact that in the Middle Ages its building blocks were reused as building material.4
In addition to the Forum, it is of course worthwhile to start the time travel to the eternal city with the Coliseum, St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Museum, but because of the queues you have to leave early to get to know them.
Capitoline museums (Musei Capitolini)
Piazza del Campidoglio, 1
Just a few stones’ throw away from Piazza Venezia, the Capitoline Museums (Palazzo dei Conservatori, Palazzo Nuovo) are among the most popular museums in Rome, along with Galleria Borghese and Vatican. Palazzo Nuovo has an extensive collection of sculptures, vases, mosaics and artefacts from Egypt, Greece and Rome, and busts of the Roman emperors and Greek and Roman philosophers. The Palazzo dei Conservatori has, among other things, the most famous works of Tizian, Veronese, Tintoretto, Rubens, Caravaggio and Bernini, and the bronze equestrian statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Some of the sculptures are marble replicas of original Greek works.
The She-Wolf (Lupa Capitolina), the Roman symbol, with Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome. Probably the 5th century BC. Palazzo dei Conservatori, Musei Capitolini.
During the Imperial period, the purpose of architecture and sculpture was to remind the citizens of the divine origin of the emperors, of the victorious wars, and of the massive construction projects they had begun. In monumental statues, reliefs and arches of buildings, emperors are often portrayed as heroic characters from Greek mythology. A part of this imperial cult was also the marble giant head of Constantine the Great (272–337 AD), now standing in the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori, with hand and foot fragments, which were originally part of a 10-12 meter high sculpture group at the Basilica of Maximus. Constantine is remembered as the first emperor during which Christianity was legalized in Rome.
Bust of Emperor Commodus as Hercules. n.180-193 AD. Marble. 133 cm. Palazzo dei Conservatori, Musei Capitolini.
The emperor wears a lion’s skin, a club in his right hand, and the golden apples of Hesperides in his left, reminiscent of the heroic work of Hercules. The central character is surrounded by two marine Tritons. According to the famous Greek tale Hercules defeated Nemea’s invulnerable lion and then used the lion’s skin as a shield. The bust of Commodus (180-192), on the other hand, is a custom-made work that glorifies the emperor’s divine origin and fabled heroism. Commodus (whose reign is portrayed in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator movie) was enthusiastic about the Oriental mystery religions and called himself the “king of the world.” However, the lion’s skin was unable to protect the emperor from his enemies. In 191, plague, famine, and fire spread in Rome, which the Emperor was accused of igniting. Nonetheless, the sporty Commodus was happy to perform in gladiator shows as Roman Hercules, killing not only wild animals, but also his own close relatives with his club and was eventually assassinated by his own associates.5
Venere Capitolina or the Capitoline Venus. Marble. 100-150 BC 193cm. Palazzo Nuovo, Musei Capitolini.
A Roman copy of a sculpture made by Praxiteles in Cnidus, originally made for the shrine of the goddess Aphrodite (the original has been lost). The copy was found between 1667 and 1670 near the Basilica of San Vitale. Pope Benedict XIV donated it to the Capitoline Museum in 1752. Aphrodite was worshipped in Greco-Roman mythology as the goddess of love, beauty, and fertility. Bathing was considered a ritual of the goddesses. In the Roman version, Venus ascending the bath covers her naked body with both hands, which is why she is also called Venus Pudica, “modest Venus.”6
In his poem Fasti (“Six Books of the Calendar”), Ovid gives guidance on Venus’ April worship. The goddess’s marble statue had to be stripped, washed “from head to toe,” carefully dried, and decorated with flowers. Women who worshipped her also had to do likewise, bathe in water sprinkled with myrtle and drink a ritual bowl (milk and honey)7 which, according to one interpretation, might have been intended to make them goddess-like, physically perfect beings.8 There are dozens of copies of the Capitoline Venus. There is also a countless amount of Venus-themed sculptures and paintings in the history of Western art, which tells us something about the spread of the Greek-Roman ideal of beauty.
Piazzale di Villa Giulia 9
Originally a rural villa of Pope Julius III, Villa Giulia is today the most important Etruscan museum in Italy with a comprehensive collection of pre-Roman artefacts from central Italy. The artefacts originate mainly from the 5th-7th centuries BC.
In a vase painting, Perseus presents Medusa’s head to King Polydectes and the nobles (465-460 BC). In Greek legends, Medusa is described as a dangerous monster who could turn anyone who would look at it into a stone. Polydectes commissioned Perseus to defeat the monster, and eventually he succeeded in cutting off its head with his sword, using the shield given by Pallas Athene as a mirror.9
The sarcophagus of a man and a woman (6th century B.C.) describes the Etruscans’ belief in the eternal cycle of life. Perhaps the sarcophagus is a place where a married couple can return to have a happy afterlife. Like Hercules, who found a way to eternal life after drinking Hera’s milk.
