Aventine Hill

Our second day in Rome found us revising our theme of ancient sites. Max expressed an interest in seeing some of the green spaces of the city. The ancient city of Rome was built upon 7 hills which were all inside the original city wall. The two most frequently visited are the Capitoline, where we were the day before, and the Palatine. Unfortunately, or perhaps not, the Palatine can only be visited as part of the archaeological site. It is the place where the Emperors built their palaces and homes.

We set out, winding our way past the Roman Forum and Colosseum and entered the Aventino, home of the third most visited hill of Rome, the Aventine Hill. On our way there we passed the Circus Maximus, a huge, open field which originally housed a chariot race-course with seating for 150,000 spectators. While not much remains of the original structure, they are undertaking excavations and it appears as though there will eventually be some sort of visitor site at the eastern end.

The circus is in a small valley between the Capitoline and Aventine Hills. Ruins of the lower portions of the palaces on the Palatine are easily seen as you begin up the slopes of the Aventine.

The Aventine Hill is actually quite small. In ancient times it was a place where many foreigners lived, including many Greeks who visited. It is still has a distinctly foreign flavor and is one of Amy’s favorite places in Rome. The Parco Savello, an orange grove next to the Chiesa di Santa Sabina, offers some of the best views of the city you can find. The Tiber flows just under the base of the park.

The waters are still quite high, but have receded somewhat from the flooding seen a month or so ago. At least now the bicycle path which borders the river isn’t flooded. From there you also get a very nice view of the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica.

One of the unique views of the city is found a few doors down from Santa Sabina at a building owned by the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Looking through a keyhole in the door, you see a tree lined path which looks out over Rome and provides a perfectly framed view of St. Peter’s Dome. Thus, you are able to view three sovereign nations through a single keyhole. Pretty nifty, but damnably hard to get a decent picture of due to the multiple layers of focus and the fact that you are shooting through a literal keyhole with a line of people impatiently waiting behind you. We wound our way off the hill

and headed for the street market at the Porta Portese. This famous market is held only on Sunday’s and we timed our trip to be able to see it. It was, unfortunately, a complete bust. It was essentially the Viterbo Saturday market on steroids. I guess if you were looking for that kind of stuff you wouldn’t have been disappointed, but we were. A bus ride along the river brought us to L’Orso 80, our favorite lunch spot, for their antipasti extravaganza. We followed that up with a stop at Giolitti, a well known gelateria near Piazza Novona.

A stop by the Piazza di Spagna to see the Spanish steps and a walk home completed our day.