FOUNTAIN OF THE TURTLES

Exiting Il Gesu, cross the street with the traffic light, turn left down the Celsa alley, then right on V. d. Botteghe Oscure, a wide, busy street you want to cross as soon as you reach Largo Argentina, using the traffic light and crosswalk. This brings you into a widened alley called “Piazza della Enciclopedia Italiana” which leads in one block to a delightful surprise, the beautiful Fountain of the Turtles.

This Renaissance fixture of four life-size naked youths standing on giant seashells in the Piazza Mattei was designed by Giacomo della Porta, who also created the façade of il Gesu just visited, and is responsible for many of Rome’s prettiest fountains. Each bronze lad has one foot on a big fish and is boosting a turtle at the upper fountain to help them into the water.

The small Piazza Mattei was center of a noble residential complex owned by the Mattei family with palaces all around, including one you can enter, the Palazzo Mattei di Giove, featuring a lovely courtyard surrounded by a double loggia faced with dozens of classical statues.

Discovering hidden spaces like this is one of the joys of taking time to walk in these little lanes. Designed by Carlo Maderno, the last major architect of St. Peter’s, this palace is home to the Center for American Studies where you might see some students who speak English, so this would be a perfect place for a chat, perhaps breaking the ice by asking them a simple question like “what is this building?” Striking up a conversation with Romans can lead to rewarding experiences and is easy if done the right way. Basic hints: young locals are more likely to speak English than older folks; people in a hurry don’t want to stop and talk; open the conversation with a simple word in Italian like “scusi.” You have learned a dozen basic Italian words, si? It pays to be a little outgoing: you might get you a cold shoulder, or a brief chat, or extended discussion over coffee….

PIAZZA CAMPITELI

Before crossing the street consider another 10-minute detour, walking two blocks into Piazza Campitelli on your left to visit the fine church of Santa Maria in Campitelli. In the square there is the fountain of the same name of the Acqua Felice built in 1589 to a design by Giacomo della Porta. The small Piazza Campiteli, two blocks east (150m) is mostly a parking lot, but also has a lovely church and a few excellent restaurants. The church of Santa Maria In Campiteli was erected by Carlo Rainaldi under Alexander VII. in 1655-67 on the site of an earlier church, to provide a more worthy shelter for the miraculous image of the Virgin, to which the cessation of the plague in 1656 was ascribed. The interior is built with lovely gray stone that forms several triumphal arches which get progressively smaller as they reached the altar.

The picturesque facade with its numerous columns and crossettes should be noticed. This church tapers to a point at the back, but this irregularity has been most skilfully masked by the architect, who has so designed a kind of ‘preliminary’ transept as to produce the impression that, beyond the handsome projecting columns, there is another and more spacious transept. 

An interesting optical illusion is created by that design making the church seemed longer than it really is. Over the altar is the masterpiece of the church, a painting of the Madonna said to have miraculous properties, surrounded by a golden burst of angels. At the far end of this piazza is another one of Rome’s best restaurants, Vecchia Roma.

GHETTO

Continue into the “Ghetto” neighborhood, which is not a slum but the historic section where Rome’s Jews lived in the Middle Ages. It still retains a medieval feeling so typical of the many hidden nooks and crannies of the city. Crooked cobbled alleys lead from one little space to another -- a palace here, a church there.

Walk from Piazza Mattei through the narrow alley exiting the southeast corner, reaching Via del Portico d’Ottavia, the main road of this small neighborhood, which still has some Jewish character today as seen in the windows of kosher shops displaying the Star of David.

This is a classic residential neighborhood where you are bound to see locals sitting around, mamas with kids, seniors standing on the corner talking or perhaps sitting at one of the small outdoor tables at a café along the sidewalk. It is like a small village, a haven of tranquility in the middle of the busy city. Life in the streets is relished in human-scale neighborhoods like this where people are happy to pass their time relaxing, sitting, and watching you go by.

Toward the end of this block on the left you will find one of Rome’s excellent restaurants, Giggeto, famous for fried artichokes and other dishes of Roman Jewish cuisine, along with the full range of Italian foods you would expect. They deep fry the artichoke and then you eat the whole thing, leaves and all. I suggest Italy’s finest beverage, Brunello di Montalcino, but don’t drink the whole bottle by yourself (it’s that tasty); or if that’s too expensive, try Rosso di Montalcino, from the same region and Sangiovese grape, only younger. Sit indoors or outside next to the impressive Roman ruins, the Portico of Octavia.

