One of the wonderful things about living in Rome is that you come upon fascinating things all the time when you're out walking the streets. Rome is a walkers' town, at least downtown, so it is easy to pause and enjoy some little bit of art or history that you wouldn't spot from inside a taxi or bus. Let me list of few of my favorites, some you may be familiar with, some not.
When my son was a kid this statue was his favorite. It sits in the square in front of the Santa Maria Sopra Minerva church, near the Pantheon, and is attributed to Bernini, one of the great sculptors of the 17th century. The obelisk carried by the elephant was discovered in 1665 when workers were digging near the church, but it dates to around 580 BC in the dynasty of the Pharaoh Apries.
This marble foot, a fragment of a large ancient statue, is a minute's walk from the elephant. You would think that it would be found near by on the eponymous Via del Pie di Marmo, the “street of the marble foot,” and in fact it was located there until 1878. That's when when the street found itself on the route of King Victor Emanuel II's funeral procession, so the foot was moved around the corner. The street name was left unchanged, thankfully.
Not too far from the foot is the Piazza di Sant' Ignazio, in front of the Jesuit church of the same name. If this building looks like a theater set, that's because it was designed that way in 1727, complete with “wings” on the sides to allow the cast to enter and exit. My protagonist's girl friend Betta knows it well, since it is now the headquarters of the Carabinieri's Nucleo Tutela Patrimonio Culturale, aka, the art police.
Only a few steps from there is this delightful guy, called the Fontanella del Facchino, or fountain of the porter, dating to the 16th century. But it really shows a water carrier, a separate profession, and according to tradition (which likely means it's not true) it is the image of a real guy from the period who hawked water in the neighborhood and was a popular character.
What do you do when it's the 20th century and you want to put up a building, but there's a bit of Rome's history on your lot which the city won't let you disturb? You build around and over it, of course. This is one of the last remaining pieces of the Servian Wall, built in the 4th century BC, found on a street very close to my former office at the American Embassy.
Finally, one of my all time favorites, the Palzzetto Zucari, on Via Gregoriana near the top of the Spanish Steps. It was once a private residence, but now houses the Herzian Library, part of the Max Planck Institute for Art History. When I was going somewhere in the neighborhood I often took a detour onto this street just so I could admire it.
Note: The photograph at the beginning of this post is not really of a monument to the Roman pedestrian, that's a joke. It is in fact a fragment of the colossal statue of Constantine, found in the courtyard of the Capitoline Museum along with other pieces of the emperor. If there is a monument to the Roman pedestrian somewhere in the city, I never found it.
As I usually write at the end of my posts, this substack is free, but the way you can support it is by getting one (or more) of my mysteries. Now there are nine of them and here's the complete list.. click here.
I knew that had to be a joke (!)