venerdì 29 giugno 2018

Roman mistery tour step #2 Emperor Nero's grave



Let's talk about the tomb of Emperor Nero.
You all know about his madness (even though Nero was not as crazy as the historians wrote)  and he died suicidal.
His nurses decided to bury him at the Colle degli Ortuli, next to Piazza del Popolo, and planted a walnut tree on his grave.
Legends tell that a horde of demons chose this place for their usual gathering. 
During the course of the years even the Roman witches decided to organize their sabbaths in this place. The tree grew too quickly, compared to the natural course of the plant, and people began to think that it was the spells of demons and witches fault.
Pope Paquale II intervened to interrupt these meetings. He dreamed the Madonna, she told  he had to disperse Nero's ashes in the river Tiber, cut the tree and build a church over the grave.
The altar of the church of Santa Maria del Popolo stands where the tomb and the tree were.
Even today, the demonic apparitions continue ... .so people whisper.

Santa Maria del Popolo

Altare di Santa Maria del Popolo - Photo by S Maria del Popolo Website 

giovedì 28 giugno 2018

Roma mistery tour step #1 The Magic Door

I have often wondered how much  my father's stories played with  fantasy and imagination  about certain Roman legends.

I would have even doubted that the legends had spread so quickly and they still remain fascinating and mysterious, so I want talk about you about a Roman mystery tour.

Let's start with the first step




ALCHEMICAL ( OR MAGIC ) DOOR - VILLA PALOMBARA

    Have you ever heard of the roman magic door? No? Let's go to know it. It's in Piazza Vittorio , in its center is a vast garden, at whose northern end rise the majestic but decadent ruins of the Alexander Severus's  nymphaeum,  commonly known as the Mario's Trophies.
    Villa Palombara,  smaller, stood next to it, its position almost corresponding to the area of the current Piazza Vittorio;  Massimiliano Palombara, marquis of Pietraforte  was the owner. 
    The marquis was fascinated by the esoteric sciences, some of which hepracticed actively. His economic resources and his social position allowed him to finance a certain number of alchemists. He was also a member of the Rosicrucians.

    A young doctor and Milanese alchemist, Giuseppe Borri, came to Rome and joined the club of Villa Palombara. He was expelled from the Jesuit college where he studied for his great interest in occultism.

    Borri conducted experiments to find the philosopher's stone. The papal inquisition began to search him and he decided to leave immediately Rome in the night. In his study they found parchments, very complex formulas were reported on them, and  no one was able to interpret. That's why Massimiliano Palombara had them engraved on the access door of his laboratory. 

    The only tiny part that was saved was the access portal to the annex, the one that today is called Porta Magica in Piazza Vittorio.
    On the door  there aresymbols of the planets (each of which corresponded a god and a metal.


    Simbols on the door
    On the door is engraved the interesting motto SI SEDES NON IS that you can read from both sides.
    From left to right means "if you sit down do not proceed" while from right to left "if you do not sit down so proceed".


    Symbols


    On the sides of the door we find the statues of the Egyptian god Bes, considered the tutelary deity of the house, of birth and childhood.


    Bes, the egyptian god
    Historians think  Porta Magica  represented an ideal threshold that the the adepts had to cross to reach the purity of their soul.



    martedì 26 giugno 2018

    Did you know..... ? Roman curiosity #5

    We are sure, once in your life you saw a man picking up his beloved on the doorstep!

    This is not a recent tradition, it was born in ancient Rome, of course!

    It is an old superstition, it has come to us as a benevolent tradition, indeed if a bride  had stumbled on the doorsteep it was meaning the hearth divinity would not have accepted her in the house.


    venerdì 22 giugno 2018

    Did you know..... ? Roman curiosity #4



    How did the ancient Romans toast ? 
    They drank as many glasses of wine as the number of letters made up the name of the chosen person.

    You can imagine what can happen if you wanted celebrate the Emperor Nerone...the full name was Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus o Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus.




    giovedì 21 giugno 2018

    Dinner with a princess in Teggiano



    Let’s return in the province of Salerno, to talk about a wonderful area named Cilento, and especially about Teggiano, a Unesco World Heritage site.

    Teggiano and Diano Valley  https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1377233

    This town was built on a hill, surrounded by Diano valley, and it reached the leading role in the territory during the Middle Ages, when the Sanseverino family, prince of Salerno, choose Teggiano to build a castle, because of the strategic defensive position of the place. This was the set of important political schemes: in 1485 in this castle took place the famous "Barons' plot", with which the prince of Salerno conspired against the king of Naples, Ferrante of Aragon. In 1497, few years after this event, the new neapolitan king, Frederick, tried invain to take his revenge laying siege to the castle, that  endured heroically thanks to people 's support to the prince.

    Sanseverino Castle, photo by www.castellomacchiaroli.it

    In 1480 Antonello Sanseverino, prince of Salerno, married Costanza Montefeltro, duchess of Urbino:  after the marriage  they visited Teggiano,  where they were celebrated with honor.

    Wedding parade during "Alla tavola della Principessa Costanza", photo by http://www.prolocoteggiano.it 

    To commemorate this historical event, a three days Medieval Festival takes place in Teggiano every year, in August: the so called “Alla tavola della principessa Costanza” (At Princess Costanza’s table), organized by Pro Loco. Walkin around the ancient alleys, you can admire a faithful reconstruction of medieval life, with workshop of art and crafts as smith, goldsmith, glassmaker, or assist to Flags and Minstrels shows, while tasting medieval recipes in the taverns (you pay it in archaic coins: Coronato, Ducato or Tornese) .


