Monday, May 19, 2014

Melissa's Visit to Rome


Melissa and I at the Colosseum

A few days ago my college friend Melissa said she was thinking about visiting Rome for the weekend. She was in the middle of a business stay in Stockholm and wanted to use a weekend to visit another city. The timing was perfect because Daniele and I had had a trip to his cousin's in Umbria planned for this weekend, which we had to cancel last minute when Daniele's work shifts changed. So, with our plans canceled we were exceptionally free. Also, Rome was holding an event Saturday, the “Night of the Museums” (actually it was held all through out Europe this night). Many of the city and national museums would be open until 2AM and only cost 1 Euro. Also, other places, like government buildings and embassies that are normally closed to the public were open this night, though many by appointment only, and we were too late to make any appointments.

Melissa flew in Saturday evening and we met her at Termini. We had a quick dinner of Arancine (fried rice and cheese deliciousness) and then Gelato before heading out to see the sights. We ate near Lepanto, just off Cola di Rienzo, the street that connects Piazza del Popolo to the Vatican. We walked Cola di Rienzo to Piazza Popolo, then Via del Corso (Rome's “main” street) end-to-end from Piazza Popolo to Piazza Venezia. Piazza Venezia is where the Altare della Patria stands. From here we bore right to Capitoline Hill (in Italian Campidoglio), home of the Capitoline Museum and Rome's City Hall.

Our goal was to enter the City Hall. The volunteers on top of the hill told us there was one line for everything: City Hall, Capitoline Museum, the ruins underneath, and a concert going as well. In the end it turned out that the City Hall was not actually open, like the website said, but we enjoyed the museum, both its collections and the two late-Renaissance palaces that they reside in: Palazzo dei Conservatori, and Palazzo Nuovo. We also, for the first time, got to see the tunnels underneath, which connect the two palaces and show off the Ancient Roman structures under ground level.


The original bronze statue of Romulus and Remus suckling their wolf mother.

After we finished Capitoline, we reversed our path heading back up Via del Corso. It was getting late at this point, but we still had some time before the last places closed. We swung by the Trevi Fountain, since it is so pretty at night, before turning off past the Pantheon (closed by this hour, but we saw it from outside, at least) to Piazza Navona. Piazza Navona is possibly the most beautiful piazza in Rome. Its ovular shape is dominated by three Bernini fountains and closed in by beautiful Renaissance facades. Back in the day, before the fountains were built, the Romans would flood this piazza and stage naval battles here.

Piazza Navona is also the home of the Brazilian Embassy and near the Italian Senate building, two other places that we were thinking about trying to enter tonight. They are both normally closed to the public. However, we were getting tired at this point and both had long lines out front that threatened to not finish before the last entrance. So we walked past the illuminated windows, peeking inside, before heading back to the car at Lepanto, this time taking a route along the river.

Melissa was flying out at the crack of dawn on Monday-- to enjoy a long layover / day-trip in Zurich, which I will admit I'm jealous of. I've never seen Zurich outside of the airport. That only gave us Sunday to see all the must-see spots in Rome.

We started our day with the classic “cappuccino e cornetto” breakfast just outside our apartment while making our attack plan for the day. We walked to the Colosseum from our house, which is maybe a 25 minute walk, or the same time by Metro, since you have to change lines. By walking we got to pass under the Aurelian Walls before stopping at San Giovanni basilica (the “duomo” of Rome, as the Vatican is a sovereign nation in its own right). San Giovanni is very pretty and features lots of marble statues both inside and out. From here it is about another 10 minute walk to the Colosseum.


Inside San Giovanni Cathedral

At the Colosseum we were greeted by the normal large crowds mixed in with a “Race for the Cure” crowd, which at least meant the streets were closed so we could all fit. We walked past and went first to the Roman Forum, which uses the same ticket as the Colosseum but almost always has shorter lines to buy them. Here we were presently surprised to get in for free! My last AirBnb guests had left us their Roma Pass, which I figured was used up or expired, but it got us into both the Forum and Colosseum free of charge. We walked around the Forum, which was the center of life and commerce in Ancient Roman times. We also crossed over to the “Palatine Hill”, where I'd never visited before. Like the Capitoline from the night before, this was one of the original Seven Hills of Rome. This one was actually were Romulus and Remus made their home. The Palatine area felt like just an extension of the Roman Forum, only a bit more open and park-like. We took the “Colosseum” exit from the Forum, then grabbed some ice cream (it was really hot) before heading into the Colosseum itself.


