Rome's biggest park: Villa Doria Pamphili
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Rome: the Coliseum? the Vatican? the Trevi Fountain? What you may not know is that, in addition to its abundance of ancient sites, Rome is a very green city with a number of parks worth visiting.
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Rome: the Coliseum? the Vatican? the Trevi Fountain? What you may not know is that, in addition to its abundance of ancient sites, Rome is a very green city with a number of parks worth visiting.
No matter January or June, Rome's climate makes any time of year the perfect moment for a walk or a picnic outside. Luckily for the guests of Hotel San Francesco, the biggest of Rome's parks, Villa Doria Pamphili, is just minutes away.
Villa Pamphili Lake
Villa Doria Pamphili is a seventeenth-century villa located one neighborhood over from Trastevere in Monteverde, just outside the Porta San Pancrazio in the ancient walls of Rome where the ancient road of the Via Aurelia commences.
It began as a villa for the Pamphili family and when the line died out in the eighteenth century, it passed to Prince Giovanni Andrea IV Doria from which time it has been known as the Villa Doria Pamphili.
In 1965–1971, it was bought by the City of Rome from the Doria-Pamphilii-Landi family.
The park has an area of 1.8 km². Its facilities include sites for bird-watching, jogging, and biking, and it is a favorite hang-out spot for Roman locals, especially on weekends.
With its many beautiful buildings, chapels, ponds and pine forests, you will want to add Villa Doria Pamphili to your list of places to visit during your stay in the Eternal City.
HOW TO REACH VILLA DORIA PAMPHILI FROM HOTEL SAN FRANCESCO
From Hotel San Francesco, you can reach Villa Pamphili in about 15 min. by public transports
Another great option would be to rent our bicycles and enjoy a nice ride across the park.
OPENING TIMES
The park is open every day, from 7.00 am to 18.00 pm in October-February; 7.00 am to 20.00 pm in March and September; and 7.00 am to 21.00 pm in April-August.
Author: our very good friend Samantha
Palazzo Spada: a columns-gallery with a different perspective
Palazzo Spada is an impressive building built in 1550 by Cardinal Capo di Ferro, later restored by Bernini and Borromini who created a unique full play of perspectives in a columns-gallery.
Palazzo Spada is an impressive building built in 1550 by Cardinal Capo di Ferro, later restored by Bernini and Borromini who created a unique full play of perspectives in a columns-gallery.
Looking at the facade with reliefs and entering the courtyard finely decorated with stucco you can relive all the past greatness of Rome. This impressive building was built in 1550 by Cardinal Capo di Ferro, later restored by Bernini and Borromini on behalf of Cardinal Bernardino Spada, who lived here in the 17th century.
A full play of perspectives brings you in the columns-gallery of Borromini, that looks four times larger than it is.
Over the centuries the cardinals gathered paintings, sculpture and precious furniture. The masterworks: Andrea del Sarto, The Visitation and Guercinos Death of Dido.
How to reach it from Hotel San Francesco
From Hotel San Francesco, you can take the tram n. 8 direction “Piazza Venezia” and get off at the 3rd stop “Arenula/Min. Giustizia”; from there Palazzo Spada is 5 minutes walking distance, in Piazza Capo di Ferro, 13.
Post edited by our receptionist Giuseppe
![The amazing Castel Sant'Angelo [VIDEO]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5571a376e4b0ce0031784ab5/1448791242274-IF53P94RXMBYIJ57SM8Y/image-asset.jpeg)
The Capuchin Crypt
The Capuchin Crypt is a Monument of Human Bones and Corpses in Rome, located beneath the church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini on Via Veneto, near Barberini Square...
The Capuchin Crypt is a Monument of Human Bones and Corpses in Rome, located beneath the church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini on Via Veneto, near Barberini Square.
The Capuchin Crypt - Rome
Constructed between 1732-75, it is an ossuary made of a corridor about 30 metres long, connected with five chapels. holding the bones of over 3,700 Capuchin friars buried by their order between 1528 and 1870.
Each room is unique, with different bones used and arranged in creative ways, forming arches, garlands and chandeliers.
A placard in five languages declares “what you are now we used to be; what we are now you will be”.
There is no official history of how this bone church developed over the centuries. It is known that in 1631Capuchin Monks moved there from a nearby monastery and brought with them 300 carts full of their belongings and of bones from the Capuchin cemetery.
Bones kept collecting over the years and were used for the decoration of the bone church.
One of the refuged monks asked to arrange the bones in a artistic way while staying there, and that's how theCapuchin Crypt was created.
The Catholic order insists that the display is not meant to be macabre, but a silent reminder of the swift passage of life on Earth and our own mortality.
The entrance ticket is 6€ and it is including not only the crypt but also the Capuchin Museum.
How to reach it
From Hotel San Francesco, you can take the tram no 8 getting off at Via Arenula and from there you can take the bus no 63, getting off at Barberini Square.
This post has been edited by our receptionist Alessia
The most romantic terrace of Rome: The Orange Garden
The Orange Garden, also known as Parco Savello, is one of those places that you can find only in the eternal city. Surrounded by medieval walls, on top of the Aventine Hill, the Orange Garden is a romantic and peaceful place that offers a breathtaking view of the city, one of the most beautiful...
The Orange Garden, also known as Parco Savello, is one of those places that you can find only in the eternal city. Surrounded by medieval walls, on top of the Aventine Hill, the Orange Garden is a romantic and peaceful place that offers a breathtaking view of the city, one of the most beautiful one in addition to Pincio and the Gianicolo.
