Roma Eterna
Apr. 30th, 2026 07:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakShe who travels to the Eternal City and surrounding countryside for a couple of days is obliged to share the pictorial results. :)
I wasn't staying in Rome itself, mind, but in the Latium countryside, the place where the last third of the Aeneid is located. Here's where Lavinium was, the town Aeneas founded in hnour of his second wife.
People still find antiquities in their gardens. My host, for example, had this depiction of Diana gifted to him by his neighbour after said neiighbour came across it while planting:
Diana - Artemis - Goddess of the hunt and later the moon is everywhere in this area, but especially at Lake Nemi. There are several lakes created by old volcano craters, and Nemi might be the most beautiful in tough competition. You'll get several views of it. Here it is seen from Nemi the town; the town on the opposite side of the lake is called Genzano di Roma.
And here is Nemi the town.
In which two types of food are especially priced - strawberries and pork:
More pictures of the lake again:
Now the lake actually continues around a curve. Here's the over bit. It inclludes the shore where the temple of Diana was. In 1932, Mussolini ordered the entire lake drained so that two gigantic ships could be brought up from the deep. Everyone had known for millennia they were there - you could see their shadows lurking down there - but there was no other way to get them out of the water without destroying them. According to my host, what local legend had claimed they were before they were discovered: Orgy ships from Nero. What they actually were: built by Nero's uncle Caligula, but not as orgy ships, Caligula's reputation not withstanding. People discovered they had the exact same size as the sun ship buried on the foot of the Great Pyramids in Egypt. As Caligula had been in Egypt with his father, Germanicus, while a child, this led to a new theory and local Caligula rehabilitation, because the new theory is that he was actually attempting to promote Egyptian religion in Rome and that's why he got assassinated by the Roman upper class who was notoriously hostile towards Eastern cults. (No, I don't buy it, but that's the local theory.) Alas the ships themselves did not survive WWII, they burned, but they were photographed before that, and also the museum built around them is still there so you can see what size they were:
Driving onwards from Nemi to Rocco di Pappa, one can spot Rome in the far distance:
More to the point, though, one can see the next lake, Lago Albano. On the other side of which is Castel Gandolfo, the summer residence of the Popes. (It's also the roughly territory where Alba Longa was, the city Romuls and Remus' mother hails from.)
This is the entrace to the papal residence.
And here's Lago Albano as seen from Castel Gandolfo. The town on the other side is Rocco di Pappa.
Rocco di Pappa closer:
Pope Francis broke with tradition by declaring he did not need a summer residence (just as he never moved into the main papal rooms in the Vatican), which got a lot of the inhabitants of Castel Gandolfo very upset, because that town lives from tourism, and without a Pope around, the tourists stayed away. Francis then opened the papal gardens of Castel Gandolfo for the public, which brought the tourists back. Pope Leo does use Castel Gandolfo again - suppsedly he shows up every Tuesday - but the gardens arae still open to the public. Naturally, I visited them.
The Popes were definitely not the first to build at this magnificent site; which is why you find bits and pieces of an old imperial villa built by Domitian all over the park. Which is gigantic.
This insignia and motto (a quote by St. Augustine, "we are one in the one") is the one chosen by the current Pope, Leo XIV.
Domitian built the villa; the last Roman Emperor to reside here was Septimius Severus, aka the first African Emperor, who is depicted here:
Domitian left a theotre behind:
The gardens reminded me a bit of Versailles, especially these here:
I also visited the site of ancient Tusculum, another favourite home away from home spot for (rich) ancient Romans. Alas the archaeological site itself was closed, so I could see the ruins only from the outside, but I climbed up to the top of the mountain regardless, beauses the view over the Latium landscape from there was breathtaking.
Btw, here's Castel Gandolfo again, this time from the other (land) side:
And here are the digs where they wouldn't let me in:
Tusculum had its own theatre:
And because it was another very clear day, you could see Rome in the distance:
A bit below the archaeological site is the Villa Aldobrandini, and from its terrace you can have an even better view of Rome. It was clear enough that I could spot St. Peter and take a picture of it with my cell phone.
Domitian being Domitian, he also had himself built an arena in nearby Aricia:
And then I visited Rome itself.
First I went by the Protestant Cemetary. It is near the Aurelian Walls, and next the Pyramd of Cestius, an excentric Roman tribune who absolutely wanted a tomb in this shape. The old gate you see here is the Ostia Gate.
It is a cemetary for all non-Catholics, and when I was there in the 1990s, ithere was a cat on every other tombstone, but a while ago the city administration organized a mass castration campaign, and now there were only tow.
Some of the most famous dead buried here are Keats and Shelley.
