Words by Frederick Vreeland - Pictures by Cuboimages
The J. Paul Getty Museum has published a new guide: Key to Rome by myself and my wife Vanessa, which American novelist Gore Vidal describes as ‘easily the handsomest and most useful guide to the city that likes to call itself eternal’.
When we moved to Rome almost a quarter of a century ago, our enthusiasm was immediate and it never ceases to grow. In the first ten years we would give advice to our friends on just what to see, do, eat and avoid.
Then we were asked by the publisher of a popular guidebook series to suggest someone who could write their volume on Rome and even though we, separately or together, had never written a book we insisted that nobody would do except ourselves because of our passion for and knowledge of the eternal city.
Rome was indeed not built in a day or a century; it was built century by century, not area by area. So that is the way to see it: in epochs, one age at a time. To understand it best, Rome is a city that should be built before the eyes of the visitor. For us the Eternal City has, so far, flourished in four historical-cultural eras:
1. Ancient Rome
This was the centre of civilization from the misty times around 700 B.C. to the fall of the empire in the fifth century A.D. There is a greater concentration of important Classical monuments in Rome than any place in the world – the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, Nero’s Golden House, and so much more. Recently there have been some astonishing surprises among these archaeological sites.
What were considered myths, such as the childhood home of Romulus and Remus on the Palatine Hill, have been at least partially verified by the discovery of primitive huts dating to the eighth century B.C. The Imperial Baths are intricately described and illustrated in Key to Rome, because they symbolise the high culture that was not only the glory of that epoch but also its undoing.
2. Christian Rome
As we define it, this runs from the fall of the Roman Empire to the eruption of the Renaissance – that millennium from the fifth to the fourteenth century when the Popes presided over Rome and over the hearts and minds of Western civilization.
For us the Dark ages were literally that. It is now a matter of controversy, but we document how during that period the classical level of thought and of living standards dimmed. It was squalid. The film of The Name of the Rose showed that perfectly: a few illuminated minds, and the rest is sordid, with the Church keeping the tiny candle of thought alive.
3. Renaissance and Baroque Rome
This was built atop the ruins of Ancient Rome and alongside the religious buildings of Christian Rome, where the newly rich papal families built luxurious pleasure palaces and imposing piazzas during the Renaissance, 1450–1600, and again during the Baroque, 1600–1750. We visit them now to marvel at the richness of their architecture, their paintings and their sculpture.
This period had its roots outside Rome, notably in Tuscany where secular princes endowed an era of enlightenment, and overturned the papacy’s aversion to what it considered pagan culture.
But it was in Rome that Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Raphael were painting all at the same time, with two Popes from Florence’s Medici family encouraging these and other artists to pack the city with visual masterpieces.
Much of Rome was remodelled with symmetrical patterns of roads, fountains and obelisks; these sometimes replaced the tortured medieval lanes and hovels, just as in the Middle Ages buildings of Ancient Rome were plundered of building materials for churches and monasteries. Piazza Navona illustrates how in the lavish Baroque palaces and public spaces of the seventeenth century could be created while still maintaining the precise form of Classical monuments.
4. Shopping and the Grand Tour
This is our term for today’s Rome of tourists’ delights, which has evolved for the past three centuries and is still flowering. The Grand Tour refers to the 18th-century tradition of aristocratic English youths travelling for months to complete their education; these first ‘tourists’ gave Rome a new impetus. Splendid hotels and fancy shops sprang up to welcome them.
The tradition continues today. The Spanish Steps can stand as a central theme for this section of our guide-book since this architectural wonder is crowned by a world-class hotel abutting a glorious church, and at its feet lies the Golden Mile of Shopping.
Organizing the book by epochs has permitted us to slip in cultural and historical facts and anecdotes right where they belong, while the visitor is soaking up the actual atmosphere of the place. After exploring Rome in this way, which is actually a lot more pleasant than jumping from one unrelated site to the next, I am sure that you will return home feeling satisfied that you’ve really discovered, or rediscovered, this magnificent city for the first time.
"Key to Rome" by Frederick and Vanessa Vreeland is published by the J. Paul Getty Museum and is available through the store below.
