Rome blog for Bed & Breakfast Chaplin Hostel

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.

This Rome information blog about the Ara Pacis museum was written for the guests of the hostel Chaplin Bed and Breakfast.

Ara Pacis Opening hours

Tue-Sun 9am-7pm; Dec 24,31 9am-2pm (the ticket office closes an hour before closing time)

Closed

Monday, Jan 1, May 1, Dec 25

Ticket prices

Full price € 6,50; Reduced price € 4,50 (for European citizens beteen the ages of 18 and 25).

European citizens under 18 and over 65 years of age do not pay. Handicapped citizens of the European Union and one assistant or family member have free entry.
During special events or exhibitions the tickets prices may vary.

Booking

Booking can either be done online at www.ticketclic.it or by phone (+39-(0)60608) from 9am to 10.30pm. Individuals pay a 1 Euro booking fee.

Reservations are obligatory, but free for schools. Other groups (of a minimum of 12 people) pay a 25 Euro booking fee. Booking for those groups is obligatory on Saturdays and public holidays. Groups cannot book online.

How to reach the Ara Pacis from Rome Termini and B&B Chaplin Hostel.

The address of the Ara Pace Museum in Rome is: Lungotevere in Augusta - 00100 Roma. Take metro line A, get off at Flaminio and walk down the Via Ripetta. Or, get off at Spagna, walk down the Via Condotti, and continue down the Via Tomacelli till you come to the river Tiber.

Vatican Museums – Practical Information

This Rome information blog about the Vatican Museums is written for the Rome Bed and Breakfast Chaplin Hostel.

Opening hours

The opening hours of the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel have finally become slightly more visitor-friendly. The following are the hours for 2008:

On weekdays and Saturdays the Vatican Museums are open from 8.30am till 6pm. Last admission is at 4pm.

The Vatican Museums are closed on Sundays and holidays, except for the last Sunday of every month (unless this is a holiday), when they are open from 8.30am to 2pm. Last admission at noon.

The holidays are January 1,6; February 11; March 19,23,24; May 1; May 22; June 29; August 14,15; November 1, December 8, 25 and 26.

Entrance tickets to the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel

Tickets are valid only on the date of purchase and are not refundable. Within 5 days from this date, with this same ticket one can visit the Vatican Historical Museum in the Noble Apartment of the Lateran Apostolic Palace. The price of a ticket is 13 Euros, except on the last Sunday of the month, when admission to the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel is free.

Directions for the Vatican Museums

From the Chaplin B&B Rome take the metro line A to the stop Ottaviano-San Pietro. Take the first exit on your left and follow the crowds. There is a stop called Cipro-Musei Vaticani, but this is actually further from the entrance to the Museums.

8 Porta Portese Tips

This Rome information blog about the Porta Portese fleamarket in Trastevere is written for the guests of the B&B Chaplin Hostel Rome and the Bed and Breakfast Little Italy.

The Porta Portese flea market: Big crowds in small spaces, pickpockets, gypsies, aggressive stallholders, chaos… Here follow some tips on how to best visit Rome’s liveliest Sunday morning spot.

1. Get up early and avoid the biggest tourist crowds.

2. Bargain! The word “tourist” is written in large letters on your forehead so the price of things doubles as soon as the stallholder lays his eye on you. Getting something for less than half of the original asking price is not exceptional in Porta Portese.

3. Before starting to bargain, try to figure out for yourself how much you would be willing to pay for an object. Unless you are an expert, you will not know its real anyway, so just, so begin by using your own common sense.

4. Speak English. Being friendly and using your humble and respectful mouthful of Italian just puts you at a disadvantage and increases your chances of being humbly and respectfully taken for a ride.

5. Be extremely careful for pickpockets, especially after 10am, the peak time of the Porta Portese flea market. Like most streets in the ancient part of Rome, the ones in Trastevere are extremely narrow and you will be forced to shuffle rather than walk through the crowds: a paradise for pickpockets and gypsies.

6. Do not keep your wallets in your back pockets, keep your backpack and phot camera in front of you where you can see them, and hide your valuable possessions underneath your clothes, or leave them in the room of your hotel, hostel or bed and breakfast.

7. Obvious, but still: nothing, really nothing offerd for sale at the Porta Portese flea market dates from ancient Roman times.

8. Buying a fake Louis Voutton-bag or Rayban-sunglasses can get you fined. This is rare, but when it happens, play the dumb and humble tourist game.

9. Do not be afraid, be careful, otherwise you might forget to enjoy the market and Porta Portese is well worth it.

This Rome information blog about the Porta Portese fleamarket in Trastevere is written for the guests of the B&B Chaplin Hostel Rome.

Porta Portese, the biggest and most colourful flea market of Rome and Italy, is held every Sunday, in the quarter of Trastevere, around the Via Portuense and the Via Ippolito Nievo.