Via Tiburtina, about 30 km east of Rome.
Villa Adriana comprises a villa designed by Emperor Hadrian (117-138 AD) and 120 acres of land. There are many replicas of the emperor’s favourite buildings originating from Greece and Egypt. There were also two libraries, four spas, two theatres and a geometric garden with water pools, sculptures and fountains. In the park, there is also believed to have been a replica of Plato’s Academy, the place where he lectured to his students.10 Today Hadrian’s Villa is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Pecile was an outdoor terrace, built for the emperor’s and his associates’ daily walks, surrounded by garden plantations and columns, with a water pool in the centre.
Perhaps the most spectacular and best-preserved, now restored structure in the villa area is Canopus, a 119-meter-long water pool flanked by caryatids, columns, and pergolas. At the end of the pool is the Triclinium, a dining room or ‘open-air restaurant’, built by the emperor for dinner parties and banquets, with a mussel-shaped half-dome roof. Its walls were made of marble, the vault was decorated with mosaic.11 Hadrian was a well-known admirer of Egyptian and Greek culture. Canopus was, in fact, an imitation of the temple of the Serapis God in Alexandria, Egypt, with a 15 km long canal.
The villa area has an underground network of tunnels through which slaves carried food and other supplies for the emperor’s court and soldiers, building supplies and trees for heating spas. The tunnels also provide access to the emperor’s cave, inferi, where probably ritual ceremonies to the goddesses Kore and Demeter were held, related to seasonal rotation, archaeologist Marina De Franceschini says. Unfortunately, the inferi is currently closed to the public.
The Bath of Heliocaminus was designed for the private use of the Emperor and his circle. The hot room of the spa was heated by sunlight (heliocaminus). The walls and floors were decorated with opus sectil. Villa Adriana.
“Villa Adriana is the largest and most complex villa of Roman antiquity, with several buildings where the emperor experimented new architectural forms, with curvilinear rooms, ‘umbrella’ vaults, surprising perspective views, thermal plants, and a huge amount of fountains and nymphaea. The abundance of water was another manifestation of luxury and therefore of power, as well as the refined and expensive decoration, with precious marbles imported from all over the known world, which were used for opus sectile floors and wall revetments,” says De Franceschini, who has been responsible for the excavations in the area for years (see Marina De Francheschinis full interview as a separate article on this site).
The basic materials used in the buildings are tuff, brick and pozzolana mortar. The walls of Villa Adriana are built mainly with the opus mixtum technique, which uses tuff and brick overlay. In addition, marble was used on floors, walls, basins and columns. Digital 3D modelling by the University of Virginia provides an illustrative representation of what the villa looked like under Emperor Hadrian.
I recommend going here either by car or taking a guided bus tour. For in Rome (especially outside Rome) public transport does not really reach everywhere and buses do not always run regularly during tourist seasons. But definitely worth a visit! Suitable for example, as a picnic destination in the slightly cooler season.
Piazzale Scipione Borghese 5
The villa and park were designed in 1605 for Cardinal Scipione Borghese, Pope Paul V’s nephew as a guest house and for Scipione’s art collection. On the first floor of the villa is a collection of sculptures (Museo Borghese), paintings are on the second floor (Galleria Borghese). NB! The gallery and museum can only be accessed by booking tickets in advance. Photographing here is forbidden.
Antonio Canova, Paolina Borghese as Venus Victrix. 1804-1808. Carrara marble, 92 x 160 cm. Galleria Borghese.
The sculpture is commissioned by Prince Camillo Borghese for his spouse Paolina Borghese, the sister of Emperor Napoleon. Paolina, dressed in Venus, has an apple in her hand, referring to the Greek fable of the Judgment of Paris. In the story, Trojan prince Paris presents Aphrodite with the golden apple as the grand prize in the Goddess Beauty Contest. The winner, Aphrodite (in Rome Venus), promised to marry him to the world’s most beautiful woman, Helen of Troy, daughter of Zeus and Leda. However, in order to get Helen, Paris had to rob her of the court of her current spouse, King Melenaos of Sparta, which began the Trojan War as the Greeks set out on a vengeance.12
Paolina Borghese’s portrait was completed the same year that Napoleon was crowned Emperor. As Napoleon’s official portrait artist, Canova supposedly wanted to emphasize Paolina’s imperial and divine descent. She is wearing a chiton, but the skilfully polished and waxed sculpture still highlights the shape of the body, which after the completion of the work received much attention in the high society of the time. The work is Canova’s sophisticated and elegant neo-classicist interpretation of its exemplars, Greco-Roman female figures.
