Italy in May - Rome, Part III

In this set of journals I will continue my exploration of this amazing city by visiting Piazza di Spagna, Santa Maria in Trastavere, Palazzo Barberini, Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Trevi fountain. It is unbelievable how many places you can see in just 3 days, and how many more are still left to come back to again and again...

Quick Tips:

All the phones in Italy have switched to using local calling cards or credit cards, you can hardly find one that you can use your calling card from the US to call back home, and some older phones always ask you to deposit some change before you can call. But when I was in the Vatican, I found out that there you can call using any type of calling card, so my Sprint card worked just fine and I didn't even need to put any change in the phone. Keep this in mind. Also if you want to send a postcard, send it from Vatican; here mail service is more reliable.

Best Way To Get Around:

As I wrote before, use public transportation and walk. Subway or metro is not very clean, but it will take you where you need to go. I preferred buses to metro, because you get to see the city and you can very cheaply have several tours of the city by going from one bus to the other, especially if you take electric buses 116 and 117, you will see most of the major sightseeing places for sure.

Phone: 06-679 73 23

Open: Fri-Tues 10 am – 5 pm, closed Jan 1, May 1, Dec 25

To find this magnificent private collection of art may be quite difficult and even when you ask people on the street very few know where it is. But it contains an absolutely amazing collection that you have to see once you are in Rome. So since I managed to get there, I will try to explain where it is located. If you take a bus to the stop that is right in front of Palazzo Venezia near Victor Emmanuel monument on Via del Plebiscito, you have to follow Via del Plebiscito forward to the end of the block along the side opposite Palazzo Venezia, then turn right into a small street called Via Della Gatta and follow that street past the book store, then turn right again into Piazza del Collegio Romano (but there are no signs that this is the name of the place) and in the middle of the building you will see the entrance. The collection is on the second floor and is actually located right above that bookstore that you just passed. Don’t get it confused with Villa Pamphilj since Villa is located in a very different area of Rome.

Palazzo belongs to the family of princes Doria Pamphilj, and the latest prince Jonathan Doria Pamphilj was brought up and educated in England. He really loves this collection and has spent a lot of effort to preserve it. When you enter, you will be given an audio guide where he tells you about each room in the Palazzo, their history and the history of his family in the language of your choice (he speaks several languages and English is equally his first language as is Italian).

The Palazzo was built in the 15th century, and it belonged to several families before Doria Pamphilj came to power. Doria Pamphilj added new wings and a chapel to the building in the 17th century. One of prince Jonathan’s ancestors was banned from Rome for marrying for love a woman who was not of noble ancestry, but some time later he was forgiven and was allowed to return to Rome. The building decor inside was revolutionary for its time, the landscapes on the walls were very unusual, it was much more typical to have walls draped with fabric. The furniture – chairs and sofas - is set along the walls just the way it was 3 centuries ago, and this arrangement seems strange to us, but the prince tried to preserve the appearance of the Palazzo the way it was redesigned by his ancestors. The French and Belgian tapestries on the walls of private apartments are gorgeous and well preserved.

Continued in Part II

Continued from Part I

Doria Pamphilj also built a large gallery for the paintings that they’ve accumulated over the years (over 400 paintings). Here you can see these paintings from 15th-18th centuries, they are hung along the long corridors. The corridors ceilings are painted with gorgeous frescoes, that remind somewhat the frescoes in the Vatican.

As you move along the corridors, you find yourself staring at myriads of paintings by famous masters. There is a large hall devoted to antique statues, and the Hall of Mirrors (very reminiscent of Versailles) in the middle of which is one of Raphael’s masterpieces. The most precious part of the collection is in the halls that are numbered 100 through 400 and are in the end of the tour. Here are the large paintings by Raphael, Caravaggio, Titian, Guercino, Velazquez, each labeled and well lit, whereas the paintings along the corridors have no labels next to them. You absolutely cannot take pictures, but they have a gift shop in the middle of the collection, and you can buy very nice postcards of some of the collection paintings.

And if you find that you absolutely have to see more of Doria Pamphilj’s private collections, then your next trip should be to Genoa, where they have another portion of the family’s treasures open to the public.

Phone: 06-482 41 84

Open: 9 am – 7 pm Tue –Sun, Friday and Saturday extended hours till 10 pm, closed on public holidays

Cost: 6.03 euros

http://www.galleriaborghese.it/barberini/en/einfo.htm http://www.galleriaborghese.it/barberini/it/default.htm - the Italian version has links to major paintings, but the English version shows the map of the building, there is much more info on the Italian website

Palazzo Barberini is one of those jewels in Rome, that if you haven’t heard of it, you will miss it and therefore, will miss an unforgettable experience. You don’t need to make reservations, since there is never a line to get in, even though all the websites tell you that you have to make a reservation. The Palazzo is located just a block away from the corner of Via Veneto and Piazza Barberini that boasts Fontana del Tritone (Triton fountain) – one of Bernini’s masterpieces. The fountain is located on a Piazza that is surrounded by traffic on all sides and it might be a challenge to cross the street to get to the fountain, but it’s really worth it. It is really a gorgeous fountain with sea god Triton in the middle – half man, half fish with the mermaid’s tail sitting on top of the huge shell supported by the dolphins.

The Palazzo is up on the hill and when you enter through the gates, you see this large villa surrounded by the tropical flowers and plants. I even saw one of the people who work there looking out from one of the windows on the second floor and posing for a picture that I was taking of the building.

Barberini was a pope in the 17th century, and this Palazzo was built for him by several architects including Bernini and Borromini (it will celebrate 300-year anniversary in 20 years). Everywhere in the building you can see the bees which are the symbol of Barberini family – they are in the wall and ceiling patterns, above the doors. There are several busts of the pope himself in the Palazzo. The Palazzo is also called the National Gallery of Classic Art (Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica).

Continued in Part II

Continued from Part I

The best part of this building is the Gran Salone on the second floor, an amazing huge room used for balls with the ceiling fresco painted by Pietro di Cortona in baroque style showing the "Triumph of the Divine Providence". The room is very large and the ceiling measures about 7’ by 5’. There is a description of what is shown on the ceiling in Italian and it explains in great detail the story. The frescoes are amazing with bright vibrant colors and the story is from Roman mythology, and once again you can see the bees as part of the frescoes. Unfortunately, there is currently restoration effort ongoing in this room and the walls don’t have the paintings that used to hang there. However in other rooms on the first floor you can still see the works by Filippo Lippi, El Greco, Caravaggio, Raphael, Hans Holbein, Tintoretto, Titian and Guido Reni to name just a few.

There is a second entrance to the right which leads to offices. Make sure to look at the curved staircase which is a great study of perspective and ingenuity on the part of Borromini.

Rome is famous for its fountains.

The most popular and the grandest of Rome's fountains is by far the Trevi Fountain which has become famous from the movies Three Coins in a Fountain and Fellini's La Dolce Vita. It is a very large and glorious fountain located very close to the Pantheon. The fountain was built to mark the construction of the frist aqueduct about 1,800 years after the aqueduct was built. The Trevi Fountain was completed in 1762 by Nicola Slavi and it is literally part of the building, surrounded by windows.

The fountain looks like a stage from a theater. In the middle is the figure of Neptune standing on a huge shell, pointing down with his hand to steps covered with water and two Tritons with horses blowing into the shells. Neptune stands inside of a small arch. On either side of the arch, there are large columns with a female figure on each side, the whole fountain looks like a huge portico with the balcony on top with large plaque and heraldics of Clement XIII.

Spend a little bit of time here, enjoy yourself, look at the fountain, and drop some money into it so that (as legend has it) you can always come back.