Pedaling through the cycle paths of Rome – Cristina Galardini’s Vlog.
As always, if you haven’t seen the previous episode, here’s the link.
After refreshing ourselves to the “big nose”, the public fountains in Roma as they are affectionately called, we start our video along the bicycle path Caracalla-Eur starts from Via di Porta Capena. On the right side before to see the famous Terme of Caracalla we walk along the stadium of the Terme of Caracalla.
It was inaugurated on 24 May 1939. The works began in 1936/1937 as part of the renovation of the Porta Capena area for the construction of the Italian Ministry of Africa and the positioning of the Axum obelisk.
The plant was named Vittorio Polacco. In 1950 the stadium was renovated for the XVII Olympiad Game, take would take place in Rome from 25 August to 11 September 1960.
The stadium was used as a training center for athletes engaged in the event. In 2002 the plant was renovated again and was named at journalist and commentator Nando Martellini. Terme of Caracalla or Antoniniane by the full name of the Emperor Caracalla, belonging to the Severi dynasty, constitute one of the most grandiose examples of Imperial baths in Rome.
Most of their structure is still preserved without modern buildings. The construction of the complex was started in 206 by Settimio Severo, founder of the Severi dynasty on Piccolo Aventino from 212 to 216 A.D. in the adjacent area to the initial stretch of the Via Appia, about 400 mt outside the ancient Capena gate and just south of the venerated Camene wood.
The baths were inaugurated in 216 by his son Caracalla, ascended to the throne in 211, without that the works were finished. These public baths were the most imposing ever built in the Roman Empire until the inauguration of the Terme di Diocleziano (306).
They served mainly the residents of the I, II and XII Augustan region (The area between Celio, Aventino and Circo Massimo) In 2016 the museum circuit of the Terme di Caracalla, the tomb of Cecilia Metella and Villa dei Quintili was the twenty-sixth most visited Italian site, with 268 449 visitors and a total amount of 947 556.00 Euro.
Did you ever spy on San Pietro from a keyhole? It’s not a madness, it’s one of the many curiosities you’ll discover coming to visit Rome… clearly it’s not a normal keyhole.
To find it you will have to climb on Colle Aventino and I can guarantee you it is not an easy climb. All around you will find some of the most famous attractions of Rome: Roseto Comunale, Giardino degli aranci, the splendid medieval churches and the keyhole of the priory of the Knights of Malta.
The current appearance is made by Giovanni Battista Piranesi who restored it in the second half of the eighteenth century. The gate is inserted in the structure of the Villa of the Priory of Malta, on the square of the Knights of Malta on the Lungotevere Aventino.
The villa is on the area that was a Benedictine monastery founded in 939 that passed to the Templars in the 12th century but was stolen by Clemente V and finally the Pope Paolo II took possession in 1400 who granted it to the sovereign military order of Malta.
If you follow the neoclassical wall, decorated with obelisks and military trophies, you will find a door and looking inside you will see in perspective the dome of San Pietro. At the end of the garden avenue, framed ad hoc by some arches of vegetation, a magical atmosphere for one of the most magical curiosities of Roma.
We go back down… and we arrive to Giardino degli Aranci, a name to indicate park Savello, a park of Roma about 7,800 m², located on the Aventino hill, in the Ripa district, from which you can enjoy an excellent view of the city. The garden, as it currently stands, was built in 1932 by the architect Raffaele De Vico.
After the new urban definition of the Aventino, in the area where the Dominican fathers held the garden that had been planned to allocate at public park. So, to offer free access to the view from that side of the hill, creating a new Roman viewpoint, in addition to the viewpoint already existing Pincio and Gianicolo.
We can’t forget the scene of the film “La grande bellezza” by Paolo Sorrentino, where a masterful metaphor reminds us that Roma is so beautiful that you can die watching it.
