Via Salaria Vetus

Today, we had our second walking tour of the semester. This time, our tour traced another ancient road into Rome, the Via Salaria Vetus. In ancient times, the Via Salaria Vetus stretched from the city gate of Porta Pinciana to the forum, where it ended under the arch of Septimus Severus.

We began our walk at the Porta Pinciana, which provides the first proof that the the Porta, or gate, came after the road, as the path of the city wall is cut by the entrance of the gate at a different angle from the rest of the wall (photo).

From the city gate, we walked down the Via di Porta Pinciana past Via Venuto, which was the trendy, glitzy "hollywood" area of Rome in the 1960s, and where Federico Fellini set a lot of his movies. Next, we passed what was the Villa Medici, which is today the French Academy.

Contiuing south, we made a detour to visit the church of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte, which is a church that was constructed by Borromini. This church is particularly interesting because the church did not have a lot of money, and thus most of the columns and ornamentation are created using brick (photo). Inside the church are two angels sculpted by Borromini's great rival Bernini, who lived and worked in the building across the street from the church. There is a plaque on the side of the church commemorating Bernini's life here (photo).

From here, we walked south past the Acqua Vergine, the Acqueduct that ends with the Trevi Fountain. This ancient acqueduct was revitalized in the Renaissance by Pope Nicholas V. Most acqueducts in Rome end with a great fountain showpiece known as a mostra; in this case, the mostra is the Trevi Fountain. Near the Trevi fountain, we observed a new tradition that has been popping up in Rome. Apparently, a movie was released last year in Italy that involved a love story where sweethearts wrote their name on a lock, locked the lock on a bridge, and threw the key into the Tiber river. Now, locks have been appearing on bridges and near all sorts of bodies of water in Rome, including the Trevi fountain (photo). If you're interested, here is the trailer of the movie.


As we continued south, we also passed the Church of the Twelve Apostles and the Palazzo Colonna, the Palace of an influential family from the Renaissance. The Church of the Apostles was the Parish Church of Michaelangelo when he lived in Rome, and it was the place where his body was originally buried before it was moved to Florence, his hometown. Today, you can still see the relief behind which his body was originally buried (photo). Very close to the Palazzo Colonna is the Piazza Venezio. While this area was radically changed in the 1930's during Mussolini's reign, the Palazzo Venezia, built in 1455, remains unchanged. During Mussolini's reign, he used the Palace as his offices, and gave many speeches from a balcony facing the Piazza. However on the other side of the Piazza Venezia, the Monument to Victor Emmanuele II, built in 1895, is one of the newer buildings in Rome.

Our walk finally ended by the forum, in front of the arch of Septimus Severus. This arch led into the forum of Rome and, in ancient times, marked the end of the Via Salaria Vetus.