    Medieval Smith, photo by http://www.prolocoteggiano.it

    Flag Show,  photo by http://www.prolocoteggiano.it
    A medieval dressed parade with bride and groom personified by actors walks trough the streets, starting from the Castle, and directed to Antico Sedile, where the ceremony takes place: the City Council, sitted by a stone table, gives its consent  to the wedding! It’s time to celebrate it with Candle carousel and Palio of Hamlets, a challenge among the neighboring villages . At midnight the Aragonese assault to the castle, really happened in 1497,  is faithfully reproduced, with ancient armours and weapons, and a stunning fireworks show.


    Bride and Groom,  photo by http://www.prolocoteggiano.it
    Antico Sedile,  photo by http://www.prolocoteggiano.it
    Medieval show,  photo by http://www.prolocoteggiano.it
    Assault to the castle,  photo by http://www.prolocoteggiano.it
    Medieval Army,  photo by http://www.prolocoteggiano.it


    While you stay in Teggiano, you should pay a visit to the Museum of customs and traditions of Diano Valley, where you can find a collection of tools, still usable, that testimony the unfolding of ancient rural life in Teggiano and in neighboring towns: there is a loom with canvas, a spinning wheel, a plough, a lawnmower, instruments to woodcraft, and a portrait section, where you can see the difference between people from lower and upper classes.

    Museum of customs and traditions,  photo by http://www.prolocoteggiano.it
    Food: Surely the South of Italy offers a rich culinary tradition, and Cilento is an area where old recipes and genuine flavours can still be tasted. The mountains surrounding Diano valley are the ideal place to breeds animals according to ancient methods, so the meat and cheese that you taste here are expecially good.

    A famouse recipe of Teggiano is  “Parmatieddi”, a kind of handmade pasta, leaf shaped to commemorate Jesus entrance in Jerusalem. They are served with ragu and pecorino cheese, and they really taste delicious!
    Parmatieddi, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Parmatieddi.jpg

    In the eve days, that according to religion should be lean days, housewives prepare “Stufati”, a timbale made of spaghetti, sardines, raisin and guts.

    Stufati, http://www.agricoltura.regione.campania.it/tipici/tradizionali/stufati-teggiano.html

    How to reach Teggiano:
    v  Driving your car:
    §  Salerno- Reggio Calabria highway, Sala Consilina exit
    -follow the signals


    v  By train
    §  Napoli or Salerno station
    ¨       Local buses




    Did you know..... ? Roman curiosity #3

    In ancient time the romans called childhood the "age of nuts" because the children used these fruits instead of marbles.




    lunedì 18 giugno 2018

    The necropolis of the Centocamere

    The archelogical site inaugurated by the major


    On saturday we went to the inauguration of this interesting archeological site in Grotte di Castro, on the Bolsena Lake.

    This place is called Centocamere ( the meaning is 100 rooms). The Necropolis owes its name to the large number of tombs interconnected by an intricate system of passages in the walls of the burial chambers. This necropolis is situated on the S.P. 48.



    The passages were carved out by grave robbers in ordet to facilitate movement between chambers. The entire hill is affected by presence of funerary structures carved into tufa rock, wich are arranged on the least three orders for a total of more than fifty graves with multiple despositions.

    Signal

    Grotte di Castro - View from the Centocamere
    In this valley there are three Necropolis.

    Thi is the second grave site after Necropolis of Vigna la Piazza. The tombs we described so far date back to the VII th century B.C., wich makes them older in comparison of Necropoli of Pianezze, VI the century B.C..

    A green promenade in the site

    The burial site design is completely different from the latter too.



                 

    At the necropoliso f Centocamere the tombs spread out, on a perpendicular line to the entrance and excavation of chambers. The most impressive tomb discovered is 16 meters long with 5 coaxial cambers and 3 side chambers. In total 19 bodies were buried here.

    Recent escavation discovered a new section of the original road the Etruscan people walked when bringing their dead for burial.

    You can see this site and the Etruscan Museum and the Necropolis of Pianezze with a single ticket.

    Here my video during the tour. This is one of the monumental graves you can see.


    Unfortunately the site can only be reached by car or bike

    venerdì 15 giugno 2018

    Obelisks Tour


    Did you know that Rome is the city with the highest number of Egyptian obelisks? Excluding Cairo, of course.

    Today we offer you this bizarre tour, a walk in the Egyptian side of the city, are you ready?

    Torlonia Obelisk (Villa Torlonia, Via Nomentana) 

    Let's start with a false!!

    Villa Torlonia,became a public park in 1977,  arose in the early nineteenth century as a property of Torlonia, a rich family of bankers whose heritage obscured that of all the Roman nobles. 

    Renovated several times, between the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth century, it is characterized by thirteen buildings that simulate mysterious and fairy-tale environments not typical of Rome.
    The obelisk is not Egyptian but is a faithful imitation.

    On 6 July, 1842, it was raised in the presence of Pope Gregory XVI and King Louis I of Bavaria, in a great party for everyone, rich or poor, among fireworks , firecrackers, music and great drinks.

    Villa Torlonia - Photo by Nuok
    Let's go to step 2

    From this location to the next use public transportation:  Bus n 66 or 82


     Dogali Obelisk (Via delle Terme di Diocleziano)

    An other obelisk from Heliopolis and used by romans to bedeck the Isis's temple. This monument has a strange story, it was dicovered in Via di Sant'Ignazio in 1883 and it was resrored and used as memorial for the fallen soldiers in the Battle of Dogali, in Ethiopia (1887). The artist Francesco Azzurri, created a base for it and placed in ront of the Termini station.
    The final destination was decided in the 1925. You can also see the Judah's Lion ( symbol of Ethiopia) conqured during the the Abyssinian campaign by Mussolini's troops.

    Terme di Diocleziano street
    Let's go to step 3

    It's not so far , 6 minutes of walking ... 500 meters

     Esquilino Obelisk (Piazza dell'Esquilino)

    This is the second false, a roman imitation of an egyptian obelisk !!

    You find it in front of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. It was found broken in San Rocco's street. It has a twin ( Obelisk Quirinale). they were located ot the entrance  Mausoleum of Augustus.

