Rome - December 28, 2011 - Pincian Hill and Obelisk

Obelisk of Antinous

Pincian Hill, Park &
Expensive Restaurant

If you  walking up Viale della Trinita dei Monti like we did then you will come to a fork in the road, take a slight right onto the Viale Adamo Mickievicz and within a few minute on should see the obelisk in the center of the piazza Bucharest on the right (east).

Pincian Hill and Obelisk: This obelisk was made for Hadrian’s villa at Tivoli as an adornment to the tomb of his lover Antinous, who some say was drowned in the Nile as a ritual sacrifice. I think I already mentioned that. So there is your Egyptian link, Hadrian was obsessed with Egypt.

Anyway, this park with its neoclassical architecture, switchback carriage lane and monumental staircase and sweeping views of the city was created during Napoleon’s brief rule of Italy.

The obelisk was finally set up here in the Piazza Bucharest in the 1820’s after being set up at the Vatican after earlier being robbed from the tomb of Antinous and set in the center of the circus Varianus by our good friend and certified nutter Heliogabalus.

Pincian Hill with Obelisk of Antinous

Rome - December 27, 2011 - San Ignazio

San Ignazio, Night...spooky

Just a quick walk from the Temple of Hadrian to San Ignazio: (3-5 minutes, yes I timed it all out on Google maps, I may be slightly OCD) just to the left of the façade of the temple of Hadrian is a quaint, odd, even queer little street with a building right in the center of it. Walk around the building to the right to be rewarded with the magnificent and (for Rome) somewhat restrained baroque façade of San Ignazio

San Ignazio: Built between 1626 and 1650 as the rectory church to the adjacent Collegio Romano. The college was seized by the Italian Government in 1870. The interior is famous for it’s tromp l’oiel paintings and for the dubious honor of holding the glass coffin of St. Robert Bellarmine (the dude who forced Galileo to to abandon the doctrine of an immobile sun and a mobile earth. Apparently Galileo did penance under duress. Some 15 years later Galileo would be called before the inquisition to face the same accusation) anyhow if you want to see Sr. Robert he’s here under glass all in red.

Crazy baroque buildings surrounding San Ignazio

Rome - December 27, 2011 - Temple of Hadrian

Temple of Hadrian, Dusk

Temple of Hadrian, dusk

Temple of Hadrian: Built to honor the bearded (never a bad thing, though I may be prejudiced) swinging emperor Hadrian by his incredibly boring adopted son Antoninius Pius. (ok, quick bit of history, but that is just creepy. Hadrian names his adopted son after his dead boyfriend, sort of, it's close enough. (Antonius drowned in the Nile while Hadrian was on a tour of the empire he loved so much. Hadrian really never did get over his death. As a result, he was deified. Temples and statues of Antonius we raised all over the empire and the cult of Antonius became quite popular in the Greek Speaking parts of the empire. On a further creepy note it has been remarked that Antonius might have been sacrificed to the gods of the Nile to ensure a prosperous reign for Hadrian, oh Jerry Springer where are you?)

The temple was turned into a Papal Palace in the late 17th century. It currently houses the Italian Stock exchange (yes there is such a thing)