The Eternal City— timeless yet ever-vibrant—commemorates its mythical founding each April 21st marked by elaborate parades, theatrical performances and historical re-enactments showcasing the rituals of ancient Rome. Better known, when in Rome, as Natale di Roma, these special festivities (a 3-day affair) speak to the city’s multi-millennia legacy as a cradle of Western civilization.
Today’s “Postcards” serves as an homage to the singular city of seven hills once known as Caput Mundi—Latin for “head of the world.”
Few civilizations have left as indelible a mark as that of ancient Rome. The streets of the city are paved with history and myth that still invite to take a journey back in time to a civilization whose scale and ambition seem almost superhuman: the imposing grandeur of the Colosseum; aqueducts that snake like arteries; and roads that extend like a sophisticated nervous system, all emanating from Roma.
Roman architecture is an eternal wonder. The Pantheon, more than any other structure, transcends its materials to make a statement both of grandeur and grace. It speaks to a civilization whose combined practicality and design genius redefined space and defied time.
The Rome of Christendom attests to another great history and awe-inspiring spiritual venture. At its center is St Peter’s Basilica, with its double colonnade and an elliptical piazza in front and bordered by palaces and gardens. It is the largest ecclesiastical structure in the world, the fruit of the combined genius of Bramante, Raphael, Michelangelo and Bernini
In the seventeenth century, Rome became the ultimate testament to Catholic majesty and triumph as expressed in all the arts. Baroque architects, artists, and urban planners so magnified and invigorated the classical and ecclesiastical traditions of the city that it became for centuries afterward the acknowledged capital of the European art world—not only a magnet for tourists and artists but also a font of inspiration throughout the Western world.
Today Rome’s particular vibrance derives from how the city’s multi-layered illustrious past and fashionable present so harmoniously coexist in its fascinating and varied neighborhoods that attract young and old the world over.
From the Centro Storico areas such as Campo Marzio to Prati and Monti, and from the Trastevere, now one of Rome’s most beautiful and beloved neighborhoods, to the Testaccio, for diehard foodies, Rome hums with a unique vivacity.
Off the tourist radar is the fantastical Art Nouveau Coppedè District located just north of the city center. Its fountains and villas were designed solely by Gino Coppedè who drew inspiration from ancient Greek, Baroque, Medieval, neoclassical, and Gothic styles—a milestone of eclecticism—well worth an afternoon of exploration.
For the past three decades Natale di Roma has been celebrated by the Gruppo Storico Romano, a historical dramatic society that re-enacts battles, gladiator fights, costumed processions, Roman rituals and displays of ancient theater and dance. The theme of this year’s Natale di Roma festival is Regina Viarum, a reference to the Appian Way—the “queen of roads”— for which Italy is currently seeking UNESCO World Heritage status.
Nothing quite surpasses the grandeur of the Eternal City this time of year and it is difficult to recall a single person who has had a greater influence on the look and life of a city than Baroque genius Gian Lorenzo Bernini has had on Rome.
Sculptor, urban planner, architect, master of stagecraft and gesture, Bernini engenders awe in the beholder with his exuberant style.
Connecting the Eternal City to Vatican City is the Pont Sant’ Angelo, one of the most serenely beautiful bridges in the world. Bernini designed it as a “living” Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) to help pilgrims emotionally experience in the suffering of Jesus.
Bernini was able to transcend his preferred medium of marble to achieve visual and emotive effects never before imagined. A visit to the Borghese Gallery for me is always a “must” when in Rome. The astonishing Apollo and Daphne, Rape of Proserpina, and his David were all completed before he was 25 years old!
From 1667 on, pilgrims to St. Peter’s arrive at the grand elliptical piazza with its two burbling fountains and an Egyptian obelisk standing at its center and at the far end the façade of monumental Basilica. The piazza itself is encircled by two colossal Doric colonnades four columns deep with a total of 140 statues of saints lining it’s rooftop. This momentous piece of urban planning and architecture was the product of Bernini’s imagination; figuratively speaking he designed his colonnade to embrace pilgrims with in his words, “the maternal arms of mother church”
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