    Piazza dell'Esquilino - photo by Fontana Resort
    Let's go to step 4

    From this location to the next use public transportation:  Bus n 16 or 714

     Lateranense Obelisk (Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano)

    This is the oldest Egyptian obelisk existing in Rome, as well as the highest: measure, in fact, 32.185 meters . This obelisk was in front of the Temple of Amun in Thebe and it was dedicated Pharaoh Tutmosis III . It's red granite. In the 357 A.D. Constantius II brought  in Rome and i wanted place in the Circus Maximus.
    It's a masterpiece and it has a twin in Istanbul, the "brother" is in the Hippodrome of Constantinople and since then it has never been moved: we can still admire it in the center of Sultanhamet Square, in the heart of the city 
    It was abandoned and buried for centuries, when it was found it was broken in three sections, 
    Pope Sixtus V, in 1587, instructed the architect Domenico Fontana to fix it and the Fontana ercected it iin front of the rear entrance of the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano.

    Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano - phto by Roma per il Giubileo 
    Let's go to step 5

    It's not so far , 10 minutes of walking ... 900 meters

    From this location to the next use public transportation:  Bus n 81 or 714 or 792


    Mattei Obelisk (Villa Celimontana, Via della Navicella)

    It became a public park in 1925 and Italian Geographical Society reside here, in the Casino. This obelisk comes from Heliopolis and it was bult by Pharaoh Ramses II. and dedicated to the Sun . It was placed near the Aracoeli, in Campidoglio, where there was the Isis's temple. It stayed here until 1952. The Mattei's Obelisk ( Mattei's family was the former owner of this villa) also know as " Capitoline Obelisk" and it has been restored and now we can admire it in all its beauty

    Mattei's obelisk - Photo by Marco Gradozzi 

    Let's go to step 6

    From this location to the next use public transportation:  Bus n 81 


    Pantheon Obelisk  (Piazza della Rotonda)

    It was erected in Heliopolis in 1200 BC, we don't know when it was brought in our city but it dedicated Isis and Serapis erected in Campo Marzio. All around its base there is the famous fountain, Pope Gregorio XIII ordered to build it to Giacomo Della Porta.

    Piazza della Rotonda
    Let's go to step 7

    It's not so far , 2 minutes of walking ... 200 meters


    Minerva Obelisk  (Piazza della Minerva)

    This is my favourite,, i have to admit, so I'll be a little long-winded, sorry. Its name come from the Minerva's temple (Domitian age). On this temple Santa maria sopra Minerva' church was erected and you can watch it behind the obelisk.. This masterpiece was found in Campo Marzio, nearby the Isis' temple.

    The obelisk was erected to glorify the pharaoh Apri in the 700 BC in the city of Sais. The actual base was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini  and built by Ercole Ferrata.

    Pope Alexander VII Chigi reccomended Bernini to place the monolith directly on the elephant's back.

    The writing shows the following sentence :

    SAPIENTIS AEGYPTI
    INSCVLTAS OBELISCO FIGURAS
    AB ELEPHANTO
    BELLVARVM FORTISSIMA
    GESTARI QVISQVE HIC VIDES
    DOCVMENTVM INTELLIGE
    ROBVSTAE MENTIS ESSE
    SOLIDAM SAPIENTIAM SVSTINERE
    This is the meaning :

    Whoever you are, you can see here that the figure of the skilful school Egypt on the obelisk it is supported by an elephant, the strongest animal: you understand the admonition, only a strong mind  can sustain solid wisdom ".

    This is is the smallest obelisk in Rome.

    Piazza della Minerva
    Let's go to step 8

    It's not so far , 7 minutes of walking ... 500 meters

    From this location to the next use public transportation:  Bus n  or 



     Montecitorio Obelisk  (Piazza di Montecitorio)

    Pharaoh Psammetico II built it in the VI century BC in Heliopolis. Emeperor Augustus used as sundial in Campo Marzio, in the nort side of the Parlamient square.
    In 1748 Giovanni Antinori found it broken in five pieces, he restored and fixed with fragments of red granite from the Antonine Column.

    It was erected and showed in the 1792.

    There is a ball on the op and a ray of of sunlight should pass through at midday, today it lost its efficiency.

    Curios fact : this obelisk with the Vatican one are used as solar indicator, the only ones.

    Piazza Montecitorio - Photo by Zloris 



    Let's go to step 9

    It's not so far , 7 minutes of walking ... 600 meters





     Agonale Obelisk  (Piazza Navona)




    Welcome to Rome's living room, a splendid place, an open-air masterpiece.

    Have a break and admire the wonder of this square!!

    Tell the truth !! It is a breathtaking view.

    Ok, let's come back to our obelisks.

    This one was placed at Circus of Maxentius  on the Via Appia. Bernini moved it for his work.

    Obelisk is located in the center of the square, above the Four Rivers Fountain, created and built by Bernini. The four rivers are Nile, Ganges, Danube and Rio de la Plata respectively sculpted by Giacomo Antonio Fancelli, Claude Poussin, Antonio Raggi and Francesco Baratta.

    On the top you can see a dove, Pamphili's family symbol. This animal was assumed as the Holy Spirit emblem, the spirit spread its influence in the four regions of the Universe (symbolized by the four sides of the obelisk) and in the four continents (represented by the four rivers.

    Piazza Navona  - Photo by Danny Zantos

    Let's go to step 10

    It's not so far , 18 minutes of walking ... 1500 meters

    From this location to the next use public transportation:  Bus n 628 or 30 or 70 or 87 or Metro A




     Flaminio Obelisk  
    (Piazza del Popolo)



    From Heliopolis, Pharaohs Seti I and Ramses II erected it in in front of the Temple of the Sun.

    Augustus decided to import two obelisk to celebrate victory over Egypt and he placed an the Circus Maximus, year 10 BC.