Over two thousand dealers have stalls at Porta Portese and you can buy anything at the flea market, from antique wardrobes to the tiniest and most banal household goods.

There is an atmosphere of semi-illegality at Porta Portese: Between the official market stalls the “vu-comprà”, in the past mostly Africans, nowadays also many Chinese and Bangladeshi immigrants, have set up their blankets and cardboard boxes with fake sunglasses, CD’s, DVD’s, hand bags and cheap jewelry.

Professional thieves are meanwhile trying to sell the cell phones and photo cameras they stole in the course of the week in the center of Rome or on the same day at the market itself.

Officially the Porta Portese flea market starts at 5am every Sunday morning and continues till more or less 2pm, but in reality many stalls start packing up 1 or 2 hours earlier than that, especially when it rains or during the hot Rome summer months when the Romans abandon the Eternal City in droves.

Both the crowds and the, sometimes rather aggressive, stallholders can be quite overwhelming, so in a separate Porta Portese blog entry I have written some tips on how to deal with the market.

From the Chaplin Bed and Breakfast the Porta Portese market can be reached by taking the 64 bus from Termini to Largo di Torre Argentina, and then taking the number 8 streetcar.

This Rome information blog is written for the guests of the Chaplin Bed & Breakfast in Rome.

From the 19th of February until the 18th of May the exhibition “China in the 21^st Century. Art between identity and transformation”, organized by Zhu Qi and Morgan Morris, will occupy one floor of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome.

The Chinese artists of the “post ‘89” generation exhibit a series of paintings, installations, videos and photographs, showing a wide variety of interpretations of Chinese society ranging from Pop Art to a new way of using the symbols of Communist China.

While the exhibition is going on, in one of the Palaexpo’s rooms, the painter Liu Xiaodong will realize a new work, to be named “Eat First”, a kind of “Last Supper” depicting 13 people eating Mediterranean food.

There is also space for cinema and literature. From February 21^st until May 18^th in the Sala Cinema and the Auditorium of the Palazzo delle Exposizioni there will be documentaries, shorts, full-length movies and discussions.

Various writers like Mian Mian (March 20th), Wang Shuo (April 22nd) and Su Tong (May 7^th) will read from their works in the Auditorium of the Palaexpo.

For practical information about opening hours, admission costs and directions to the Palazzo delle Esposizioni as well as about the duration of the exhibition visit the Rome blog contemporary exhibition page.

This Rome information blog is written for the guests of the Chaplin Hostel Rome and the Bed and Breakfast Little Italy.

Via Clodia - history

The Via Clodia was probably built by the Romans on top of an earlier, Etruscan road. Unlike most other roads it was built for commercial rather than military goals.

The Via Clodia starts just north of Rome as a side street of the Via Cassia (near La Storta) and meanders through the northern part of the province of Lazio to end in Tuscany, not far from the town of Grosseto. The Via Clodia was seen as the main connection between the Via Cassia and the Via Aurelia.

The Via Clodia is named after a Roman magistrate during the republican era.

Another name for the Via Clodia was the Via delle Terme, because of the abundance of wells that could be found along it.

During the Middle Ages the Via Clodia, which was already paved 225 b.C., was a main road for the pilgrims coming to Rome. The road runs along the lakes of Bracciano and Bolsena (Europe’s largest lake of volcanic origin).

As soon as one leaves Rome one can already spot the Castello Orsini in the distance, nowadays as well as in the past a place where the rich and famous go to enjoy themselves.

Marta, on the banks of Lake Bolsena, is a picturesque fishing village. Another beautiful village is Castro, though it cannot be found on the map of the province of Lazio anymore, since it was systematically destroyed, stone by stone, by pope Innocenzo X Pamphili. At the moment they are trying to restore the little bit that is left of Castro

Other splendid villages one drives through are Anguillara Sabazia, Santa Maria di Galeria and Blera.

The forest of Lamone near Rome

The Via Clodia runs through the nature reserve of Lamone, the oldest wild forest of central Italy. On foot or by bicycle, one can follow several paths through the forest, the most famous of which is the Sentiero dei Briganti (the Robber’s Path). At the edge of the Lamone reserve lies the medieval borough of Farnese, in Italy known especially because in the early seventies the movie Pinocchio was filmed here.

Also Tuscania, which owes its importance mainly to the construction of the Via Clodia is worth a visit, for the Etruscan remains and the church of San Pietro towering above the village.

At Norchia, along the old pilgrim’s road, the Via Francigena, the tufo stone, much used in Rome, was won. From the city itself one has a splendid view over one of the largest Etruscan burial places.