Caravaggio, Saint Jerome Writing. 1605. Galleria Borghese.
The life of Saint Jerome was a popular topic in Counter-Reformation art. He translated the Old Testament from Hebrew and the Gospels from Greece into Latin. In the painting, the old Jerome focuses on Bible texts. The painting has a strong colour contrast and symbolism typical of Caravaggio’s works, which emphasizes the main message of the work. The skull and white cloth on the table depict the transiency of human life and the nearness of death, the Bible in his hand and the purple robe again denote life-sustaining powers, eternity and permanence.
Leonello Spada, The Concert. 1610-1615. Galleria Borghese.
A group of musicians is preparing for the upcoming concert. The painting has a warm and focused atmosphere. Like Caravaggio, Spada favoured everyday subjects in his paintings. The concertmaster distributes the scores, the boy prepares to sing, the other performers tune the instruments. The light from the left (chiaroscuro) creates a contrast to the dark background, which increases the intensity of the painting.
The Park of Villa Borghese
The Villa Borghese’s shady park is within walking distance to the north of the city centre. The park has several entrances. In the 17th century, the vineyards acquired by Cardinal Scipio Borghese began to be transformed into a vast parkland. The park is planted with a large number of trees (including pine trees, cypresses, bamboos and banana trees) and shrubs with long park corridors. In the spirit of neoclassicism and inspired by English landscape architecture, statues and fountains, picturesque temples, geometric flower beds and an artificial lake were built in the park in the late 18th and early 19th century. In 1902 the park became the property of the Italian state. It has museums, galleries, foreign academies, archeological colleges, a zoo, riding school, amphitheatre, bird house and summer villas within a six-kilometre radius. The park also has an imitation of William Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.13
The Ionian-style temple of Aesculapius, designed by architect Antonio Asprucci, his son Mario Asprucci and Cristopher Unterperger, built between 1785 and 1792. Villa Borghese Park.
Fontana dei Cavalli Marini. Villa Borghese Park. A water basin designed by Cristopher Unterberger in 1791 with a fountain supported by four seahorses.
The park is perfect for a family picnic destination. On the lake you can raft or rent a bicycle in 
the park, which is a great place to relax and breathe in the busy city tours. There are restaurants and a café. Or you can just spend one afternoon on the shady park bench reading a book and listening to the purl of the fountain and the singing of the cicadas.
Roman Water Point
From ancient Roman water points, you can fill a bottle of water or sprinkle it with hot heat.
Sant ’Ignazio di Loyola
Piazza di Sant’ Ignazio.
The church is dedicated to Jesuit Ignatius Loyola. Andrea Pozzo’s mighty and impressive ceiling fresco allegory of the Jesuit mission, 1691-1694. People from all continents, converted by the Jesuits, are coming to see a cross in the middle of the fresco. The figures that are depicted from the bottom up and the perspective cuts give the impression that they float in the air directly above the viewer. Seen from the yellow marble tile point on the floor, the sky seems to open and continue to infinity toward the heights. Angels float up to heaven, bringing Saint Ignatius to paradise. Viewed from below, the roof looks like a dome, even though it’s actually flat. Pozzo’s illusionist quadratura technique14 was a typical visual effect in Italian Baroque. There is a chapel dedicated to each saint in the church.
Piazza del Popolo 12
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was a Renaissance genius of his time: mathematician, engineer, inventor, researcher of anatomy, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer. The interactive exhibition at Piazza del Popolo illustrates the devices invented by Leonardo. Among them are: helicopter, airplane, machine gun and mechanical watch prototypes, the lens that was initially used in theatrical performances to create various stage effects and a mill that works with air or water pressure. Many of the visitors could not help but try to see how they worked, which, according to Museum Director Federico Beciani, is “the best way to evaluate what a genius like Leonardo has thought more than five hundred years ago.”
The exhibition also features sketches made by Leonardo (including the Last Supper, Vitruvian Man and Sforza Horse Sculpture), notes and animations. “Leonardo was a perfectionist, brainstorming volcano, who then put his device aside for up to a month while working on another project.” He was also commissioned to design war machines, but “as a pacifist he could sabotage some of his inventions (for example, wagon wheels rotating in opposite directions, etc.), which led Leonardo to leave behind many unfinished works,” says Beciani. Nevertheless, many technological innovations in modern science are based on prototypes and sketches outlined by Leonardo (see Beciani’s whole interview here).
Alessandro Algardi, bust of Olympia Maidalchini. 1646-1647. Marble. 70 cm. Gallery Doria Pamphilj.