    In 1589 Pope Sixtus V moved this in the actual position, using blocks removed from the demolished Settizonio for pedestrians.

    On the faces of the base there are four inscriptions:

    The first one, an hieroglyphic inscription on the facade shows the following message :

    "The Gods heaven is satisfied for what Seti I, son of the Sun , did with he spirits of Heliopolis, and the Sun loved him"


    The incision, on the backside, is almost illegible because of a thunderbolt that struck him on August 13, 1983.

    The meaning of the third incision is the obelisk is pleased to stand up in front of  the sacred Colei's temple, where the Augustus's   was born under the Sun of justice.

    The last one Sixtus V recalls the victory of Augustus over Egypt while the opposite one, facing the famous Trident, and he dedicated the obelisk to the Holy Cross.


    Piazza del Popolo - Photo by Servajero

    Let's go to step 11

    It's not so far , 8 minutes of walking ... 500 meters upward



     Aureliano Obelisk 
     (Giardini del Pincio, Piazza Bulgaria)




    Napoleon Bonaparte wanted the Pincio Gardens became a public park  and he expropriated the land from the Sant'Agostino's friars

    Giuseppe Valadier started to build this garden in the 1811 and he finished in 1814.

     Emperor Hadrian  built in for his favorite Antinous, drowned in the Nile in 130, it's a roman monolith not properly egyptian , an area of  his empire.

    Pius VII, once returned to Rome from exile, continued the work with the care of the gardens and in 1822 erected the obelisk, found at the Basilica of Santa Croce in Jerusalem in 1570.

    In 1773 the Barberini's family   removed it because it disturbed the passage of carriages and they decided to donate to Pope Clement XIV, he did not know how to deposit it in the courtyard of the Pigna in the Vatican so it was definitely placed into in the current Piazza Bulgaria by the architect Giuseppe Marini.

    Piazza Bulgaria - Photo by Mapio


    Let's go to step 12

    It's not so far , 7 minutes of walking ... 650 meters

    From this location to the next use public transportation:  Bus n  or 



     Sallustiano Obelisk  (Trinità dei Monti, Piazza di Spagna) 




    Located opposite the church of Trinità dei Monti,

    It comes from the  Gardens of Sallust and it's a Roman imitation of the imperial era of the Egyptian obelisks.

    The hieroglyphs are similar to those of the obelisk in Piazza del Popolo, but the Roman stonemason  made some mistakes, look !! Some signs are turned upside down.

    Clement XII ,in 1734, tried in vain to have it erected in front of the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano, lying abandoned near the Scala Santa.

    Giovanni Antinori in 1789, at the behest of Pius VI placed here. On the top you can see the lily of France and the crosshe lily of France and the cross.

    The basement is not the original, it is in the Campidoglio Gardens. The basement of the Sallustiano Obelisk was decorated symbolic frills, during the Fascist Fascist era and it was consecrated as "Ara of the Fallen Fascists".

    Trinità de Monti - Photo by Shuttershock

    It's not so far , 16 minutes of walking ...1300 meters

    From this location to the next use public transportation:  Bus n 71 



    Quirinale Obelisk  
    ( Piazza del Quirinale )


    The obelisk comes from the Mausoleum of Augustus, where it was paired with the other that it is at the Esquiline.

    It is placed at the center of the fountain called Monte Cavallo, among the statues representing the two Dioscuri.

    The statues are Roman copies of Greek originals, but at the time they were considered original Fidia and Prassitele's works. This error remained forever immortalized in the inscription that can be read on the base.

    In the middle a fountain was placed and its water comes from  the Felice aqueduct.

    Pius VI (1775-99) wanted to beautify the complex and Giovanni Antinori erected the obelisk among the Dioscuri.The operation was not so simple, because the two statues had to be moved too, and two attempts were made before succeeding.

    The first attempt, in 1783, failed and there were immediately pasquinate ( Pasquino is the most famous talking statue of Rome - the romans, in the night , hung sheets containing satire in verse, directed anonymously against the most important public figures. They were called "pasquinate")

    Piazza del Quirinale - Photo by Tripadvisor

    From this location to the next use public transportation:  Bus n 64

    BEWARE TO THE PICKPOCKETS - THIS LINE UNFORTUNATELY KNOWN FOR THIS



    Vatican Obelisk (Piazza San Pietro)

    You can admire it in the middle of the Bernini's square Located at the center of the famous square designed by Bernini,in all its stunning beauty. Heighy 25 meters.

    Guess!! Where is it from? Helipolis, yet! Caligula took it in Rome in 37 AD,, he chosen it to decorate the Nerone's Circus, located where the Basilica is now.

    Domenico Fontana moved to the actual location in 1586, in the vase you can see four lions ( heraldic motif of Sisto V) and eagles, added in 1713 by Innocenzo XIII, in  memory of the heraldic elements of his family ,Conti. 
    At the top of obelisk there are the relics of the Holy Cross, previously there was a bronze ball which, according to tradition, contained the ashes of Julius Caesar.

    if you are close you can see the traces of cannon shots fired by the Lanzichenecchi during the depredation of  Rome 1527. On the floor there is a " Rosa dei Venti ", the Compass Rose.

    There are two  marble discs on a strip and they indicate the places where, at noon, the shadow of the cross falls on the two solstice days of the year.

    The first marble disk indicates the solstice in Cancer, the second the solstice in Capricorn. discs indicate the passage of the Sun in the coupled zodiacal signs: Leo-Gemini, Virgo-Taurus, Libra-Aries, Scorpio-Pisces and Sagittarius-Aquarius.


    Piazza San Pietro

    If you want eat something during the tour I usually eat a "panino" at the Lost Food Factory near the Pantheon. I knew them during a promenade and I went crazy for their creations. They use traditional roman recipes for their sandwices, salty croissants and panini.

