Rome blog for Bed & Breakfast Chaplin Hostel

This Rome information blog article about the Terme di Caracalla is written for the guests of the Chaplin Bed and Breakfast in Rome.

History of the Baths of Caracalla

The Terme di Caracalla costitute one of the biggest and most impressive monuments in Rome. They were built between 212 and 217 by Caracalla, the son of the Emperor Settimo Severio.

The word Terme comes from the Greek thèrmai, “warm springs”. In Roman times the Terme were public baths where the citizens of Rome used to come together in order to relax and to discuss things. The baths of Caracalla were among the most important and imposing ones: even today the height of its walls still impresses.

In the times of the Roman Empire 16 hundred people could visit the Terme di Caracalla, the ruins of which can be found on the slopes of the Aventine Hill.

Description of the Terme di Caracalla

The gigantic complex was structured with a big building in it center, surrounded by green spaces, with 4 gates of admission.

Inside the Terme the building is almost perfectly symmetrical, with a central basilica covered by three vaults (the frigidarium, the tepidarium and the calidarium). The gyms (palestre) and the dressing rooms can be found on the sides.

The order was to visit first the gym and the Turkish bath and to end in the frigidarium, which, unlike the tepidarium and calidarium was not heated.

The Terme di Caracalla were restored several times until Vitige, king of the Ostrogoti, cut off the water supply through the acquaducts.

In the 16^th century the two granite tubs that nowadays decorate the Piazza Farnese were found during excavations at the Terme di Caracalla. Other works of art that were found there can now be seen in Rome’s Vatican Museums and in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Napels.

This Rome informatie blog about the Terme di Caracalla is written for the guests of Rome Bed and Breakfast Chaplin Hostel.

Adress:

The address of the Baths of Caracalla is Viale delle Terme di Caracalla 52. (From Chaplin B&B Rome you walk to Termini station where you take metro line B to the Circo Massimo stop.

Opening hours of the Terme di Caracalla:

The Terme di Caracalla are open every day from 9am until one hour before sunset (the ticket counters close one hour before colsing time):

• From Januari 2nd until February 15th: 9am-5pm;
• from February 16th until March 15th: 9am-5.30pm;
• from March 16th till 24th: 9am–7.15pm;
• from March 25th till August 31st: 9am-7pm
• from September 1st till 30th: 9am-6.30pm
• from October 1st till 27th: 9am-5.30pm;
• from October 28th till December 31st: 9am–4.30pmOn Mondays the Terme di Caracalla can only be visited from 9am till 2pm.

The Baths are closed on:

January 1st and December 25th.

Tickets:

The ticket for the Terme di Caracalla is a ticket that is valid for 7 days for the following 3 tourist attractions in Rome: the Terme themselves, Villa dei Quintili and the Mausoleo di Cecilia Metella. The ticket price is 6 Euro, tourists between 18 and 24 years old from Europese member states only pay 3 Euros 3 Euro. European visitors to the Terme di Caracalla that are younger than 18 or older than 65 have free admittance.

Information and reservations:

Tel: +39 0639967700 (Monday-Saturday 9-13.30 and 14.30-17); Online booking: www.pierreci.it

Extra services:

There are audioguides as well as guided tours available. The Terme di Caracalla also have a museum store.

This Rome information blog about the Villa Torlonia is written for the guests of the Chaplin Bed and Breakfast in Rome.

The Villa Torlonia is a public garden in Rome, designed by the neo-classical architect Giuseppe Valadier. From the Bed and Breakfast Chaplin Hostel and Rome Termini it can be reached by taking either bus 90 or bus 36.

From the 17^th until the mid-18^th century the Villa Torlonia was owned by the Pamphilj family. They, as did others in the area around the Via Nomentana, used it for agricultural purposes. The Colonna family, who bought the property in 1760, continued this use.

The banker Giovanni Torlonia, who had bought the Villa from the Colonna’s in 1797, began construction in 1806 and his son Alessandro finished it.

Valadier transformed two already existing buildings into a Palazzo and into what is now the Casino dei Principi. He also built the Scuderie (Stables) and an entrance which was destroyed when the Via Nomentana was widened. He redesigned the park itself, creating symmetrical, perpendicular lanes intersecting at the palace. He also had classical sculptures placed in the villa.

In 1832, after Giovanni Torlonia’s death, his son Alessandro took over and hired Giovan Battista Caretti to add the Tempio di Saturno, the Capella di Sant’Alessandro, the Tribuna con Fontana, plus a number of buildings that don’t exist anymore.

