The Toga: badge of Roman citizenship.

photo Toga Party Costumes - Buzzle

Toga was THE national garment of Roman citizens:  a woollen cloak with curved hem.
For men it was a symbol of their free-born status. 
Augustus revived the toga and invited Romans to wear it in the Forum and when attending races at the Circus.

Late antique writer Macrobius describes in his 'Satires' (3.13.4) the complexity of being a dandy for Hortensius: [...] to go out well dressed he checked his appearance in the mirror, and so draped the toga on his body that a graceful knot gathered the folds, arranging them not randomly but with care [...] He thought it a crime that folds should be moved from their place on his shoulder [...]

It was a statement which underlined the Roman citizenship.
Initially it was made of undyed white thick coarse woollen cloth.
A dark toga: brown or black (toga sordida) was used by poor citizens, accused people or for mourning.
Victorius generals in their processions wore the special toga picta (purple wool and gold thread).  Also worn by kings initially, emperors later, equites and priests.
The toga praetexta was for high rank people:  it had a purple stripe (clavus).
Young Roman boys, once they turned 16,  were allowed to wear the toga virilis or liberior (since it meant they were free from parental control.)  It was also named toga pura because it was white.
For the Romans dress was, like nowadays, an expression of social rank, gender and age. 

The topless bronze gladiatrix in Hamburg.

photo Alfonso Manas

Female gladiators existed!
A rarity, nevertheless, documented by Roman historians such as Dio Cassius (150-235 CE) who describes a festival organized by Nero for his mother (in which women fought). 
The same writer reports an event sponsored by the same emperor in the year 66 CE with Ethiopian women-gladiators in Pozzuoli in honor of the king of Armenia Tiridates.
Suetonius, another famous Roman historian and biographer (69-122 CE), describes games held under Domitian (88 CE) in which women fought against dwarfs!
Tacitus (Annales 15.32-33) reports that during a show in AD 63 some senators and noblewomen entered the arena to fight.
The satirical poet Juvenal describes Mevia hunting boars in the arena. 
Petronius (Satyricon) and Martial (Liber De Spectaculis) also refer to games involving women.
In the British Museum a marble relief found in Halicarnassus (Bodrum, Turkey) portrays 2 women gladiators nicknamed Achillia and Amazon. 

A bronze statuette, almost 2000 years old, in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbein, in Hamburg,  has recently been interpreted as woman-gladiator, according to researcher Alfonso Manas, of Spain's University of Granada.  It could be a bare-chested woman brandishing a short, curved sword (sica).  The mysterious object she holds was previously identified as a strigil (used by Romans, who did not use soap, for scraping the body clean).
Manas is persuaded she is a gladiator for the pose:  typical of victorious gladiators.
Not surprising that she is topless:  women and men fought with bare chest.
Considering the audience was largely formed by men that caused a certain impact of course.

The scarcity of archaeological evidence depicting women gladiators however proves that women were rarely fighting. Such custom was banned by the emperor Septimus Severus (200 AD).

Tripadvisor awards Park of the Aqueducts: 6th most popular park in Italy for travellers from around the world!



www.parcoacquedotti.it
(from the photo-gallery)

TripAdvisor, the largest travel site in the world, just in time for Summer, announced its first ever Travelers’ Choice Attractions awards, honoring over 1,200 of the world’s top landmarks, parks, museums.   This first edition has recognized 1,263 attractions divided into historic sites, museums, parks and amusement parks.
Winners of the 2013 Travelers Choice Attractions are distributed in 39 countries around the world.

If in the top ten of the Italian sights St.Peter’s Basilica, Colosseum and Pantheon are not really a surprise (http://www.tripadvisor.it/TravelersChoice-Attractions-cLandmarks) what it’s very interesting is that Rome also won two positions in the top 10 of the most popular Italian parks for travelers from around the world. Villa Doria Pamphili, the largest park in the capital, is ranked 5th in the top ten, closely followed by the Park of the Aqueducts, which gained a sixth position!

Like no other place, it has preserved the charm and the atmosphere envisioned by travelers of the Grand Tour.  Crossed by six of the eleven major aqueducts built by the Romans plus a Renaissance one (the Aqua Felix, built in 1585 under Felice Peretti: pope Sixtus V, using the arches of the Aqua Marcia).

The most ancient acqueduct in the Park is the Anio Vetus (3rd century B.C.), almost entirely underground, the most conspicuous is the Aqua Claudia whose imposing arches still survive above ground in the peaceful contryside where you can still see sheep grazing.  The aqueducts are supplied from natural springs in the upper valley of the Aniene beyond Tivoli, in the Alban Hills.

11 acqueducts in the Ancient Rome brought more than 200 million gallons of water into the city every day!