    Ok, it's little and, maybe, you have to wait but you'll be rewarded. The guys are kind and funny and you can have a different break. 














    mercoledì 13 giugno 2018

    Did you know..... ? Roman curiosity #2

    Why are there a lizard and a frog in the capitals of the columns at Portico d'Ottavia?

    Pliny the Elder recounts about the Spartan sculptors Sauro and Batraco, they were commissioned to build the Portico of Octavia in the Ghetto.
    They were rich and worked without being rewarded. Their only reward was to see their names written on the sculptures.

    The clients denied this right to them and the builders devised an ingenious way to sign the work.

    The name Sauro in Greek means Lizard and Batraco,in greek, indicates the frog, so they sculpted these animals among the capitals.

    One of the capitals was moved and used to build a new church, and is located in the central nave of San Lorenzo outside the Walls.


    Portico d'Ottavia



    domenica 10 giugno 2018

    Did you know..... ? Roman curiosity #1

    Today people complain that things do not last long. 

    Well, in Rome there is a lock, it was  built in 309 AD and it still works. It is 1709 years old!

    It is located in the Church of Saints Cosma and Damiano, the vestibule is what remains of theDivo Romolo's temple  , he died very young and this monument was built by his father Massenzio (Marco Aurelio Valerio Massenzio, Roman emperor).




    giovedì 7 giugno 2018

    Historical italian women - Monumental cemetery tour - path#2


    Working in progress - We are updating informations



    We talked about the homeland  heroes and  walked in the italian history.

    Now it's time start looking for heroic women ,people have left an important mark in Italian history or , unfortunately, have been victims of a cruel fate.

    The first heroine we want to talk about does not need any introduction, Grazia Deledda.


    Born in Nuoro in 1871 from a rich and patriarchal family

    Grazia Deledda
    Her intellectual training is completely self-taught and provincial: she attends the school only up to the fourth grade.


    She lived ,even after her marriage, almost in isolation.

    Deledda, linked to a patriarchal conception of existence, spent her infancy and adolescence, clashing with an uninterrupted series of family calamities. In fact, in a few years she will lose three sisters and his father while her two brothers will have problems with alcoholism and justice. These difficulties, together with the suffocating prejudice towards her nascent literary vocation, made Deledda mature those intentions of escape from the Sardinian environment, she  will realize later, only with marriage, the only possible solution for a woman of her time.

    La Deledda seems to face these years as a second life, even if in a literary sense: its activity is exhausted in writing assiduously and in publishing novels and stories almost with an annual rhythm. 

    Deledda received the Nobel Prize in 1926 ( for the novel Canne al Vemto ) in Literature. What was her respone on winning Nobel Prize ? Già! (Already!)

    She is yet the only italian woman winner of a Nobel Prize in literature.

    She died in Rome at the age of 64 of breast cancer. In the Verano Monumental cemetery you can see her monument, Her remains are in Nuoro.

    Grazia Deledda's Monument


    The next step is ...

    Sibilla Aleramo 

    Pseudonym of Rina Faccio She was an important poetess, writer and feminist, she had a sad childhood. She was raped when she was 15 by a local man, 10 years senior  employed at her father's factory.
    Sibilla Aleramo


    She prefered  did not tell her parents about the event, and she was instead "persuaded" to marry him. A year and a half later, at 17, she had her first and only child, Walter.

    She found the strength to react to her brutal husband and leave him, you can read this experience in her first novel. She moved to Rome where she knew differents artists and writers

    Sibilla Aleramo - photo by Buratta, Fabrizio - Foti, Alessandro
                                                                           Location: New Department, Box 61

     Next stage ,another woman who left her mark in world history, 


                                                                    Maria Montessori

    Maria Montessori  

    Real name Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori, italian physician and educator.

    Does not this name mean anything to you? Do yopu know the philosophy of education ? this kind of education is a system adopted in many primary schools in the world











    Emilia Filonardi Lombardi
    The monument dedicated to Emilia Filonardi Lombardi was built in 1875 by her husband, the sculptor Giovan Battista Lombardi. 

    The premature death of the young woman, of tisi and at only 29 years, induces him to create a work of strong emotional impact that immediately arouses a great appreciation and interest from the public. 

    Emilia Lombardi Filonardi - Photo by Sagid 


    Clotilde Podesti
    The painter Francesco Podesti, who in this case ventured into sculpture, executed the sepulchral monument on the occasion of the untimely death of his wife Clotilde Cagiati, which occurred in 1865. 
    He reported in one of his writings the conversation he had with her on his deathbed: "Eh ! My dear Checco, [...] your Clotilde leaves you a widower, because you die soon. .....Be happy; I promise you that I will erect a monument worthy of the love I bring you. "
    On  11 October 1867, the Podesti tomb, just finished, was visited by Pope Pius IX. 
    Above the bust of Podesti, there is the touching inscription in Roman capital letters: "Ave lux mea et vale in pace".
     The entire epitaph was composed by Novelli, librarian at the Angelica, who kept the Memories of 1870, poems, letters and other documentary material from Podesti.

    Clotilde Podesti's Monument - photo by Lalupa


    Adelaide Ristori

    Actress (Cividale del Friuli, 1822 - Rome 1906)
    Born in 1822 from parents both actors. 
    Since very small scenes and just twelve years old is engaged in the theatrical company of Meneghino Moncalvo who, having immediately recognized the innate gifts of great actress, in 1836 entrusts the role of Francesca da Rimini by Pellico. 

    From 1837 she joined the Compagnia Reale Sarda where he met Carlotta Marchionni, who became her teacher and of whom she took the place of first actress when she left the scene.

    In these years the Ristori grows artistically very quickly, thanks to her love for the theater and her professional seriousness. She left the Reale Sarda in 1841, she had the role of first absolute actress in the company Mascherpa and, subsequently, in that Domeniconi and Coltellini, active above all in Rome. 