Here's another view of Rome, this one from above Travestere:
I didn't stay on that side of the Tiber for long, though. On to some of the most famous squares. The Piazza del Fiore, where today stands a statue of Giardono Bruno, executed as an heretic. Very pointedly, the 19th century Italian revolutionaries who erected it let it face towards the Vatican:
And then we have the Piazza Navona with its magnificent fountain. And an obelisk. There are so many obelisks in Rome, I swear Augustus looted all he could move on Roman ships. (Well, thirteen of them anyway.)
And then you pass the Pantheon. Marcus Agrippa Fecit.
The Piazza Argentina includes some of the oldest remains on display in Rome. It's the "area sacra"; three temples were standing here and nobody could be certain to which gods they were dedicated, so they're known as Temple A, B and C. They hail from the early Republic. Nearby was also the place where the Senate met when Caesar was assassinated.
If you climb up the Capitol, the statue that greets is Marcus Aurelius:
You pass it, go right, and get the most wonderful view of the Forum Romanum:
Let's have some bits and pieces. This angle shows you the triumphal arc of Septimius Severus:
While this one allows you to glimpse the Triumphal Arc of Titus in the background:
But really, you need a panoramic photo to see it all:
Leaving the Forum Romanum behind, one passes of course the Colloseum.
And leaving the city behind, the Via Appia.
But I came back the next day. There were the Spanish Stairs to visit! (Also: more obelisks.) From above:
From below:
Lots of houses have roof gardens in Rome:
And then you get the occasional door and windows like this:
And streets and fountains galore
My host went to some of the more obscure churches with me.
In which you find tomb scullptures like these:
Someone was into sphinxes:
While I was visiting Rome, Pope Leo was visiting Africa. And getting attacked by the Orange Menace for preaching against the use of religion to justify war. The Romans were not impressed. They seem to be quite fond of their American Pope:
Back to ancient autocrats. The Mausoleum Augustus built for himself and in which most of the Julio-Claudian Emperors (that is, their ashes) ended up is currently getting renovated:
Of course, Augustus' mausoleum is overshadowed by the one Hadrian built for himself, and which the Popes then used as a fortress:
I couldn't leave Rome without at least one quick glimpse at St. Peter's Square:
Though the most original view of St. Peter was the one I then saw from the Piazza Garibaldli:
Said Piazza has another magnificant overview of the city:
Check out the roof of the Pantheon:
The Capitol:
The Palatine with its remains of the old imperial residences, and the nearby Circus Maximus:
And with one last Roman Panorama, I end this pic spam:
I wasn't staying in Rome itself, mind, but in the Latium countryside, the place where the last third of the Aeneid is located. Here's where Lavinium was, the town Aeneas founded in hnour of his second wife.
People still find antiquities in their gardens. My host, for example, had this depiction of Diana gifted to him by his neighbour after said neiighbour came across it while planting:
Diana - Artemis - Goddess of the hunt and later the moon is everywhere in this area, but especially at Lake Nemi. There are several lakes created by old volcano craters, and Nemi might be the most beautiful in tough competition. You'll get several views of it. Here it is seen from Nemi the town; the town on the opposite side of the lake is called Genzano di Roma.
And here is Nemi the town.
In which two types of food are especially priced - strawberries and pork:
More pictures of the lake again:
Now the lake actually continues around a curve. Here's the over bit. It inclludes the shore where the temple of Diana was. In 1932, Mussolini ordered the entire lake drained so that two gigantic ships could be brought up from the deep. Everyone had known for millennia they were there - you could see their shadows lurking down there - but there was no other way to get them out of the water without destroying them. According to my host, what local legend had claimed they were before they were discovered: Orgy ships from Nero. What they actually were: built by Nero's uncle Caligula, but not as orgy ships, Caligula's reputation not withstanding. People discovered they had the exact same size as the sun ship buried on the foot of the Great Pyramids in Egypt. As Caligula had been in Egypt with his father, Germanicus, while a child, this led to a new theory and local Caligula rehabilitation, because the new theory is that he was actually attempting to promote Egyptian religion in Rome and that's why he got assassinated by the Roman upper class who was notoriously hostile towards Eastern cults. (No, I don't buy it, but that's the local theory.) Alas the ships themselves did not survive WWII, they burned, but they were photographed before that, and also the museum built around them is still there so you can see what size they were:
Driving onwards from Nemi to Rocco di Pappa, one can spot Rome in the far distance:
More to the point, though, one can see the next lake, Lago Albano. On the other side of which is Castel Gandolfo, the summer residence of the Popes. (It's also the roughly territory where Alba Longa was, the city Romuls and Remus' mother hails from.)
This is the entrace to the papal residence.
And here's Lago Albano as seen from Castel Gandolfo. The town on the other side is Rocco di Pappa.
