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Informazioni Turistiche -
Discovering Rome
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Discovering Rome
Along the Tiber (full day)
This itinerary unwinds along the Tiber, always a characteristic element of the Roman landscape. Up until the construction of the embankments, in the late 19th century, it was completely navigable and characterised by an unending sequence of buildings that faced onto and were reflected in the water.
The river was used for fishing and bathing; the water was used to drink and for motive power.
Today, from late spring through early autumn, an atmospheric river navigation service between the Ponte del Foro Italico and Ponte Umberto I (tel. 064463481) is offered. On the other hand, for bicycle lovers there is a bike lane between Ponte Flaminio and Ponte Risorgimento.
Our walk starts from the Isola Tiberina, which was of exceptional importance in the history of the birth and development of Rome.
In fact, starting in extremely ancient times, the island's presence facilitated the crossing of the river, leading to the building of the first permanent settlements on the surrounding high ground.
According to ancient tradition, the island was allegedly formed in the late 6th century A.D. after the Etruscan kings were driven from Rome, when the people threw into the river, out of contempt for the monarchy, the wheat harvested on the royal properties of Campus Martius. Another legend tells of a large boat grounded in the middle of the river during a flood, and later filled up with sand transported by the current.
In reality the island is situated on an ancient volcanic rock core similar to that on which the nearby Capitol stands, but the shape actually does seem to resemble a ship. This did not escape the attention of the Romans who, in the 1st century B.C., accentuated the shape, modelling the island's sides with travertine and raising an obelisk in the centre, like a majestic mast. This "stone ship" was meant to commemorate the healthful ship of Aesculapius, the god of medicine, and his miraculous intervention.
Legend has it that in the 3rd century B.C., during a plague, the Romans went by ship to Epidaurus, in Greece, to learn from the god Aesculapius how to escape the scourge. But when the returning ship was ascending the river, the god's sacred serpent slipped out of it, at the point where the island was, indicating that that island was to be consecrated to him.
The construction of a building sacred to the god Aesculapius, where the present-day church of San Bartolomeo now stands, determined the definitive destination of the island to a place of medical treatment, also facilitated by its position segregated from the residential centre. Today, still, the Fatebenefratelli Hospital is the building which occupies the island almost entirely, characterising it deeply.
A historic trattoria of the isola Tiberina is Sora Lella, at Via di Ponte dei Quattro Capi 16, which belonged to the sister of Roman actor Aldo Fabrizi.
The island is connected to the mainland by two bridges: the Cestio, connecting it with the Trastevere bank, and the Fabricio, or Ponte dei Quattro Capi, which was built in 62 B.C. and is the oldest bridge in Rome which has arrived to us practically intact. From the island it is also possible to see a third bridge, the Ponte Rotto, which collapsed in the late 16th century. In the past the Ponte Fabricio was called Ponte dei Giudei (Bridge of Jews) because it joined the Isola Tiberina to the area of the Ghetto where Rome's Jews lived.
The term "Ghetto" is used to indicate the quarter lying between Monte dei Cenci and the Theatre of Marcellus, lying entirely within the Sant'Angelo district. It was founded by Pope Paul IV Carafa in 1555, and abolished only in 1870, with the end of the Church State. It was surrounded by a wall in which there were three gates, opened in the morning and closed at dusk. In an area of approximately three hectares, in the 17th century around 9,000 inhabitants lived there in frightful sanitary conditions.
The Ghetto faces onto the Lungotevere Cenci with the monumental building of the Synagogue, built in 1904,today also the seat of the Israelite Museum of the Jewish Community of Rome.
Behind the Synagogue runs the Via del Portico d'Ottavia, which owes its name to the ruins of the ancient portico built at the end of the 1st century B.C. by the Emperor Augustus for his sister.
Inside part of the monument stands the church of Sant'Angelo in Pescheria, so-called in reference to the important fish market held here from the Middle Ages up to the end of the 19th century. The stone tablet used in the market to remind customers of the obligation to give the Municipal Magistrates the heads of any fish whose length was longer than that of the tablet itself is still there.
The church of Sant'Angelo was one of the four churches where Jews had to go every Saturday with the obligation of listening to the sermons aiming to convert them. It was possible to avoid doing so by paying a fine, but more often the Jews preferred to fill their ears with wax!
Today the Ghetto is one of the zones of Rome which, more than any other, has kept the physiognomy, aromas, and flavours of the old city: for a taste of the specialities of authentic Roman and Jewish cooking - carciofi alla giudia (crisp-fried whole artichokes), filetti di baccal |
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