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images: awl images |
HISTORY
Relics, cloisters, sacred shrines and monuments are abundant in the city that was, according to myth, founded by brothers Romulus and Remus. Avoid the crowds by heading out early on a 2.5-mile walking tour led by art historian and fitness instructor Isabella Calidonna of ArcheoRunning. The first stop is the foot of the Spanish Steps, where Isabella points out the Fontana della Barcaccia(‘ Fountain of the Boat’), a work started by renowned sculptor Pietro that was completed, after his death in 1629, by his son Gian Lorenzo. The marble vessel marks the spot where the flooded River Tiber deposited a fishing boat on Christmas Day in 1598.
Continue on to Via dei Condotti, one of the most fashionable streets in Rome, home to a wealth of luxury boutiques and highend stores, with celebrated Italian brands represented here including Prada, Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo and Dolce & Gabbana. At 86 Via dei Condotti is Antico Caffè Greco, the oldest coffeehouse in Rome, which, over the years has hosted such literary luminaries as Mark Twain, Hans Christian Andersen, Ralph Waldo Emerson and James Joyce.
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On your way to Piazza Navona and its trio of baroque fountains, stop to admire open-air archaeological site Largo di Torre Argentina, home to four temples dating to the second and third centuries BCE. Covering a city block, its crumbling columns, decaying frescoes and a bust of the fertility goddess Feronia can be seen from a sidewalk vantage point. The campus doubles as a sanctuary for a contingent of Rome’ s stray cats. Conclude the tour at Piazza Navona, which is home to the ruins of the Stadium of Domitian, which once upon a time hosted Olympic-style competitions. Make a leisurely loop to behold its spectacular centrepiece, the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi(‘ Fountain of the Four Rivers’), designed in 1651 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, as well as the beautifully carved Fountain of Neptune and Fountain of the Moor.
ART
For more Bernini, head to the Galleria Borghese art gallery. Housed in the 16thcentury former Villa Borghese Pinciana, set in the sprawling Borghese Gardens Park, the collection features important works by both Bernini and painter Caravaggio.
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From left: Interior of Saint Peter’ s Basilica, Vatican City; Pons Fabricius, the oldest Roman bridge in Rome Previous pages, from left: Villa Borghese gardens; Fountain of the Moor, Piazza Navona |
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spring 2025 • 79 |