The Roman Forum



Palatine Hill



The Colosseum

Once we finished with the Colosseum, we took the Metro from there to Ottaviano, the stop nearest the Vatican. We knew we couldn't fit in the Vatican Museum on such a short trip, but St. Peter's is a must see. We purposely came here in the afternoon, when most of the pilgrims who came for the Sunday Blessing in the morning would have moved on to other sites. And, in fact, the line was reasonable and moved fast. We decided to spring the 5 Euros to go to the top (5 to climb all 500+ stairs, 7 to take the elevator part way then take the last 300+ stairs). I had only done this once before, with my mom and Aunt Linda, back when I first visited Rome in 2006, but I remembered that the stairs get pretty narrow. In the beginning, the stairs are wide and we could even walk side-by-side. They become single-file before you arrive at an open area that is above the basilica, but not the dome yet. You then enter the dome, and walk around the inside edge of it, looking down at the HUGE church underneath. When you start climbing from this point you are actually climbing between the inside and outside walls of the dome. So the walls of the stairway are slanted, but only slightly at first, though I could see it giving anyone with vertigo or claustrophobia a bit of trouble. Then it gets a bit more narrow, and you need your hands on the walls, because there is not enough space to walk standing straight. It keeps getting more and more narrow and more and more slanted until you get to the spiral stairway that is the last section. This last part is so narrow I could not have stretched my elbows out (and I'm not particularly long-limbed). There is not even space for a central column for the spiral staircase, there is just a rope than hangs down. But finally, you come out at the very top of the dome, and have the most beautiful view of Rome, out even to the mountains beyond it.


Looking up into the main dome of St. Peter's Basilica



The view from the very top of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica

At this point it was 6PM, and the Basilica closes at 7PM. So we made our rounds inside, before walking though the piazza, and straight out the opening, in the direction of the river and Castle St. Angelo. We enjoyed the view here, of the river, the fortress, the bridge of angels, and the basilica in the distance for a few minutes before Daniele met us here. He drove us up to Gianicolo Hill where we got another nice view of Rome, now colored by the sunset.


St. Angelo Bridge

We then went to one of my favorite restaurants, MoMo, which seems fancy but has great prices and all of their food is so good. For dessert we decided on a change of venue, and picked up some canonni to-go, which we ate on the Spanish Steps. We took a quick walk up Via Condotti before heading home, tired, but having successfully captured Rome as best as I think possible in just over one day!


Sunset from Gianicolo Hill

All of the pictures from our tourist weekend are here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/6015594620817086977

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Trying out AirBnb

This past September (2013), Daniele and I moved from the condo he owns to one his father owns. Daniele's is located in Monterotondo, which is still in the Providence of Rome, but just outside the City of Rome. We could have walked to the boarder from the condo, but we were definitely in the 'burbs. The boundaries of Rome have spread out over the years as the city has grown to reach out and touch any already established city, such as Monterotondo.

Our new home is inside Rome, though just outside the walls of the ancient city. We are 7-minutes as-the-google-walks from two Metro stops on the A/Red Line, which I like better than the B/Blue Line. One of those stops is Re di Roma, a busy traffic-circle / piazza featuring many notable establishments. From here you can see, and easily walk to the ancient wall holding in Rome's historical center, and enter at Basilica San Giovanni, which is the “duomo” of Rome (St. Peters is in the Vatican, which technically is not Rome). We are also sandwiched between the busy shopping streets of Appia Nuova, Taranto, and Tuscolana (Tuscolana Station is not a Metro stop, but it's a great way to get straight to the airport). We have all this nearby, but magically live in a little microcosm of a quiet neighborhood composed of old people and a hand full of families where the only noise disturbance is church bells.

Similar to our old place, our apartment is made up of an open kitchen/living room, a bathroom, a master bedroom, and a small bedroom (though the last place had more outside space including a garden, two large balconies, and parking). Where as our last place was newer and designed with this layout, our home now was built in 1942 with a different design. Our place was the doorman's apartment and we believe it is (by quite a bit) the smallest apartment in the building. Originally, you walked into the spacious living room with a door separating visitors from the rest of the home. The door leds to a little space with doors to each: the large bedroom, the bathroom, and the kitchen. The kitchen in turn leads to the balcony. When my father-in-law bought the place 10 years ago, he moved the kitchen to the living room and converted that space to a second (small) bedroom. This is a pretty common renovation now that society has accepted the kitchen as a gathering place, not something that should be hidden away. Fun fact, Italian Real Estate listings count “number of rooms”, but there is no uniform method of counting rooms. Some will only count rooms intended to be bedrooms, most will also count a living room, a few count every space including the kitchen and even bathroom.