From Roccarespampani, called thus after the Rocca Medievale (medieval rock), which one can only visit accompanied by a guide, one reaches the Ponte di Fra’ Cirillo (over the river Traponzo). The bridge, which has an altar built in it, was built by Cirillo, according to legend in one night only. Cirillo’s spirit is also said to still hover around the bridge. Experience in Italy learns that the second is a more credible legend than the first.

This Rome information blog is written for the guests of the Bed and Breakfast Chaplin Hostel Rome.

Lupercale

A large vaulted hall found 16 meters beneath the Palatine hill in Rome is almost certainly the fabled Lupercale (from the Latin word for wolf) - a sanctuary believed by ancient Romans to be the cave where, according to legend, the twin boys Romulus and Remus were suckled by a she-wolf.

Remus and Romulus’ founding of Rome

According to the myth, Romulus and Remus, the twin sons of the god Mars, were abandoned by the banks of the river Tiber in Rome. A wolf found them and fed them with her milk. Later, they were reared by a shepherd and grew up to found Rome, supposedly on April 21^st, 771 BC. Romulus became its first king after killing Remus, who mocked the height of the walls he was building.

Emperor Augustus and the Cave

The cave, decorated with mosaics, seashells and pumice stones, was found in a previously unexplored area during restoration work on the palace of Augustus, the first emperor of Rome. Augustus had probably wanted his residence built in a place sacred to the city. He had restored the sanctuary and connected it to his own abode.

When a camera probe was let down from the surface to examine the underground structure the outline of a white eagle was found at the apex of the vaulted ceiling. Since ancient texts indicate that the sanctuary was near the palace and a 16^th century document recorded that the emperor had embellished the cave with just such a white eagle, the cave is indeed believed to be the famous mythical Lupercale.

More than two-thirds of the 8 meters high and 7.5 meters wide cavity, is filled with earth and debris and the location of the entrance is as yet unclear.

Many Euros
The Italian government is spending 12 million euros ($17.7 million) to restore the, so far surprisingly neglected despite being studded with monuments, Palatine ruins. In February 2008 the remains of Augustus’ palace will reopen to the public after having been closed for decades out of fear that some of its buildings could give way.

Fertility

The cult of the Lupercale was kept alive until the 5th century when Pope Gelasio I forbade the Romans to whip their wives. This whipping business took place while running around within the holy Palatine Hill and was supposed to make the ladies more fertile.

At the moment Italy has the lowest birthrate of Europe.

The Pope’s socks

This morning, preparing breakfast at the Chaplin B&B, one of my guests told me that she had found the perfect souvenir to take home from Rome. Walking through the center, in the Pantheon area, they had stumbled upon the store that supplies the Pope’s robes and they had bought a pair of socks there, as a gift for their friends.

They remembered the name of the shop, Annibale Gammarelli, but couldn’t tell me the address, so I googled it. Most of the articles that came up were in German and one of them was intriguingly titled the “Soutane-Krieg”.

Gammarelli, Euroclero and the Cassock War

Gammarelli has been supplying Popes with their wardrobes since 1793, but when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict he apparently changed tailors, preferring to stick with Euroclero (Piazza Sant’Uffizio, 4), the shop where he used to have his Cardinal’s wardrobe made.

As usual Annibale Gammarelli had been ordered to make the first set of garments for the new Pope, in three different sizes (small, medium and large), since nobody knew yet what size was going to fit the still to be elected Pontiff. None of them fit perfectly, though. Benedict had chosen the smallest size, but this turned out to be too short for his height, so the new Pope returned to his trusted Euroclero.

Though the Pope has decided to stick with Euroclero, Gammarelli will continue to be known as the pontifical tailoring firm. They firmly denied that the Pope had changed tailors, claiming that the clothes made by Euroclero should be seen as an “occasional gift to a friend”.

Central locations of and directions to Gammarelli and Euroclero

The address of Gammarelli is Via di Santa Chiara, 34 and the phone number (+39)0668801314.
From the Bed and Breakfast Chaplin and the Rome Hostel Little Italy you take bus 40E and get off at Largo di Torre Argentina. Turn right into either the Via di Torre Argentina or the Via dei Cestari and the second street you cross is the Via di Santa Chiara.
To get from the B&B’s to the Piazza Sant’Uffizio you take the 40E all the way to the end of the line, just outside St. Peter’s Square, and then walk around the Vatican.

This Rome blog article was written for the guests of the Hostel Chaplin Bed and Breakfast Rome.

”In Scaena”

The imposing setting of the Colosseum, Rome’s most famous monument, forms the backdrop for this exhibition exploring the history of theatre in ancient Roman times.

Through some seventy statues, models, mosaics, masks and other works of art from museums around Italy, this show looks at the way in which the Romans built on the traditions of Greek drama and added elements from Etruscan and other cultures to develop their own form of mass entertainment that has provided inspiration for writers, actors and architects ever since.