Quando a Roma...Parte 4 (quattro)

So, after Borromini's San Carlino, we were supposed to walk a little ways down Via del Quirinale to see a church built by Bernini - Sant'Andrea al Quirinale. Unfortunately, the church was closed for some restoration work - apparently it was open the Saturday before, so Simona had no idea, besides the fact that things are regularly randomly (I think that's an oxymoron) shut down in Rome for restoration. There was, however, a floorplan of the church outside, so she told us a bit about it even though we didn't get to see it. This church was built after Borromini's San Carlino (and just down the street from it) and is basically Bernini ("Mr. Beautiful") trying to one-up Borromini. But as I've said before, Bernini was not the architectural master of the period, and he kind of stole Borromini's San Carlino ideas. In fact, Sant'Andrea is also covered by an elliptical dome. However, in Bernini's church, you walk along the minor axis to get to the altar and even just looking at the floor plan, you can tell it is not as effective as San Carlino at leading you towards the altar. Also, in typical Bernini style, it is full of colored stone and marble, and it is very lavish (I looked some pictures up online since I didn't get to go inside - but hopefully I can stop inside this weekend!).

The exterior of la chiesa. Kind of an awkward picture since I didn't have time to cross the street, but oh well! (also, originally, I mistakenly posted this as the exterior of San Carlino in Parte 3 - I never actually took a picture of the exterior of San Carlino)

So the Quirinale is one of the "Seven Hills of Rome" and also the president's house. Due to Italy's political past, the Quirinale has actually housed all manner of rulers from popes to kings to presidents, and it is apparently the most expensive house in the world for the political leader of a country. (I suspect every time power changed hands, someone had to leave their mark architecturally.) In any event basically all of Via del Quirinale is lined on one side with this monstrous mansion. Simona told us a bit of Italian political history as we walked down the road. Italy was originally a bunch of little kingdoms and was finally united under one king in 1861. In 1946, Italy became a republic. Simona says that she thinks that people at the time of the crossover weren't very well educated about what was happening with their government, but she is happy to have been born into a democracy. She also said that the president is more of a figurehead and that the prime minister does most of the work (although he doesn't have all the powers the president has, so I guess he does the work and then makes suggestions to the president? I don't know, we didn't go into the details that much!) Also, as of something like 2 or 3 years ago, a law was passed that allows the royal family to come back to Italy, but obviously not with any political power.

This is as close as the guard would let Mariana and me get to take a picture of the gardens of the Quirinale - apparently they are open once a year.

The entrance to the Quirinale - a little imposing, I'd say!

Views of the Piazza del Quirinale, from the entrance to the Quirinale.



If you're facing the Quirinale, this is on the right, and I think Simona said it is where the royal family stays when they're in Rome.

Our next stop was the Trevi Fountain. This place is basically a fusion of the Baroque with the Neoclassical. A fountain has actually been here since ancient times, and it contains the purest water in Rome. Almost everything is carved out of travertine (travertine is a very popular stone is Rome), and it has a nautical mythology theme - we've got Neptune and sea horses erupting out of the waves, barnacles carved everywhere, etc. Apparently it was intended to be a painting with water. It is also about the contrast of the natural and the man-made - obviously all of the statues do not look real, but then you walk over to one side where you can't quite see the statues, and you do see the rough travertine with maybe a few barnacles carved in and the water gushing out, and you almost feel like you are looking at a real tide pool. Very cool and interesting (and my friend Jackie's favorite place in the whole world - so here's to you Jackie!)

Jackie said that if you throw a coin with your right hand over your left shoulder into the fountain, you're destined to return to Rome some day! In any event Simona said that all the money that is thrown into the fountain is used to help the homeless of the city. Guards are even posted at night to prevent people from stealing it!

Obviously, there are always people who dislike new pieces of art. When the Trevi was built, there was a barber on the street who hated it and didn't want to look at it, so the pot that you see in the middle of the picture was sculpted to block his view (if you click on the image, you can get a better view of it; the backside of the pot is almost exactly centered in the picture). With art, there's always something!

Off to the side of the Trevi; this is the natural look I was talking about.