Given our new, more central location and spare room we thought we would try out renting the extra space on AirBnb-- just as an experiment to see how it does. If it went well, maybe we could do it for an entire apartment. The spare room was the last to get the renovation treatment, acting as our safe/clean room while the rest of house underwent the spackleing/sanding/more sanding/and even more sanding that the place needed to recover from the 10 years of being rented to students and the *72* years of general chipping and decay. I fought to maintain and restore all of the original wood and brass rather than replace everything with plastic and aluminum like my husband and in-laws would have done.

Daniele found several other airbnb-like sites. I didn't want so much of our personal information spread out so wide, so I limited him to HouseTrip, which is very popular in Europe and particularly the UK, I believe. We did well with them, however, they just recently took down our listing and everyone else's who was renting just a single room in order to concentrate on just listing full apartments/homes. We still have guests coming (and even right now are hosting two) who booked from HouseTrip. So, we still haven't felt whatever effect losing their referrals will have.

We started last November and I had a few rules. First off, AirBnb is not like a hotel, where anyone can book a night, unless you want to set it up that way. Potential guests send a request for a stay that we have to pre-approve or deny. Only with a pre-approval can they then book. We do not sublet while away, many people use AirBnb this way, we do the exact opposite and will not take guests if we are not home. Similarly, Daniele works nights sometimes and I will not accept a booking where their first night here I will be home alone with them. It doesn't take too long to get a feel for someone, and if we got someone sketchy, this would give me time to realize something was up and make Daniele call in sick. I also turn people down who seem sketchy online. A horror story I read a long time ago about a women who Airbnb'ed out her NYC apartment while away, and whose home was destroyed by the renters/robbers later noticed how the guest's name was misspelled (something like Johgnson) and a few other indicators. I look for more complete profiles, with more methods of verification, and not accounts just opened today. Recently I've started asking people who request to stay and have new, blank accounts, if they could add some verifications and then ask again. After all, while we have a few reviews now, we were new once, too, and people gave us a chance.

It's easy for me to deny requests because we are not trying to keep the room full 100% of the time. Who would want house guests all of the time? I've priced the room out according to this idea. We're not the cheapest room you can book in the area. First off, do I want the people who look for the cheapest rooms staying with me and having my key? Not really. Second, there is enough demand that my pricing keeps the room full enough. It has to be worth what we're getting (the money) to clean out the room, wash and change the bedding and towels, wait around to greet them when they arrive, and share my bathroom and kitchen with them while they are here (and in some cases, deal with their strange requests). That's not nothing, if it was just a little bit of money I would be annoyed to do all that and never think it worth it when getting a request. But for the bit more that we charge, it feels like free money. It feels like getting $400 for just doing a load of laundry!

Everyone who has stayed with us has been really interesting and fun to meet. We had a brother and sister from San Paulo, a couple from Russia, a mother and son from Iowa, two gentlemen friends from India, three BU students studying abroad in Spain, two Italian girls here for a concert, two kids from Austria we housed in coordination with their Italian school, a father and son from Holland, an American couple living in Asia, and a bunch more. Each of these was the type of well-rounded, friendly, likes-to-travel person that you might meet in a hostel while traveling yourself. We got to live through their experiences and learn a bit about their worlds without even leaving the house. Not to say we become besties with everyone who stays. There is a wide spectrum of those who like to chat and those who prefer to keep to themselves. I have just been very presently surprised by how fun most guests can be.

There is also the consideration that Rome has lots to see and most of our guests spend morning to night out trying to seeing it all. Some have cooked meals at home, in general the older guests and the ones who stay longer have been more prone to do so. Many others we barely see, often just a quick exchange of greetings while they are coming or going.