Giuseppe Jappelli designed the southern part and Quintiliano Raimondi did the Teatro and the Aranciera (now the Limonaia). Unlike the neo-classical northern part, the southern part is characterized by the creation of lakes, winding lanes and a number of new buildings. In 1842 Alessandro has two obelisks erected, in memory of his parents.

Alessandro Giovanni then transformed the Capanna Svizzera into the Casina delle Civette and had theVillino Medievale and the Villino Rosso built.

In 1919 3^rd and 4^th century Jewish catacombs were found underneath the Villa. During the 1920’s, when the Villa Torlonia became his official residence (for the exorbitant sum of 1 Lira a year), Benito Mussolini and Prince Torlonia had an air-raid shelter built inside these Catacombs.

After the war the villa was abandoned, decay set in, and it was not until 1978 that it was bought by the City of Rome, restored, and turned into a public park.

The most important buildings in the Villa Torlonia are the Casina delle Civette, the Casino dei Principi and the Casino Nobile. The landscaped park also houses 13 garden pavilions representing exotic parts of the world.

The Villa Torlonia is entered from the Via Nomentana. Its official address is Via Nomentana 70 – 00161 Roma. For more information and for bookings the Cooperativa IL SOGNO (Viale Regina Margerita, 192 – 00198 Roma, Tel: +39(0)685301758, Fax: +39(0)685301756, mail: service@romeguide.it) can be contacted.
There is WiFi access in the park.

This Rome marathon blog entry is written for the Bed and Breakfast Chaplin Hostel.

Over 50 thousand athletes are expected to participate in the Rome marathon, which will be run Sunday March 16th and starts at the Imperial Forum.

The 14th edition of the Marathon of the City of Rome, as the event is officially called, will have 15 thousand athletes running competitively and another 35 thousand participants, amongst whom the “fitwalkers” and the “retrorunners” who will be there for so-called “Fun Run”.

Until Saturday evening it will be possible to enter the “Fun Run” by going to the “Marathon Village” in the Palazzo dei Congressi in the EUR area. For more information it is possible to call +39 (0)64065064.

The field consists of runners from 76 different nationalities, who will run one of the most beautiful marathons in the world, starting at the Imperial Forum and continuing along 42 kilometers and a bit of some of the most famous tourist attractions Rome has to offer, like the Colosseum, the Circus Maximus, the Baths of Caracalla, Piazza Navona and the Spanish Steps.

This Rome information blog about the Ara Pacis is written for Chaplin B&B Rome.

The original Ara Pacis

Augustus, in his Res Gestae, tells of the Senate’s decision to construct an Altar to Peace, following his conquests of Spain and Gallia between 16 and 13 b.C.

The dedication of the Ara Pacis took place on January 30^th of the year 9 b.C. (Augustus’ wife’s birthday). It had been placed on the Campus Martius, the Field of Mars, near the Via Flaminia, which at the time was the main road for pilgrims entering Rome from the north. That way all those travelers would know straightaway what a great man Augustus was.
At the same time as the Ara Pacis, a sundial – the sundial of Augustus – was built.

Unfortunately the inundations of the Tiber made the land rise and the Area Pacis got buried and virtually forgotten, until 1536, when by chance a piece of the altar was found.

The modern Ara Pacis

In 1903 Friedrich von Duhn recognized the Altar, of which, mostly through fortuitious findings, more fragments had been unearthed throughout the years, for what it was. Excavations were started and stopped when the Palace of the Via Lucina underneath which the Altar was found threatened to collapse.

In 1937, 2000 years after Augustus’ birth, the excavations were started again. The use of more modern technology enabled the rescue of the monument and on September 23^rd, 1938 Mussolini inaugurated the Ara Pacis.

Since it was impossible to rebuild the Ara Pacis in its original position, Mussolini chose to build the monument near Augustus’ Mausoleum. The Altar was to be protected from the Roman climate by glass, but because of the war and lack of time and money, it never got made the way the designer, Dita Vaselli, had envisaged it.

The glass got removed, and the monument got protected by, first, sandbags and later an anti-shrapnel wall: kind of ironic really, for an Altar for Peace.

Several attempts, in the early 50s, in 1970, and in the 80s, were made to clean up and restore the Ara Pacis, but soon problems began to manifest themselves again, largely due to Rome’s difficult climate with big temperature changes, humidity and, of course, the city’s pollution.

In 1995 the Municipality of Rome started thinking about replacing the Pavilion. The new museum complex for the Ara Pacis was designed by Richard Meier, an American architect, who came up with a design that was very controversial, in that it placed an extremely modern building in the midst of an area full of Rome’s ancient archeological treasures.

Ara Pacis opening hours, ticket prices and directions.