Olympia Maidalchini (1594 – 1657), or ‘Donna Olympia,’ Pope Innocent X’s sister-in-law, was the Pope’s trusted counsellor and housekeeper. Her majestic facial features and decisive expression have been captured by Alessandro Algardi in this realistic bust. Because of her influence, she was called a papessa (“popess”) in the satires of the time. If contemporary sources are to be believed, she could also profit from her position economically; she seized Pope’s personal possessions, favoured her own relatives to high ecclesiastical offices, and many had no desire for access to the Pope’s speeches without her contribution, albeit with considerable financial compensation.15 However, she also had an interest in supporting major construction projects in Rome. Thanks to her contribution and initiative, the Piazza Navona, Palazzo Pamphilj and the Casino of Villa Doria Pamphilj were built in the centre of Rome.16
In the 17th century, Algardi was responsible for the largest construction projects in central Rome, along with Bernini. In sculpture, the Algardian style is much more subtle and classic than Bernini’s. Although Bernini also received commissions from the great families of his time, his most significant works, such as Apollo and Dafne, David, or the Ecstasy of St. Teresa, are often dramatized interpretations of ancient fables or ecclesiastical legends.
Fontana di Trevi, Rome’s most famous fountain, was the end point of the Aqua Virgo, originally built by Emperor Marcus Agrippa in 19 BC.17 The aqueduct was to lead water to a spa near the Pantheon. The construction of the complex was begun in 1732 by architect Nicola Salvi on behalf of Pope Clement XII. The complex was completed by Giuseppe Pannini in 1762. It comprises a 26-meter-high and 49-meter-wide façade, a water basin, artificial rock and sculptures. The building materials used are travertine, marble, gypsum, metal, and stucco. The building was last restored in 2015.
The work is an allegorical representation of a virgin source in a dramatic Baroque style. The influence from Greco-Roman art can be seen in the sculptures and wall figures, as well as in the columns and tympanums on the wall element. Marine tritons struggle against the sparkling sea as they try to steer the runaway horses that drive the wagon. In the middle is the God of oceans, Oceanus (Neptune), who in ancient fables was the friendly father figure of all the water gods, genies and nymphs, but also the source of the world’s rivers of the same name. At the edges on the left is the Goddess of Abundance and on the right the Goddess of Health. The Latin name of the place, Aqua vergine, refers to a Roman tale about a virgin (above the Goddess of Health) who shows the location of the source to Roman soldiers.
According to the old belief, sacrifice to the fountain brings good luck. Whoever throws a coin to the fountain, returns once more to the eternal city…
The hot city tour is, of course, crowned by the famous gelato or spremuta d’arancia.
To make the most of your journey, you need to make enough time and leave the hotel to explore the city by foot. Of course, Rome is more than just piles of rubble or historic monuments, it is a paradise for flavours, it is buzzing on buses and subways, linen hanging on cords in the courtyards of houses, the smell of flowers, cypress and pine trees in parks, littered streets, cobbled streets, tourist flows in narrow alleys, and the noise of traffic. Rome is not only a place on the map, it is also a state of mind, a phenomenon, smells and flavours. In order to feel it, it must be seen, lived and experienced.
References:
1 In 2018, 15.2 million tourists visited Rome. ”Rome in top spot as Italy’s art city tourism booms.” Wanted in Rome, April 3, 2019.
2 World Population Review 2019
3 Freud, Sigmund, Civilization and Its Discontents. Broadview Press. Peterborough, Ontario, Canada 2016, s.50.
4 Dillon, Mathew & Garland, Lynda, Ancient Rome. From the Early Republic to the Assassination of Julius Caesar. Routledge. London & New York 2005, s.9; Kallio, Rakel ym. (toim.), Taiteen Pikkujättiläinen. WSOY. Porvoo 1993, s.163.
5 Henrikson, Alf, Antiikin tarinoita 1-2. WSOY. Juva 1993, ss. 795-796; Castrén, Paavo, Uusi antiikin historia. Otava. Keuruu 2012, ss.460-462.
6 Statua della Venere Capitolina Musei Capitolini.
7 Ovid, Fasti. Translated by Frazer, James George. Loeb Classical Library Volume. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1931. Book 4.133-9, 145-50.
8 Staples, Ariadne, From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins: Sex and Category in Roman Religion. Routledge. MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall. London & New York 1998, s.112.
9 Henrikson 1993, s.287-288.
10 Ercoli, Olivia – Belford, Ros – Mitchell, Roberta (toim.), Rooma. Helsinki Media. Italy 1998, s.269.
11 http://www.villa-adriana.net/
12 Henrikson 1993, s.375,378.
13 Ercoli 1998, s.258-261.
14 Kallio 1993, s.358.
15 Williams, George L., Papal Genealogy. The Families and Descendants of the Popes. McFarland & Company, Inc. North Carolina and London 1998, s.109-110.
16 Kokoska, Barbara, Roma non per tutti
17 Castrén 2012, s.395.