    In the 1847 she married the young Marquis Giuliano Capranica del Grillo.

    In 1853, after two years of conscious departure from the theater given his new status as a noblewoman, Ristori returned on the scene by accepting a new contract with the Royal Sardinian Company, stipulated following the heavy burdens imposed by the actress.

    In 1855 he obtained considerable success in Paris in the role of Mirra who consecrated her in the parts of a tragic artist.
    The actress's fame quickly spread to all the biggest European capitals, including Berlin, Vienna, Madrid and Paris. This activity, among other things, favors the spread of the Savoy ideals and politics of which Ristori is a profound supporter: Cavour even entrusts her with a diplomatic mission of a certain importance to Petersburg. And Adelaide sometimes has problems with the Austrian police for the inclusion of some patriotic verses in her interpretations that allude to a united Italy: on the occasion of a Judith, judged too "participated", she was expelled from Venice.

    Hence the strict provisions imposed on his shows and the censorship of theatrical productions and opera librettos of which the actress often complains. From 1860 she resides in the French capital, making a long tour in America from the mid-sixties onwards.
    In 1886 after retiring from the scene she settled in Rome and became queen's court lady Daisy; two years later she published her memoirs ( Memories and artistic studies). Omagied by the whole European theater world on the occasion of her eightieth birthday, she died in Rome in 1906.

    Adelaide Ristori's monument
    Location: Old Department, box 11


    Natalia Ginzburg (Natalia Levi)

    Writer  (Palermo 1916 -Rome 1991)
    Since the age of twelved he begins to write; her early debut is to be considered a result of loneliness and silence, natural childhood companions, since little Natalia completes her elementary studies at home. The first stories are published in 1934 by the magazine Solaria

    In this period the fundamental meeting takes place with the intellectual Leone Ginzburg, her husband since 1938.
    A Jew of Russian origin (Odessa 1908 -Rome 1944), Slavist, philologist, antifascist, he was arrested in 1934 and after four years in prison he returned to Turin where Giulio Einaudi proposed him to take care of the newborn (1933) publishing house.

    Natalia Ginzburg


    Natalia will instead accept the task of translating the Proher's recherche, which had not been read until then but immediately revealed her great literary love.

    With the outbreak of the war Leone was sent to confinement in Abruzzo. He stayed with Natalia and her two children until the fall of the Fascist regime in 1943. During this period Ginzburg - under the pseudonym Alessandra Tornimparte - published her first novel "The road that goes to the city" also deals with Einaudi della translation of " Swann’s road " by M. Proust.
    In Rome, after September 8, Leone Ginzburg resumed his editorial and political activity. Member of the organizers of the Action Party and partisan groups of Justice and Liberty, he was arrested in November 1943 in a clandestine printing press. 

    Conducted in the Regina Coeli prison, he died in February 1944 following the torture he suffered (he is buried in Verano, Israelic Department, 6 row III, group V).

    This tragic event marks a fundamental point in the life of Natalia ,after taking refuge in a convent in Rome and then an aunt in Florence,she returned to Turin from the end of 1945. In the meantime she writes of the poems and some short articles of a political nature in the Italian Free newspaper (organ of the Action Party).
    She tightens intense bonds of friendship with Cesare Pavese and Felice Balbo and has contacts with people like Calvino, Vittorini, Levi.
    In 1947 she wrote the short novel, in the form of a monologue, It was so, dedicated "to Leo". In 1950 she married Gabriele Baldini, professor and musicologist, with whom she moved to Rome.

    Among the numerous writings - novels, stories, theatrical works :
    •  Tutti i nostri ieri (1952), 
    • Le voci della sera (1961) 
    • Le piccole virtù (1962
    • Ti ho sposato per allegria (1966),
    In 1963 she published Lessico famigliare, perhaps the best known text, a critical and public success.

    Natalia Ginzburg (Natalia Levi) 's grave
     Location: Former Civilians, box 20




    Alida Valli 

    Real name A.Maria Altenburger- Pula, Croatia, 1921-Rome 2006, actress.
    Born into an aristocratic family, she came to Rome to study at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. She was already famous for her refined and sensual charm.

    Thanks to her performance in the character of Luisa, the tormented mother of Fogazzaro's novel, Valli rises to the status of a diva, she was considereted the new Greta Garbo for her angelic beauty, the noble aura of posture, the deep emanated passions that alternate with childish moves.

    Alida Valli

    In the post-war period she is called to Hollywood where she interprets impeccable femme fatale next to Gregory Peck in the Hitchcock's film The Paradine case
    She worked also with 
    Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten in the spy movie The third man (1949) ;
    Luchino Visconti in his masterpiece Senso (1954);
    Michelangelo Antonioni Il Grido (1957);
    Pier Paolo Pasolini , Edipo Re(1967)
    Dario Argento, Suspiria (1977) and Inferno (1980);
    Giuseppe Bertolucci, L’amore, forse (2000)

    She played different dramas at theatres too

    Alida valli's tomb


    Camilla Ravera

    Italian politician. She was one of the founder of the Italia Communist Party and she was nominated General Secretary in the 1927.
    She became the first female lifetime senator.

    During her life she could meet Lenin, Stalin and she was expelled from the Party, in the 1939, because she opposed ti the Molotov Ribbentrop pact. She will rejoin only in the 1945

    Camilla Ravera's monument - pic by @Anpi Brescia on twitter

    Collocation: PCI Receptor, New Department, box 8 separate

    Nilde (Leonilde) Iotti 

    Politician (Reggio Emilia 1920 - Rome 1999)

    Born in Reggio Emilia from a family of modest origins, but  Catholic and with socialist traditions, she graduated with honors from the Catholic University of Milan.

    She became a teacher, activating in the Women's Defense Groups. After the Liberation begins his approach to the Communist Party, engaging in the UDI (Union of Italian Women) of Reggio Emilia.

