19. Rome
Such is the history that so many have written effusively about ancient or modern Rome.
“We entered the Eternal City… by the Porta del Popolo and came immediately on the skirts of the Carnival… We had crossed the Tiber by the Ponte Molle two or three miles before. It had looked as yellow as it ought to look… and had a promising aspect of desolation and ruin… The next day we hurried off to St Peter’s. It looked immense in the distance but distinctly small by comparison on a near approach. The beauty of the Piazza, on which it stands, with its clusters of exquisite columns, and its gushing fountains – so fresh, so broad, and free and beautiful – nothing can exaggerate… Looking up into the Dome, is a sensation never to be forgotten…
(Next, we went) to the Colosseum. Its solitude, its awful beauty and utter desolation… To see it crumbling there, an inch a year, its walls and arches overgrown with green, its corridors open to the day, the long grass growing in its porches… To see its Pit of Fight filled up with earth, and the peaceful Cross planted in the centre, to climb into its upper halls and look down on ruin, ruin, ruin all about it. The triumphal arches of Constantine, Septimus, Severus and Titus. The Roman Forum, the Palace of the Caesars, the temples of the old religion fallen down and gone is to see the ghost of old Rome, wicked, wonderful old city, haunting the very ground on which its people trod. It is the most impressive, the most stately, the most solemn, grand, majestic, mournful sight conceivable…
We wandered out upon the Appian Way and then went on through miles of ruined tombs and broken walls, with here and there a desolate and uninhabited house, past the Circus of Romulus, where the course of the chariots, the stations of the judges, competitors and spectators, are yet as plainly to be seen as in old time… Away upon the open Campagna where on that side of Rome, nothing is to be held but Ruin. Except where the distant Apennines bound the view upon the left, the whole wide prospect is one field of ruin”. *
And from an urban and architectural perspective:
“Out of the ruins of (ancient Rome) rose the old ‘Palazzo del Senatori’, built over the remains of antique walls, in the form of a mediaeval town hall… Besides the Senators Palace, there was another official building, the ‘Palazzo dei Conservatori’, quite mediaeval. The two buildings were placed so that they formed a rather sharp angle at one corner (and in the centre the statue of Marcus Aurelius on horseback, placed in 1538).
Out of this picturesque confusion, Michelangelo planned to create rigorous architectonic unity. The irregular hill-top was to become a platform, a lofty stone-paved terrace approached by a long flight of stairs. The houses were to be remodelled in the same spirit. The Senator’s Palace which, with its towers and parapets… was to be remodelled to form a continuation of the terrace-like position with a large double staircase leading from the level of the square up to that of the great hall. The Conservators Palace, to the right of the entrance to the piazza, was also completely remodelled. The twin building to the left, the ‘Capitoline Museum’ which houses Roman antiques was not finished until 1655.
Accordingly, the Capitol piazza is a trapezoid… which it became simply because the walls of the two remodelled buildings formed a sharp angle at one corner. But when you stand in it, the piazza seems
to be rectangular, so skilfully has the irregularity been counteracted by the pattern of the pavement – a large oval with lines radiating from the central statue, that of the equestrian on a plinth.
On the Capitoline Hill, the horizontal planes have been emphasized, the hill divided into mounting levels and made even higher by the buildings so that it seems to draw itself up proudly before your eyes. It has been made a monument to Rome itself, the city that was once the mighty heart of a world empire. It is necessary to stroll about on it, to experience ascending the ramp, ‘la Cordonata’ to the summit where serene peace reigns. It is only a small square, small enough to be completely dominated by the equestrian statue on its low base”. **
Amongst its seven hills, the imperial Roman ruins as described by Charles Dickens, its walls and arches, aqueducts and bridges, Forum and Colosseum, still exist essentially in such state, although under preservation in the midst of a modern bustling city.
Other elements become uncovered periodically as new underground Metro lines are built, and further ancient objects remain hidden.
Having survived the period of the Fascists and World War II, the iconic post Renaissance ‘Piazza del Campidoglio’ as described by Steen E. Rasmussen, remains supreme on Capitoline Hill as well as the grand St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.
Modern Romans may take their ancient history for granted and with its more recent palaces, churches and villas, its splendid architectural townscape and artefacts happily are still in evidence.
Yet as befits a modern European capital city, with growth and redevelopment post war, its infrastructure has been enhanced with modern Ring Road (Grande Raccordo Anulare), urban Metro System (Metropolitana), Railway Stations (Termini and Tiburtina) and International Airports (Fiumicino and Ciampino).
Striving to overcome pollution and congestion challenges, the Metro is slowly being extended into outer suburban areas and ‘Limited Traffic Zones’ (ZTL) are being created.
With its dense street pattern and historic centre, traffic regulation and transition to electric vehicles is becoming essential.
So too the increasing challenges of tourism of those thousands of international visitors seeking to witness ‘la dolce vita’.
*Charles Dickens – Pictures from Italy – London, 1846.
**Steen Eiler Rasmussen – Towns and Buildings – MIT Press, 1951.