PORTICO of OCTAVIA

Portico of Octavia is one of those amazing ancient ruins that pops up seemingly in the middle of a street, still standing tall, looking good 2000 years later. As usual, most of the original structure is gone but there is enough remaining to indicate this was a truly impressive and major building, so use your imagination to visualize the extent of the entire complex. It was first constructed in 146 BC by Quintus Metellus, and then rebuilt in the first century AD by Rome’s greatest emperor, Augustus, dedicated to his sister, Octavia, who maintained her library and temple there.

“Portico” meant colonnade, and sure enough, it was originally a large rectangular arcade. The principal entrance consisted of a double colonnade with eight Corinthian columns, of which three in the inner, and two in the outer row are still standing. To the right and left of this were double rows of 14 columns each, while there were at least 40 columns in a row at the sides. The entire colonnade, with its 300 columns, enclosed rectangular space, within which stood temples of Jupiter and Juno. It was adorned with many admirable works of art which formed part of the Macedonian booty.

It was maintained and renovated by later emperors including Septimus Severus and Caracalla. It survived for 2000 years because during the Middle Ages it was used as a fish market and then a church was built here, Sant’Angelo in Pescheria, where the Jews who lived in the adjacent Ghetto were compelled to attend Christian services on their Sabbath.

Anyplace that has been actively utilized, maintained and managed over thousands of years, has a good chance to survive until today. This large complex has now been reduced to a few walls and broken fragments, but the façade, triangular pediment and some columns still stand, giving us an idea of the original grandeur. Notice in the back wall broken columns are placed horizontally into the structure as recycled building materials after they were no longer standing columns.

These ancient ruins have recently been renovated and have a zigzag ramp you can walk down to get a closer view looking up at the façade. This walkway continues to the adjacent Teatro di Marcello if you follow the path for a minute.

However, before walking in that direction, consider a short detour two blocks south to the Tiber River for a look at the oldest bridge in Rome, the Ponte Fabricio, built in 62 BC. This graceful span leads to an island in the middle of the river, Isola Tiberina, but you don’t need to cross the bridge to appreciate its beauty. The original building materials of marble, bricks and travertine are intact today and the bridge is still used for pedestrian traffic.

TEATRO MARCELLO

Continue with a visit to Teatro di Marcello (or Theater of Marcellus), just past the Portico of Octavia, easily reached via the new footpath connecting these two sites. This impressive building looks like a smaller version of the Colosseum with its rounded shape and three tall levels of columns and arches, but it is older and instead of a complete circle this building was a semicircle with much of it still standing today.

It was started by Caesar and completed in 13 BC by Augustus as an outdoor theater that could hold 13,000 people for various dramatic performances. Not only is it still standing, but the upper floors are still in use as luxury modern apartments for millionaires. No public access is allowed except for viewing the beautiful exterior. What you cannot see inside are two delightful garden courtyards where the stage used to be on the river side of the building.

Departing Marcello, the footpath now begins an uphill tilt leading to the street, Via del Teatro di Marcello. Before leaving the site turn around and have a look back at the theater for the very best angle which reveals the overall shape of the structure. This offers another great photo backdrop for one of your personal snapshots, putting yourself in the picture. It often pays to look back at a site as you are walking away because that might provide the best view. When walking our view is usually restricted to things in front of us rather than behind, and yet a street can look different if you stop and look back. Sometimes walkers feel it is a waste of time if they return the same way they came, retracing their steps – feeling they have already seen these sights and want to always see something different. But really it is impossible to see everything the first time, and when you look at a street or a site from a different angle, it can seem new again. Sometimes backtracking is necessary for navigating purposes, so take advantage of the new perspectives offered.

Resume the walk now on Via del Teatro Marcello, a wide busy street with no traffic light to help you across. Stand by the faded pedestrian crosswalk painted into the street surface and patiently wait for a break in the traffic. Cars, trucks and buses zoom by this curved hill very quickly, so you do not want to blindly use the crosswalk and assume that vehicles will come to a screeching halt for you. Soon enough, a traffic lull will give you a chance to easily make the crossing, [Roman style, don’t run, don’t slow down, don’t look, just walk steadily across] then turn left continuing uphill.

Walk a few minutes up this busy Via del Teatro di Marcello and notice the crumbling brick structures behind the fence on your right, which provide a glimpse at the type of ancient apartments once common in the city. You might even feel a cool breeze, perhaps wafting from underground grottoes which the ancients excavated in the nearby Palatine Hill to escape summer’s heat. In a few minutes you reach the broad staircase on the right leading to the Capitoline Hill.

Continue Walk 2 to the Capitoline Hill and Forum.