    In April 1948 she was elected for  the Italian Communist Party (PCI) to the Chamber of Deputies, of which she was member without interruption until 1999.

    Iotti had a long liaison with the National Secretary of the PCI Palmiro Togliatti,  lasted until the latter's death in 1964: the relationship was made public in 1948, on the occasion of the attempt on Togliatti's life, a few days after the Italian general election day, and she was received coldly by Italy's public opinion, including many Italian communists, because Togliatti was married to Rita Montagnana at the time.

    After 1979 elections, Iotti became Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament, succeeding Pietro Ingrao. She was popular and respected as a president, and was confirmed in the office for two more legislatures.

    In 1987, she was entrusted by President Francesco Cossiga with a mandate of potentially forming the government, the closest a PCI member, and a woman, got to becoming the first female Prime Minister of Italy; however, Iotti was not able to form a coalition.

    In 1992, the name of Nilde Iotti was mentioned for the election of the President of the Italian Republic.

    Nilde iotti's monument
    Location: PCI Convention, New Department, 8 separate box (entrance to Portonaccio)


    Claretta Petacci

    Benito Mussolini’s lover (Rome 1912-Dongo 1945).

    In 1926 an old Irish woman named Violet Gibson fired at the Duce as she left the Capitol, wounding him lightly. Following this fact, Petacci, fourteen years old, wrote a letter and some poems with which, in addition to rejoicing for the escaped danger, she consecrates her life.

    The letters are noted   but she could meet the Duce only on April 24, 1932 in Ostia, where she could overcome the barrier of the escort agents and to approach the leader. She was not alone, her boyfriend, Riccardo Federici,  was with her 

    A few days later Mussolini, married with Donna Rachele,  called Petacci and gave her an evening appointment at Palazzo Venezia. Other meetings followed, but two years later Claretta married Federici.

    The marriage lasts two years, and is then canceled by the Sacred Rota. From '36 Mussolini and la Petacci become lovers, fifty-three years old him, twenty-four her.

    Her family receives an undisputed advantage from Claretta's privileged position, as evidenced by the villa built at Monte Mario, the successful cinematographic career of his sister Myriam, the debated economic affairs of his brother.

    the whole family follows the Duce when he is placed by Hitler at the head of the Social Republic
    Born from Giuseppina Persichetti, descendant of a wealthy Roman family, and Francesco Saverio, doctor of the Sacred Apostolic Palaces. Little more than a little girl, she is ensnared by the charismatic myth of the Duce.

    She was arrested with Mussolini at the fall of the regime on 25 July 1943, and released on 8 September and moved to a villa in Gardone, not far from the residence of Mussolini and the seat of the government of Salò at this juncture, a violent encounter with the duce's wife, Donna Rachele, is inevitable. But Claretta will follow the leader in his final flight.

    Arrested by the partisans of the LII Brigade Garibaldi in Dongo, both were executed on April 28, 1945

    Claretta Petacci's grave
    Location: Ex Evangelici, box 89



    Rina (Elvira) Morelli
    (Naples 1908 - Rome 1976) Actress
    Actor Amilcare Morelli and actress Narciso Brillanti’s  daughter , she played since she was a child in the company of Ermete Zacconi, obtaining a first role as an adult actress at sixteen in Liliom by F. Molnàr.

    Rina Elvira Morelli
    Location: Pincetto Nuovo, box 11, chapel 17

    During the war her activity became sporadic and only after the liberation of Rome a period of intense work began, culminating in the encounter with Luchino Visconti, who in 1945 directed it in the terrible Parents of Cocteau.
    She  will begin an artistic journey with Visconti and she  will be consecrated  it in the history of Italian and international cinema


    Sarina Nathan (Sara Levi Nathan)
    (Pesaro 1819 -London 1882) Patriot
    In 1837 she married Meyer Moses Nathan, a gentleman from Frankfurt, with whom she moved to London and from whom she had twelve children.

    Sara Nathan

    Giuseppe Mazzini  lives here during his exile and Sara - said amicably Sarina - has the opportunity to know him, although at the beginning only superficially, establishing a relationship that with the passage of time becomes close friendship and sincere affection.

    Mazzini puts his trust in Sarina soon : he confides his worries, his thoughts and his political programs, investing her with a decidedly significant role in his conspiratorial activity.
    Nathan becomes a deep supporter of the Mazzinian doctrine
    When her husband died in 1859, Sarina left England and settled in Milan where she was involved in the organization of insurrectional activities. 
    In 1865, sje was continually subjected to surveillance by the police, she bought a villa in Lugano, La Tanzina, since from that moment it became a refuge for Italian exiles and a real cenacle of the major names of national politics of those years: Nino Bixio, Gustavo Modena, Carlo Cattaneo, Federico Campanella.
    In the house of Sarina, Mazzini also spends long periods.
    She will be the promoter of the publication of Mazzini's writings.

    Sara nathan's monument
    Location: Pincetto Nuovo, box 47


    Erminia Fuà Fusinato

    (Rovigo 1834 - Rome 1876) Poetess, educator and patriot
     Born in Rovigo from a Jewish family .After moving to Padua in 1835, she studied at home with her uncle Benedetto
    Erminia is dedicated to the composition of verses. Her poetic training took on a more complete dimension when she met Arnaldo Fusinato, her future husband, older than her, already a poet and patriot who urged her to publish in important Milanese women's magazines.