We've been pretty successful, despite not exactly living across from the Coliseum or above the Spanish Steps. It seems there are plenty of people who would just as happily take the Metro a few stops or walk a bit further. We started off pretty slow in the end of fall and dead of winter. But then we got into spring-break season, and Easter, some big Rome/Vatican events like the Canonization, and now just the high tourist season of spring and summer. Right now we could easily book back to back if we wanted. Which, if you think about it is very impressive, that there are enough potential guests to match up with any weird opening, since we only have one room available. It happens enough now that we bought a second full set of sheets and towels, so we can turn over the room in the same day, while the linens hang dry.

I attribute a few things to our success. Besides entering tourist season, we have reviews now, which is going to make us more attractive to guests and send more requests our way. I also wrote a really, really clear description about our place (in my own mother-tongue English, which not all Italian listings can boast). I know I tend to avoid situations where I don't know what to expect, particularly when traveling. Personally, I would even pay more for a place where I felt confident in what I was going to find, than a place that is perhaps nicer but I'm unsure about a few things-- but maybe that is just nerdy me trying to avoid awkward situations. For example, if there are towels in the picture but it doesn't say if they are included, or I'm not sure if the address given is where I'm staying or their office where I pick up my key, how many others will be staying here, which areas are common areas, things like that. Our aforementioned mother and son guests complemented our place on exceeding their expectations and said that at their last room, there had been a couch in the picture (mother and son did not want to share a bed) but on arrival were told the couch is now in a different and more expensive room. My description highlights how close we are to the metro, that it's the metro line with most attractions, the grocery stores/restaurants/cafes nearby, that I work from home and will be able to let guests in just about any time (a known issue for Airbnb guests), and that Daniele has lived here 30 years and can help you figure out what to do during your stay. I also clearly state that it is a small room and what the shared bathroom and kitchen are all about, to manage expectations.

We have squeezed both a single bed and a full bed into that little room. This makes it a good layout for either couples or friends traveling together And while it would be cramped (and I always warn groups of three), three could fit in there and it's a bit harder finding rooms for three in Europe. We recently added a small extra fee for the third person, after we started turning down most of the groups of three, once again restoring the “worth it” balance. Though really, the few we have hosted have not been much different that the groups of two. It's just that 5 people sharing a bathroom has the potential to be too much.

We make an effort to keep the place immaculately clean. Which is the natural state of the apartment anyway, since Daniele and I have different pet-peeve things we like spotless (he likes clean floors, I could care less about floors but hate surfaces to have any dust or grime). Obviously this is good to do for reviews, but I have my own secret reason for it, too. People tend to clean up after themselves more when they are surrounded by cleanliness. All our guests have been pretty clean, one even commenting on not wanting to mess up our pristine apartment. So by doing the cleaning more often, we actually have to clean less by not having to clean up so much after them.

In summery, huge success. April was our best month to date, bringing in about $1500. All for a tiny room that we wouldn't even be using otherwise. The space could have been an office for me, but we have space in our large bedroom for an office-area and that kind of money is like a salary in itself. Most likely winters will always be more bleak (though I think having reviews will help next year), but that's fine because it is nice to not have guests, too. Someday we will have to shut down when it is time to expand our family and convert the room into a nursery. In the meantime, it is awesome money for just doing some extra laundry and a fun experience in itself.

Monday, May 12, 2014

Open House Roma


The courtyard and Italian style gardens inside the Academie Nationale de France, housed in Villa Medici

This weekend Rome had an event, “Open House Roma”, where lots of palaces, churches, and state buildings were open to the public, for free, and with guided tours. Depending on the place, there was one tour, tours every hour, reservations only, or walk-ins allowed. We found out about the even via a poster on our local piazza, then proceeded to forget about it for a few weeks. When we finally remembered and found the website to reserve spots, everything cool was booked solid. Luckily, Italians are pretty flaky as a general rule and enough people did not show up for their free reservations that we had no problem getting in anyway.

We spent the whole day Saturday on foot, walking from our house near Re di Roma, to the Colosseum, to Piazza Venezia, to Villa Borgese, and reverse. So I spent Sunday siting on my butt at my computer to compensate. I had tentatively thought about heading out again and trying to get into the Senate, but it will be open again.


Basilica San Giovanni in Laterano



Roman Forum

The city was really packed. I imagine it is a combination of Spring being a beautiful time of year for a European vacation and that it was the weekend, when more Italian and European visitors make a short trip to Rome. The Pope was also greeting a large group of school children today. And, finally, there was a protest in the afternoon. We did not see the protest (or maybe a parade?) itself and I have been unable to fine any news saying what it was. There are a lot of protests in Rome, so that's not too surprising. We did pass the after effects: waves of openly smoking young people and drug dealers in a frequency that would have made me double-take even in Golden Gate Park, followed by streets blocked off and littered with trash and broken beer bottles, then finally hordes of police vehicles and geared-up officers who were taping off sections of streets as we got closer to home, were presumably the demonstration was headed but had not yet arrived.