This wonderful park is also easy to reach: best approach from Via Lemonia.
Buy a metro ticket (€1,50), get on the metro line A, direction Anagnina and get off the at Subaugusta station. Exit toward via Tito Labieno and walk down via Tito Labieno a few blocks (about 600 m) to the park. 
When you cross via Quintilo Varo, you will know you are headed in the right direction.
Cross via Lemonia and you are there!

Correggio's Danae: a soft porn or Virgin Mary's prefiguration?

Danae by Correggio (1531) - Borghese Gallery - Rome.

In Greek mythology Danae, the daughter of Acrisius, king of Argos was imprisoned in a tower after an oracle predicted the king  that her son would kill him.  But men cannot fight Fate and Zeus visited her in the form of a golden shower.   Perseus, born from this divine union, will accidentally kill the king as the prophecy had foreseen. 

 

Interpretations of Danae have been ambivalent and often contradictory. 

For misogynist Roman poets she was interpreted as a venal woman whose love can be bought for money. 

The myth was Christianized during  the 14^th century and she became a sort of 'Virgin Mary', giving birth, impregnated by the Holy Spirit. 

Artists like Correggio and Titian in the Renaissance underlined the sensuality of the scene.

Coreggio’s Danae was mistakenly interpreted as a Venus by Vasari. 

 

A 'soft porn', part of a cycle of Jupiter’s Loves which Correggio painted towards the end of his life.  Commissioned by Federico Gonzaga, duke of Mantua, who continued the glorious patronage of arts started by his mother Isabella d’Este. 

Correggio's style reinterprets freely Raphael and Leonardo's suggestions.  This is one of my favourite paintings at the Borghese for its fascinating ambiguity:  how shall we interpret Cupid's gesture?  Is he trying to prevent  or to favour the 'union'?  Is he covering or uncovering Danae?

A Day at Ostia: 5 good reasons not to miss it!

Ostia Antica is an underestimated attraction:  it should be a must, especially if you can't make it to Pompei.

1) After Pompei and Herculaneum it's Italy's best preserved Roman town.  Ostia was the port of Rome and a prosperous city with a theater, temples, baths, condominiums and patrician villas. It provides a vivid picture of Rome's everyday life!

2) It's located at about 25 km from the city and can be easily reached by train (metro B from Stazione Termini to Piramide stop and from there take a Lido train to Ostia Antica).

 
3) In summer classics are staged inside the ancient  Roman theater (http://www.ostianticateatro.it/).

4) If you are travelling with kids it's a perfect destination:  they will just love the combination nature & ruins.  Don't forget swim-suits and sunblock:  you can easily reach the beaches by train (just a few minutes). The water is not exactly crystal clear but the coast is lively, there are nice beach clubs (stabilimenti)  and the dark sand accelerates tanning!

5) No matter where you go you'll find bars serving delicious caprese salad, panini or pasta and also good fish restaurants.

Villa Farnesina: the popes' banker's residence.

 

Commissioned by Agostino Chigi the banker of the popes, the villa was meant for a woman: his young Venetian mistress Francesca Ordeaschi who some years later he made his wife. They had five children, who were illegitimate.  When he became seriously ill (he was only 54) he decided to marry her and the marriage was celebrated by the pope Leo X. Chigi died the following year.

Between 1506–1510 the Sienese artist Baldassarre Peruzzi designed the villa intended to be a summer pavilion.  Best known are Raphael’s frescoes on the ground floor; in the loggia: Cupid and Psyche and The Triumph of Galatea (this one so reminiscent of Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus!).

March 9th is the only day to visit Santa Francesca Romana Monastery.

For the anniversary of her death (March 9th, 1440) the Monastery where she spent the last years of her life is exceptionally open to the public (only one day a year actually - March 9th from 9 to 11,30 and from 14,30 to 18,00).  Santa Francesca Romana chose a monastic life after the death of her two children for the plague and the illness of her husband.  She was born in a wealthy and aristocratic family and she wanted to become a nun since she was 11 but at the age of 12 she was forced to marry (a happy marriage in the end which lasted 40 years). A life of constant tension between the Vocational instict and the inner sense of family.  She was canonized in 1608 for a life spent to help the poor and the sick.  She founded the Olivetan Oblates of Mary (a confraternity of pious women) and the Monastery of Tor de Specchi near the Capitole hill.  The Monastery is a beautiful exemple of the artistic transition between Medieval and Renaissance art (the very precious frescoes by Antoniazzo Romano illustrate the life of the saint and offer a valuable insight of the period including some very interesting iscriptions in Roman dialect).  In 1925 pope Pius XI declared her the patron saint of automobile drivers because of a legend that an angel used to light the road before her with a lantern when she traveled keeping her safe from hazards. Within the Benedictine Order , she is also honored as a patron saint of all oblates.
On this day admission is free for all those who wish to remember a little known Saint and visit the Monastery where she is buried.