    Eminia Fuà Fusinato


    In 1856 she moved to Venice where she married, though, due to the difference in faith of the two boyfriends, the parents were against marriage.
    The Fusinato settled in Castelfranco Veneto and in the autumn of 1856 they were guests in the the castle of Colloredo where Ippolito Nievo lived.
    In Castelfranco la Fuà helps her husband and her brother-in-law in an attempt to hold the ranks of the anti-Austrian opposition and with her poetic writings she encourages Savoia action
    In 1864 she followed her husband in exile to Florence, where Erminia frequented writers  and politicians and where she collaborated with several publishers.
     After the proclamation of Roma Capitale, some wrong investments create economic difficulties for the two spouses. 
    Cesare Correnti, Minister of Education and a dear friend of the family, proposes her, although without qualifications, a job as an inspector in the schools and colleges of the Neapolitan province
    In Rome they entrusted her with the chair of Italian letters at the Scuola Normale
    Her interventions are collected  in the text Scritti Educativi, published in 1873.
    In 1874 she founded the Society for Higher Education of the Women and became its president.
    In fact, Fusinato proposed a model of a woman who did not deny the traditional role of "angel of the hearth", but projected it into a civil and social horizon as well as intimate and domestic.
    Also part of her works is Famiglia(1876), which collects the moral lessons held at the Women's High School, and Poemi (1874), verses composed from 1852 to 1873.
    Se died in Rome on September 30, 1876 and she is remembered in Verano with a funeral monument commissioned, according to the inscription affixed on the forehead, by the "Italian women".

    Her monument - Photo by By Lalupa
    Location: Quadriportico, left side, LI arch

    Anita Durante

    Real surname Bianchi (Rome, 28 September 1897 - Rome, 2 May 1994), Italian actress.
    Checco Durante ‘s wife , a famous  actor and Roman poet, in herlong career, she interpreted with his husband many dialect comedies and, in the role of character, numerous movies

    Anita Durante


    Particularly important to remember, in 1954, the famous italian movie  An American in Rome by Steno in which she played the role of the protective and worried mother of the protagonist Nando Moriconi ,played by Alberto Sordi.


    • Regina Bianchi
    • Carla Capponi

    Maria Gabriella Ferri 

    (Rome, 18 September 1942 - Corchiano, 3 April 2004) Italian singer ,known for her  interpretations of Roman and Neapolitan popular songs -  theatrical actress.

    She meets Luisa De Santis (Giuseppe De Santis daugher , famous movie director, did you see Riso Amaro? ) and becomes very friendly: together they create a duo, named  “Luisa and Gabriella” , they triy to rediscover the Roman folk repertoire.

    First performances were based on the traditional repertoire of the Roman song (as Barcarolo Romano) and one evening, at the Intra's Club of Milan (at that time they are guest by Camilla Cederna ),and the duo is noted by Walter Guertler, so they can sign a contract with the  Jollyimportant label.

    Maria Gabriella Ferri

    Also in 1964 they had their first experience on television, in the transmission The Fair of Dreams presented by Mike Bongiorno, in which they sing The society of magnaccions who, in the days following the television appearance, sells one million seven hundred thousand copies , it become one of the hymns of the young people of those years.

    In 1965, in their Italian and foreign cinemas, their first a,nd perhaps only music movie, was included in the 008 Operazione Ritmo movie by the producer director Tullio Piacentini.
    The duo, however, has a short life, due to the Luisa ‘s shyness , she does not like to sing in public; Gabriella continues alone then.

    After the years spent in Milan, Gabriella Ferri returns to Rome at the end of 1966, and arrives at the Bagaglino in Rome and she becomes the official singer
    During this period she meets the young diplomat Giancarlo Riccio, and  marries June 20, 1967. Se moves with him to Kinshasa where he is destined to serve, but suffers the forced inactivity and after not even a year convinces her husband to ask for an early return to Rome. 

    The marriage does not last long but, after a series of separations and reconciliations, it finally ends in 1970.
    after signing a new recording contract with the RCA Italiana, she participated in 1969 at the Sanremo Festival but, despite presenting, together with Stevie Wonder, a beautiful song with beat and rhythm soundtracks, written by Gabriella with her father Vittorio and Piero Pintucci, entitled If “you my boyfriend”, the artist is eliminated, in the first round ,and she will never return to Sanremo. 
    However, the album is a success, and the song is reinterpreted by many other artists
    She was presenter of several television events and shows

    Maria Gabriella Ferri's tomb
    Location: New Department, Box 85, Chapel 3, No. 34, row 2

    Isa Miranda

    Real name Ines Isabella Sampietro Milan, 5 July 1909 - Rome, 8 July 1982), Italian actress.
    She won the Prix d'interprétation féminine at the Cannes Film Festival with the film Le mura di Malapaga (1948) by René Clément.

    Isa Miranda

    Amelia Pincherle

    Venice, 16 January 1870 - Florence, 26 December , Italian writer and anti-fascist.
    Her brother Carlo Pincherle, architect and painter, was the Alberto Moravia’s father, while Laura Capon, her cousin’s daughter, Admiral Augusto Capon, was Enrico Fermi ‘s wife, the famous physicist
    She participates in public life as a member of the Executive Committee of the Rome Art Exhibition and Women's Work.

    Amelia Pincherle

    During the war she collaborates with the News Office for the families of the soldiers and, in memory of her son, Aldo, died in Carnia during a fight on March 27, 1916
    Since the early twenty years she began to support the anti-fascist activity of her sons Carlo and Nello, reaching them in places of confinement and exile.
    After their assassination (1937), she left Italy and moved to France, then to Switzerland, England and finally to the United States, where she landed in 1940 along with the two new sons and seven grandchildren (including the future poetess Amelia Rosselli).
    After her release she returned to Italy in June 1946

    Main works
    Anima. Dramma in tre atti
    Felicità perduta,
    Gente oscura,
    Topinino. Storia di un bambino,
    Illusione. Commedia in tre atti: L'idea fissa, L'amica, Scene,
    Topinino garzone di bottega,
    San Marco. Commedia in tre atti,
    Fratelli minori, Bemporad,
    Emma Liona. Dramma in quattro episodi,
    Memorie]

    Her grave