Churches of the Celian Hill, palaces of the Palatine - 1 April

April fool! Went to see one of my favourite places in Rome, the Parco Celimontana on the Celian Hill, but it was closed. The villa there is being restored, so the park was out of bounds too.  Instead I made a more thorough inspection of the nearby churches. The first is the church of S. Giovanni e Paolo, built over the original house of  these two early Christian martyrs. The church has parts from all eras, best is the Romanesque bell tower, a very nice example. Underneath the tower is the original house and ruins.

One side of the church is buttressed into the hillside with these brick arches.

Another large church here is San Gregorio, an imposing structure dating from the mid 1700's. 

The church was not open, but is part of a larger complex including a little old chapel next door, due to be renovated. Just in front of the chapel is a well-ended vegetable garden. Here in the middle of Rome, just a short walk from the Colosseum, is a country-style traditional vegetable garden, with rows of artichokes and spring cabbage all set out. Fruit trees include fig, apricot and peach. S. Gregorio has a monastery and guest house attached, so I guess this is their garden.

View of the Palatine Hill from S. Gregorio, over the vegetable garden

The over the road to the Palatine Hill, where the Roman aristocracy and the Imperial family had their homes. The picture above is of the end of the aqueduct that served the hillside villas, bringing fresh water all the way from the Alban Hills, a good 50 miles away. I didn't have time to visit this last time I was here.

Umbrella pines and the church of Ss. Giovanni e Paolo on the Celian Hill.

Among the villas were parks and pleasure gardens; this is what remains of one. The interp. board gives some idea of what it would have looked like.

Art students sketching the scene

Notice at the oldest part of the Palatine. Interesting that the oldest deities were female.

This is the ruin of Augustus' (who will always be Brian Blessed to me) palace; the best views and the coolest breezes in summer, and plenty of sun for those cold winter days.

A little Renaissance-style garden right at the top of the Hill

Then I walked down into the Forum. Above is what remains of the house of the Vestal Virgins, below a partial reconstruction of the Temple of Vesta, where the sacred fire was always kept lit (unless some silly novice let it go out). 

It's very hard to really appreciate now what the Forum would have looked like during the days of Rome's glory. I notice on this trip that a lot more areas are fenced off; in the past there's been a very easy-going attitude to the ruins, and when I visited the last time I was surprised how many people were just allowed to go anywhere on the site. Now there seems to be a more serious conservation ethic taking hold. Perhaps someone should reconstruct the Forum somewhere in the suburbs, a kind of Forum themepark to reduce wear and tear on the real one. I'm sure some enterprising Italian has already thought of this.

Back home to rest. It's been very hot today but the sightseeing must go on tomorrow.