VaviTour - Rome Tour Guide

Art pill 🖼— Valentine’s edition ❤️
Among the most famous paintings by Raphael, La Fornarina has been considered for centuries the last and the most beloved woman by the painter and identified as a Trastevere Baker’s daughter who was thought to be Raphael lover. Whoever she was, we will never know, historians actually think she’d rather be an idealized representation of beauty, we would say The Beauty herself, the painter extremely perfect idea of beauty that was all in his mind. Not a real woman. I know, it’s kind of sad because we’d love to know Raphael’s most beloved woman, looking in her eyes, but the truth is that she might represent the sum of all his lovers (as far as we know from his life, not really few women!) a condensed pure beauty that would synthesized them all. Isn’t it even better?! Maybe she didn’t exist but she will exist in the history of art forever.
❤️Happy Valentine’s Day!❤️

Palazzo Zuccari is one of the most famous and mysterious examples of late XVI century architecture inspired by Manierism and the monster-like decorations are for sure references to those in the Bomarzo gardens. The monster doorway in Zuccari’s mind wanted to represent some sort of Dante’s “Inferno” gate, a way to surprise and frighten the visitors of his palazzo, ready to enjoy the instead Paradisiac gardens once inside. The painter Zuccari spent all his life and money to built this amazing studio-palazzo!

I let Saint Teresa explain her intensely “spiritual experience” of being visited by an Angel and filled by the love of God:
“This he plunged into my heart several times so that it penetrated to my entrails. When he pulled it out I felt that he took them with it, and left me utterly consumed by the great love of God. The pain was so severe that it made me utter several moans. The sweetness caused by this intense pain is so extreme that one cannot possibly wish it to cease, nor is one's soul content with anything but God. This is not a physical but a spiritual pain, though the body has some share in it—even a considerable share”.

The immense romanticism of the Tiber river will enchant you during a sunset relaxing walking by the water, discovering the most beautiful and historic bridges of Rome and unexpected pictures of its skyline. And remember: Saint Peter’s dome will be your polar star 🌟

The holiness of this church in the heart of Trastevere, thought to be the first ever dedicated to Maria, cannot be compared with many other churches: the golden mosaics both on the outside facade and above the altar place are unique examples of a passage time between the bizantine style and the new style spreading in Rome thanks to the artist Cavallini, protagonist as Giotto of a brand new era in Italy. Also the Romanesque church tower is remarkable and it hosts another mosaic icon of Virgin Mary & Child.

Are you looking for a romantic terrace overlooking Rome for a special event to celebrate or for a wedding proposal 💍 ? Ask me the best rooftop restaurants or best aperitivo with a view🍸...memories that you won’t forget!

🖼 Art pills: 💊
Bernini’s Pluto in the famous “Rape of Proserpina” sculptural group has an impressive muscular body, anatomically perfect, somehow too perfect to be real but also too real to not be perfect.
Bernini’s inspiration for this specific body concept is for sure Michelangelo and his obsession for the muscular male body, studied in every single inch and in every minimal expression, nerves reaction or muscle tension. I mean: that’s exactly how a human body reacts standing in that position and lifting up a weight that is way light for the strength of him. The way the genius of Bernini was able to carve those muscles out of the hard marble and how he achieve to give Pluto’s skin the illusion of being alive is almost impossible to explain. This is one of those cases in art that we should just say: it speaks by itself.

🏛Classics:
The Egyptian lions in Piazza de Popolo are part of the great architectural project of Giuseppe Valadier who redesigned the entire square in early 1800. The white marble lions, with their stylish Egyptian attitude, remember the strong link between Rome and Egypt for all the long Roman history, remarked by the colossal obelisk standing next to them, an original Egyptian obelisk brought by Augustus to Rome few years before the birth of Christ. They welcome travelers entering the north gate of Rome - Popolo Gate - and celebrate the timeless Roman love for Egypt.
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Black eagle & golden dragon: the crest of the Borghese family dominates all their properties, so it’s pretty easy to bump into one of them strolling around. Their fame and power arose enormously during the XVII century with the Pope Paul V Borghese and his adopted nephew Scipione, owner and creator of the famous collection that we still admire at the Borghese Gallery.
The Borghese family still exists and the main branch of the family lives in a wing of the still private Borghese Palace, in the Spanish square area.
🔍Vignette: Pope Paul V Borghese was nicknamed “Fontefice” from the Italian term “pontefice” that means Pope but switching the initial into “font” from “fountain” to remember the many fountains he built all over the city.

Water pureness! 💧
Since Roman Times the city treasure is the spring water literally spilling over into thousands of fountains in every corner of the city. Not talking about the popular big fountains like Trevi o Bernini’s in Navona square but of those small fountains and pipes that you’ll bump into when strolling in the center. For centuries they quenched the citizens when people were not used to have tap water at home so they could enjoy for free. It’s hard for us to comprehend the value of something so precious but also so obvious nowadays. This amazing water abundance in Rome is also thanks to the Romans who built and developed 11 different aqueducts that distributed fresh water all over the center, one of them still functioning today.