Crowds outside the Colosseum

Our first Open House Roma stop was the French Academy in Rome, or “Académie de France à Rome” as the French call it, or “Accademia di Francia a Roma” as the Italians call it located in Villa Medici (Medici like the family who ruled Florence during the Renaissance). They say this villa is located “inside” Villa Borgese, but it would be more accurate to think of the Borgese and Medici as being neighbors. The Villa is on Pincio Hill, not one of the seven-hills of Rome, because it was outside the sacred wall of Ancient Rome (this was their “country estate”) but it is inside the Aurelian walls (built between 270 and 273 A.D and considered today the boundary of the historical center). While there was a Villa here in Ancient Roman times, what stands today was really built up in the Renaissance. From the Villa Medici website:

Ferdinando de' Medici (1549-1609), cardinal at the age of 13, collector and sponsor, purchased it in 1576 and asked the Florentine architect Ammannati to build a palace worth the prestige of the Medici family. Devoted to Antiquity, like many of his contemporaries, Ferdinando conceived his Villa representing a museum. He added a gallery where he presented his collection of antique masterpieces. He inserted in the facade a series of antique bas-reliefs. Even the garden was designed in the same spirit of staging, like the botanic gardens of Pisa and Florence designed by his father several years before. Numerous rare species were gathered there, amongst antique statues. Further south, ruins of the Temple of Fortune were overlaid by a belvedere from where one's sight could embrace the major part of the city and surrounding countryside.
[...]In 1587 Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici was called to Florence to replace Francois the First on the throne of Tuscany. He left the decoration of the Villa partly unfinished. The most precious statues and the comprehensive set of the collections were moved to Florence. The Lorraines, heirs of the Great Duchy of Tuscany sold the Villa in 1803.

The internal facade of the Academie Nationale de France, housed in Villa Medici. Note the Etruscan tombs incorperated into the design

The buyer in 1803 was Napoleon, who turned the Villa into the art academy which it still functions as today under the governance of the office of culture of France. Artists can apply to stay in this peaceful villa in the center of Rome, but silently surrounded by it's vast 17+ acre gardens, to study their craft and Italian techniques. Originally only students of Art and Architecture could apply, today everything from Music to Culinary Arts are welcome.


A view of the Italian style gardens from the Cardinal's chambers of the Academie Nationale de France, housed in Villa Medici

Our tour of the Villa started inside, with Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici's personal apartments-- still featuring their ornate furnishings and murals. We then came to the garden where we took in the internal facade. Etruscan tombs are attached to the facade for added decoration; they are actually well incorporated and I would not have realized they were tombs without our guide. This overlooks the classic “Italian Garden” featuring short green shrubs in geometric designs. To the side of this are 16 (four squares of four) perfectly square and equal gardens walled off by tall green shrubs, giving a maze effect. These are being restored to their original Renaissance purposes and some are growing vegetables and grapes. Along the sides of these 16 squares, between them and the Villa wall, are a few outbuildings. One was Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici's personal studio. It is decorated with a study of all kinds of animals painted on its vaulted ceiling in the main room and a mural featuring different reincarnations of the Villa itself in a smaller room. The windows here were, at the time, a view into the unsettled forest surrounding Rome, now it overlooks the busy street Via del Muro Torto. There is also a staircase leading outside the walls of the Villa, which the Cardinal would have used to meet his secret girlfriends. Another small building is full of Medici busts. As we circle around the 4x4 garden squares, back to the building itself, there is a balcony view over the city, where you can see every major sight in Rome, which would have been very similar (if perhaps a bit less filled in between) in Ferdinando's time.


