Castel Sant'Angelo
The second stop on our itinerary is just a short walk down Via della Concilliazione. With its National Museum bearing its name, Castel Sant’Angelo, as well as boasting the marvellous stuccos, frescos and furnishing of its papal apartments, is also home to an important collection of ancient weapons. Castel Sant’Angelo moreover gained automatic fame on the premiere of Giacomo Puccini’s Opera Tosca at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14th January 1900. The opera in fact ends in tragedy with the main character, Tosca, hurling herself to her death over the castle’s ramparts.
Piazza Navona
Piazza Navona is reached by crossing the Tiber at Ponte Sant’Angelo and veering to the left. Viewed from above, the square’s outline is that of an arena. It was in fact built on top of Domitian’s Stadium, the remains of which are to be found in the piazza’s Seventeenth Century Baroque Church of Sant’Agnese in Agone, which was designed by that great architect Francesco Borromini. Adorning the piazzaare its three sumptuous fountains: the Fountain of the Moor, the Fountain of Neptune and the most important of all, Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers (the Nile, Ganges, Danube and Rio de la Plata). During the festive season from early December to the Epiphany, the piazza is annually filled with Christmas stalls selling toys, sweets and crib figures.
Over an amphitheatre dating from Emperor Nero’s rule, Domitian had a stadium built towards 86 A.D. However over the course of the centuries, Piazza Navona was the favourite spot to hold games, tournaments and processions. Between the seventeenth and nineteen centuries, the piazza was often flooded for aquatic games and to stage naval battles, where boats of princes and prelates would be paraded with the letting off of fireworks.
Pantheon
The pantheon is nothing less than the finest example of the very best architectonic craft of ancient Rome. The simple harmonious structure results from its perfect cylindrical proportions, given that the diameter of the dome is equal to the height of the building. Its interior provides the last resting for a number of important personages. Here lies the tomb of High Renaissance Painter and Architect Raphael, Baroque Painter Annibale Carracci and the Kings Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I. Dominating the square outside is G. Della Porta’s delightful Renaissance fountain surmounted by Rameses’ II’s obelisk.
Piazza di Spagna
Renowned world over for its spectacular steps, designed by Francesco De Sanctis between 1723 and ’26, as well as for Pietro Bernini and his son Gian Lorenzo’s 1629 half-sunk boat-shaped fountain called “La Barcaccia”, Piazza di Spagna is an important meeting point for both Romans and tourists. Rising up on top of the Steps and overlooking the Piazza is the Church of Trinità dei Monti, which was built on the wishes of King Louis XII of France in 1502. Shifting our gaze to the left, Villa Medici sul Pincio, today the seat of the French Academy, comes into sight. Fanning out from the piazza below are a myriad of streets where both the top fashion brands are to be found as well as sites of historical and cultural interest. Not to be missed is the Café Greco in Via dei Condotti.