Rocco di Pappa closer:
Pope Francis broke with tradition by declaring he did not need a summer residence (just as he never moved into the main papal rooms in the Vatican), which got a lot of the inhabitants of Castel Gandolfo very upset, because that town lives from tourism, and without a Pope around, the tourists stayed away. Francis then opened the papal gardens of Castel Gandolfo for the public, which brought the tourists back. Pope Leo does use Castel Gandolfo again - suppsedly he shows up every Tuesday - but the gardens arae still open to the public. Naturally, I visited them.
The Popes were definitely not the first to build at this magnificent site; which is why you find bits and pieces of an old imperial villa built by Domitian all over the park. Which is gigantic.
This insignia and motto (a quote by St. Augustine, "we are one in the one") is the one chosen by the current Pope, Leo XIV.
Domitian built the villa; the last Roman Emperor to reside here was Septimius Severus, aka the first African Emperor, who is depicted here:
Domitian left a theotre behind:
The gardens reminded me a bit of Versailles, especially these here:
I also visited the site of ancient Tusculum, another favourite home away from home spot for (rich) ancient Romans. Alas the archaeological site itself was closed, so I could see the ruins only from the outside, but I climbed up to the top of the mountain regardless, beauses the view over the Latium landscape from there was breathtaking.
Btw, here's Castel Gandolfo again, this time from the other (land) side:
And here are the digs where they wouldn't let me in:
Tusculum had its own theatre:
And because it was another very clear day, you could see Rome in the distance:
A bit below the archaeological site is the Villa Aldobrandini, and from its terrace you can have an even better view of Rome. It was clear enough that I could spot St. Peter and take a picture of it with my cell phone.
Domitian being Domitian, he also had himself built an arena in nearby Aricia:
And then I visited Rome itself.
First I went by the Protestant Cemetary. It is near the Aurelian Walls, and next the Pyramd of Cestius, an excentric Roman tribune who absolutely wanted a tomb in this shape. The old gate you see here is the Ostia Gate.
It is a cemetary for all non-Catholics, and when I was there in the 1990s, ithere was a cat on every other tombstone, but a while ago the city administration organized a mass castration campaign, and now there were only tow.
Some of the most famous dead buried here are Keats and Shelley.
Here's another view of Rome, this one from above Travestere:
I didn't stay on that side of the Tiber for long, though. On to some of the most famous squares. The Piazza del Fiore, where today stands a statue of Giardono Bruno, executed as an heretic. Very pointedly, the 19th century Italian revolutionaries who erected it let it face towards the Vatican:
And then we have the Piazza Navona with its magnificent fountain. And an obelisk. There are so many obelisks in Rome, I swear Augustus looted all he could move on Roman ships. (Well, thirteen of them anyway.)
And then you pass the Pantheon. Marcus Agrippa Fecit.
The Piazza Argentina includes some of the oldest remains on display in Rome. It's the "area sacra"; three temples were standing here and nobody could be certain to which gods they were dedicated, so they're known as Temple A, B and C. They hail from the early Republic. Nearby was also the place where the Senate met when Caesar was assassinated.
If you climb up the Capitol, the statue that greets is Marcus Aurelius:
You pass it, go right, and get the most wonderful view of the Forum Romanum:
Let's have some bits and pieces. This angle shows you the triumphal arc of Septimius Severus:
While this one allows you to glimpse the Triumphal Arc of Titus in the background:
But really, you need a panoramic photo to see it all:
Leaving the Forum Romanum behind, one passes of course the Colloseum.
And leaving the city behind, the Via Appia.
But I came back the next day. There were the Spanish Stairs to visit! (Also: more obelisks.) From above:
From below:
Lots of houses have roof gardens in Rome:
And then you get the occasional door and windows like this:
And streets and fountains galore
My host went to some of the more obscure churches with me.
In which you find tomb scullptures like these:
Someone was into sphinxes:
While I was visiting Rome, Pope Leo was visiting Africa. And getting attacked by the Orange Menace for preaching against the use of religion to justify war. The Romans were not impressed. They seem to be quite fond of their American Pope:
Back to ancient autocrats. The Mausoleum Augustus built for himself and in which most of the Julio-Claudian Emperors (that is, their ashes) ended up is currently getting renovated:
Of course, Augustus' mausoleum is overshadowed by the one Hadrian built for himself, and which the Popes then used as a fortress:
I couldn't leave Rome without at least one quick glimpse at St. Peter's Square:
Though the most original view of St. Peter was the one I then saw from the Piazza Garibaldli:
Said Piazza has another magnificant overview of the city:
Check out the roof of the Pantheon:
The Capitol:
The Palatine with its remains of the old imperial residences, and the nearby Circus Maximus:
And with one last Roman Panorama, I end this pic spam:
no subject
Date: 2026-04-30 07:53 pm (UTC)Gorgeous, gorgeous photos. Thank you for sharing!
no subject
Date: 2026-04-30 08:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-04-30 09:20 pm (UTC)