View of Rome's city center from the gardens of the Academie Nationale de France, housed in Villa Medici. Most prominent in the skyline are the Altare della Patria on the left and the dome of the Vatican center-right

More info:
wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Academy_in_Rome
www.villamedici.it
wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Medici

Our second stop on our Open House Roma tour was the Palazzo Venezia. Most tourists stop by Piazza Venezia to see the Altare della Patria (the Alter to Patriotism, some call it "the wedding cake") which dominates the square. Facing said alter, you could zip off to the left and walk pass the Roman Forum before arriving at the Colosseum, or to the right and arrive at Campidoglio Hill (housing Rome's City Hall and the Museum Capitolini). Or do an about-face and be looking down Via del Corso, an important landmark in itself having been the location for Rome's famous Carnival (Mardi Gras) house races and today is a partially-pedestrian street (only buses, taxis, and politicians allowed) housing every brand in Europe. Continue down Via del Corso and you pass some other noble palaces (like Palazzo Doria Pamphilj) and the small streets leading to the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps before finishing in Piazza del Popolo. Piazza (and Palazzo) Venezia are about as central as you can get. Even Berlusconi thinks so, he owns a palace just a few yards down from Palazzo Venezia.

You almost wouldn't notice that there is a little nook to the right of Piazza Venezia which has a different name, Piazza San Marco. Piazza San Marco is, of course, also the name of the main square in Venezia aka Venice. Piazza Venezia and the Altare della Patria are relativity (compared to the age of most landmarks in Rome) new, having been built up from 1911 to 1925.


The Altare della Patria in Piazza Venezia, Rome

It turns out there is history to all of these Venice references in this area, and once again, it comes back to a cardinal. In 1455 Venetian Cardinal Pietro Barbo was put in charge of the church located here, Basilica San Marco. Like most churches, the area in front of it was called piazza same-name, and this is where we get Rome's Piazza San Marco. Nine years later, he would be named Pope Paul II. He would assign his cardinal-nephew, Marco Barbo, to his old post and enlarge the palace, at this point still called Palazzo San Marco. Several large additions were made. The grandeur was added to by artwork, even murals, which were scavenged from river-side palaces that were being demolished at this time in order to build up the (still in use) embankments. The final palace greatly outshined the basilica it was “supporting”.


Fresco ceiling in Palazzo Venezia that was taken and relocated here from another palazzo, which had to be destroyed to build Rome's river embankments

In the following years, the palace was used as a summer home for the pope. Then in 1564 the pope (at this point Pius IV Medici) gifted the palace to the Republic of Venice, who in turn, used it as their embassy to Rome. From this point on, the palace became known as the Palace “of” Venice, or Palazzo Venezia.

The palace remained the property of Venice up until Italy unified in 1861. Then in the Treaty of Campo Formio it became the seat of the Austrian Diplomat. In 1910, one of the palace's gardens was relocated to the other side of the palace to make room for Piazza Venezia (where we started our story). Then in 1916, shortly after completion, the Italian Royalty recovered ownership of the palace and established a museum, which opened in 1921.


View into the courtyard of Palazzo Venezia

The palace took a major turn from 1929 to 1943, when it served as the headquarters for the Italian Fascist government. They say they never turned the lights out, so the people would know their government was always working for them. We got to see Mussolini’s room, which was styled in a somewhat tacky zodiac design painted in a far inferior manor to the Renaissance works housed in the adjacent rooms. His final mistress (there were many, along with two different wives), Clara Petacci, apparently liked astronomy.


Zodiac themed ceiling in the room used by Mussolini and his Astrology-loving mistress, in Palazzo Venezia

After World War II, the palace reopened as a museum once again. Notably, there is an impressive collection of ceramics, ranging from early Asian-inspired designs to later works with a stronger European identity, no longer trying to imitate the original Asian styles. Not to mention the walls filled with paintings and the palace itself.


The marble stairway in Palazzo Venezia

More info:
www.museopalazzovenezia.beniculturali.it

If I had to compare the two, it would be difficult. Villa Medici has impressive gardens and still a beautiful interior. It is difficult to reconcile of such a large private open space sitting in the middle of a busy capital city. Palazzo Venezia is in the very heart of the city and even more grand inside-- there is a large marble staircase, and room upon room of Renaissance art. Villa Medici, as the house of the French Academy, has no lack of art either, but it is mostly modern works hung on plain white walls, with a few exceptions. Both have made an effort to restore or maintain the Renaissance styles of their peak. Really, I would be happy to live in either one.

Pictures: https://plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/6012308555556852785

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Castello Santa Severa

Yesterday (actually yesterday, not uploading months old posts for once), Daniele and I visited the Castle of Santa Severa. The castle has changed hands many times, and now the town of Santa Severa* owns it and opened it for the week, by appointment, to see about making it into an open tourist attraction.

