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VaviTour - Rome Tour Guide

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14/02/2022

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!❤️

09/02/2022

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!

03/02/2022

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”.

02/02/2022

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 🌟

31/01/2022

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.

29/01/2022

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!

26/01/2022

🖼 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.

24/01/2022

🏛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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20/01/2022

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.

19/01/2022

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.

05/07/2020

The museum of contemporary art in Rome is a national excellence and proud since its opening in 2011. The project is one of the best by Zaha Hadid, worldwide celebrated archi-star who conceived this museum as a fluid organism of connections, a multiplication of rivers overlapping each other and flowing continuously. The use of Hadid’s famous velvet cement and glass on the ceiling is the main characteristic and walking through the galleries the feeling you’ll have is to be drifted by art and beauty. It’s an amazing experience that I strongly recommend.
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03/07/2020

Deep in the blue of Capri you will breath the serenity of this island, cured by the sea and by the the Mediterranean scents. I strongly suggest to take few hours to enjoy an easy trekking along the south east green path of the island where you can see the best views of the famous Faraglioni and other amazing cliffs.
👉🏻Discover with me all the possibilities and itineraries that Capri has to offer, you won’t regret 😉
🌊🌊🌊🌊
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18/06/2020

A masterpiece of architecture, this spiral staircase designed by the architect Vignola is the “scala regia” (royal staircase) of Farnese Palace in Caprarola, the magnificent Villa outside of Rome that the aristocratic cardinal Alexander Farnese built for his delight. The “snail” kind of shape that the balustrade has is based on 30 double marble columns lifting up towards a scenic ceiling fully decorated with paintings. This staircase had a significant role, as it used to be the main access to the Palace, used by his guests, so it had to represent the status and the importance of the Cardinal. That’s why the frescoes are filled with symbols too, as the all decorative project of the Villa.
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@ Palazzo Farnese

14/06/2020

The monumental beauty of the Roman Forum combined with the whiteness of the Vittoriano monument at the background is one of the most impressive corners of the Eternal City. The Forum of Caesar in particular commemorates one of the golden ages of the history of Rome and its most famous character, Julius Caesar, who commissioned the extension of the political and social center of Rome, the Forum indeed, with a newer public Forum that Caesar could inaugurate on the 46BC, before his famous murder. The project was the construction of a new square, a double portico and a temple dedicated to Venus, to pay homage to the goddess that helped him in winning the war and anyway the goddess-protractor of his dynasty, the gens Julia.
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09/06/2020

That “terrible gaze” of Moses carved by Michelangelo in the hard marble is the most celebrated characteristic of this statue preserved in the church of Saint Peter in chains. Moses is represented seating down, carrying the 10 commandments and looking harshly to his left, as to admonish his people he will be furious with them. It’s Moses’ anger against the Jews idolizing the golden cow. Is it a hidden message of Michelangelo against the growing exploitation by the Catholic Church of the indulgences that faithful were paying? Many are the interpretations that historians have given, for sure that intense gaze will be always perceived by all of us as an advice, as if Moses would be looking at us alive.
👉🏻Moses was often represented with 2 little horns on his head: that’s the tradional depiction of Moses for a wrong translation of the term “light” in Hebrew into “horns” in Latin. To not change this old tradition and to make the general public able to recognize the character Moses Michelangelo decided to keep the tradition of the horns.
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@ San Pietro in Vincoli

08/06/2020

The icon of Mary and child called “Salus Populi Romani” (for the Salvation of the Roman people) is the most important holy icon of Mary we have in Rome, according to the oldest tradition it’s thought to be painted by Saint Luke the Evangelist and brought to Rome by St Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine, from Jerusalem. The bizantine painting on board was actually painted between the V and XIII and always preserved in the basilica of Saint Mary the Major, since the 1613 it’s in the Paolina Chapel, on the left side of the altar, a magnificent chapel built specifically for it by the Borghese family. Always considered a miraculous image, it got often carried along the streets of Rome in parade during diseases and plagues in order to wish the end of them and Romans health. Many Popes in the history have invoked the icon help: also Pope Francis on March 2020 did prayed it in worldwide broadcast to ask for the end of COVID-19 pandemic. It has been so moving 🙏🏻
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07/06/2020

The most celebrated room of the Farnese Palace in Caprarola, the so-called maps room (or the globe room) shocks for its vivid colors and the deep blue made of lapis lazuli. The globe and the maps of the main continents are represented on the walls while the celestial map of all the stars and the constellations of winter’s solstice comes over the ceiling with an extraordinary attention for exact astronomical measures. The project was a combination of a scientific astronomical and astrological study, the most updated back then, and an artistic allegorical interpretation of it: artists and scientists working together for the cardinal Alessandro Farnese between 1573 and 1575, marking the history of art forever.
The room was admired by artists, popes and princes of all ages and it became so influential on them.
👉🏻 if you wish to visit something special, off the touristy beaten paths, Palazzo Farnese in the village of Caprarola is a great choice, only 1 hour by car from the center of Rome
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01/06/2020

In the middle of Villa Borghese gardens there’s a little artificial lake with the recreation of the Greek temple of Esculapius, the god of medicine. Antonio e Mario Asprucci designed it between 1785 and 1792, when much of the gardens got developed and enriched with works of art and other attractions, more or less the way we see it nowadays. Near the lake and the temple that was meant to remember the story of Esculapius arriving to Rome on a boat in shape of a serpent as described in the legend of the Tiberine island, there was also the possibility to have a boat ride the same way people can rent a boat for a ride todays. Near the lake in the late 1700s and later in the 1800s there was a little complex of cages with animals too.
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About vavitour

My name is VALENTINA DI PIETRO, I’m an art historian, graduated with honors (MA -Art History) at the University of Rome and an official tour guide of Rome. After many years spent in the contemporary and modern art field, I decided to dedicate all my passion to this amazing job that I have the privilege to do, because I wanted to create something new and unique, finally doing it my way.

My Blog is the mirror of my life and experiences in Rome: all the things that I like about Rome and how much I love to travel.

If you live Rome the way I do, as a big “surprise” in each corner, everywhere and every single day, it would help you realize that three thousand years of history can be experienced as one infinite present moment and that we shouldn’t be intimidated. If you want to follow me in this adventure, I’ll be happy to tell you about the glory of Ancient Rome, to show you the flourishing Baroque art but even all the surprising modernity of today’s Rome architecture.

I strongly believe that customized and tailor made tours make the difference, compared to all the touristy and generalist options. My aim is to take care of you on each tour, from start to finish, planning only the best for you and your trip. Let’s start to design our tour together, there are plenty of opportunities and the next one is only yours!