*Note, Santa Severa is not a town or “commune” in its own right. It is a “frazione” or borough of Santa Marinella, composed of a few grouped together houses. A clear distinction in Italy where every “commune” has certain amenities (the town hall, police station, train and/or bus station, post office, church, and almost certainly a bar, pizzeria, and tabacchi) and always a town center where you find most of these.

In true Italian style, the castle is a mix of structures all build on top of each other. The oldest date from 5th to 4th millennium B.C. -- that's millennium, not a typo. The location leads to people wanting to live there. The castle sits on its own micro-peninsula sticking out into the sea, with sandy beaches to the right, and rocks that were probably placed there to slow erosion to the left. Our guide said that they estimate the land used to stick out another mile, because they have found remnants that far out. It is easy to understand erosion being a concern for any sea-front castle owner.

The history of the castle is not very clear since it dates to prehistoric times. The consensus is that the area was frequented dating back to 5th to 4th millennium B.C. There are excavations dating from the Neolithic Period (7th to 6th millennium B.C.), the Bronze Age (2 millennium B.C.), and the Iron Age (9th to 8th century B.C.).

We know a little more about the Etruscan Period. The Etruscans were a civilization based in Tuscany from 7th to 6th century B.C. that evolved along with and were later conquered by the Ancient Romans. I first learned about them during my Volterra visit in 2010. In Etruscan times, the place was called Pyrgi and served as a commercial port connecting to all of the Mediterranean, especially Greece and Phoenicia. This Etruscan port mostly supported (and vice-versa) the nearby city of Caere, modern day Cerveteri. A very ancient sanctuary with temples to Apollo and a few other deities was also found outside of the residential area, which spread about 25 acres. Some important relics were found here, one of which is three tablets written in both Etruscan and Punic, proving the strong relationship between the Etruscans of Ceveteri and Cartharage.

Romans dominated the area beginning in 3rd century B.C. Pyrgi became a maritime colony and a huge rectangular fortress was built, surrounded by polygonal wall. These were built on top of the Etruscan and prehistoric structures. This fortress continued to be used until 5th to 6th century A.D. (the Late-Ancient Period). It is believed that the structure was transformed to an important villa by this time. Also in the Late-Ancient Period, an early Christian church was build next to the port dedicated to Santa Severa. Santa Severa was a Pygrese martyr in the third century A.D. This early Christian church was only just discovered in excavations in 2007.

Santa Severa continued to develop on top of the older structures. During the Medieval and Renaissance periods, the village occupied only a quarter of the Roman fortress and had become a huge farming estate as well as a stopover port between Rome and Civitivechia (today where most cruse ships come in to visit Rome).

All of this history and building on top of things lead to a piecemeal fortress-style castle, not a palace like Versailles by any means. I kept low expectations of a pretty simple stone structure going in, and I was pleasantly surprised by what we found. There is a very castle-like Keep in the center, with towers and battlements. There are also impressive frescoes in the two “newer” churches and dug out excavations of the oldest church-- an early christian structure build on the remains of an Ancient Roman villa, a grain refinery turned graveyard with evidence of grave robbing, and a secret stairway with direct access to the beach. The whole structure reminded me very much of all of the medieval hill towns here in Lazio that we frequently visit. Which makes sense, since ancient castles were basically walled-in towns. The main difference here being that this entire structure, which could be a small town, has been in the ownership of a single body since at least Ancient Roman times.

Now that the castle is in the hands of the town, the idea is to open it to the public. This week was a bit of an experiment along those lines. I'm not sure about the time-line on those goals or if the idea is to just open it up or keep the guided tour structure. There are already some shops in one of the three courtyards before passing the door where our tour began. We were told no one is allowed past that door unaccompanied. And I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed all of the sites within without our guide, who lucky for me spoke very clear Italian. He was one of the archeologists involved in the actual excavation of Castle Santa Severa and was able to point out all of the cool little things that I would have missed without him. You can follow along our tour with my heavily captioned photos.

We rounded off the day with lunch on the beach in front of the castle. We stayed on the rocky side since the sandy part looked a bit damp. The beach here has been open to the public and a popular spot all along. In fact it had been on our list of beaches to try out for quite some time before Daniele heard about the castle opening. After, we finished with a visit to the neighboring town of Santa Marinella before it started to rain and we headed home.

Photos from the day: https://plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/6008215300922876865