The Orange Garden - Rome
A nice fountain will introduce you in this green terrace, characterized by the presence of bitter orange trees all around: I love going there at the sunset, the sky become a painting!
Going out from there, just down the street, in Cavalieri di Malta Square, you will find another pearl of this area. Looking at the right side, you will see a small hole in a large door and if you put your eye in that hole you will see St. Peter’s dome at the end of a tunnel of plants.
In no other place in the world, your eye can see something as amazing as this view!
From Hotel San Francesco you can reach the Orange Garden in 20 minutes, walking up to the Aventine Hill.
Author: our receptionist Alessia
The amazing Castel Sant'Angelo [VIDEO]
Built around 123 A.D. as a tomb for Emperor Hadrian and his family, Castel Sant'Angelo has an unusual destiny in the history and art of the Rome. While all the other Roman monuments are overwhelmed...
Built around 123 A.D. as a tomb for Emperor Hadrian and his family, Castel Sant'Angelo has an unusual destiny in the history and art of the Rome.
While all the other Roman monuments are overwhelmed, reduced to ruins or quarries counting to be recycled into new, modern buildings, the Castle - through an uninterrupted series of developments and transformations that seem to slip into one another seamlessly continuity - goes for nearly two thousand years the fate and history of Rome. From funerary monument to a fortified outpost, from dark and terrible prison wonderful Renaissance that sees active within its walls Michelangelo, from prison to the Risorgimento Museum, Castel Sant'Angelo embodies the solemn Roman spaces, in massive walls, in the sumptuous frescoed rooms, the story of the eternal city where past and present appear inextricably linked
Non-Catholic Cemetery in Rome
There is no other place like this in Rome. When you get through the gate for the first time, a peacefulness atmosphere surround you.
Men from all over the world, rest together, under pine and cypress trees. The cemetery population is incredible rich in writers, painters and poets as Keats and Shelley.
A unique place, out of the tourist route.
There is no other place like this in Rome. When you get through the gate for the first time, a peacefulness atmosphere surround you.
Men from all over the world, rest together, under pine and cypress trees. The cemetery population is incredible rich in writers, painters and poets as Keats and Shelley.
"It might make one in love with death, to think that one should be buried in so sweet a place," wrote Shelley, before he was buried here.
In the past, it happened that, according to the ecclesiastical laws of the Catholic Church, Protestants were not allowed to be buried neither in Catholic churches nor in consecrated ground. Therefore, burial places for non-Catholics, like the one in Rome, came into use early, in some much-visited Italian harbor cities. The earliest grave to be founded is that of George Langton who died in 1738.
This beautiful cemetery is entirely self-supporting and it does not receives regular public funding. For this reason you will be asked to contribute with, at least € 3,00 each, for your visit.
From the site, there is also an excellent view of the Pyramid of Cestius but, unfortunately, is not possible to access to the archeological area.
During your visit, you probably will run into many cats. They are part of a colony since 1850 and they have their own website in English, Italian and German, (www.igattidellapiramide.it). You can also donate some money. There is a small case inside the cemetery.
How to reach it from Hotel San Francesco
To go to the cemetery from Hotel San Francesco you can take the bus n. 3 and stop on via Marmorata, close to Piramide subway station or you can have a walk. It takes about 20 minutes.
The main entrance is on Via Caio Cestio, 6 that is a side street off via Marmorata.
Opening times
The cemetery is open from Monday to Saturday, from 9.00 am to 15.00 pm (last entrance: 16:30 pm) and on Sundays, from 9.00 am to 13.00 pm (last entrance:12.30).
Author: our receptionist Cecilia
The Flea Market of Rome: Porta Portese
Because of its multi ethnicity and the possibility to find unthinkable objects, there is a quote that says that at Porta Portese “you can find anything, from a pill to a Jumbo Jet’!
Porta Portese is the flea market of Rome for excellence.
Porta Portese Flea Market
Here you can find a bit of everything: furniture, clothes, CDs, books, prints, historical newspaper … and the list can be endless.
Because of its multi ethnicity and the possibility to find unthinkable objects, there is a quote that says that at Porta Portese “you can find anything, from a pill to a Jumbo Jet’!
The market open its doors every Sunday, from 6 am until 2 pm, and even if many things changed in the last years, the atmosphere here remains awesome!
From Hotel San Francesco is 2 minutes walking
So what are you waiting for? Come here and call your friends out on how good you are in finding better deals than they find!
Author: our receptionist Alessia
The Mouth of Truth (La Bocca della verità)
Would you test your honesty and put your hand into the mouth of truth?
You definitely can't leave Rome before taking a picture in front of one of the most famous faces in the world...
Would you test your honesty?
Just 10 minutes far from Hotel San Francesco there is one of the most photographed face in the world: La Bocca della Verità
Roman Holiday
La Bocca della Verità (English: the Mouth of Truth) is an image, carved from Pavonazzo marble, of a man-like face, located in the portico of the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome, Italy. The sculpture is thought to be part of a first-century ancient Roman fountain, or perhaps a manhole cover, portraying one of several possible pagan gods,[1] probably Oceanus. Most Romans believe that the 'Bocca' represents the ancient god of the river Tiber.
Brigitte Bardot
The most famous characteristic of the Mouth, however, is its role as a lie detector. Starting from the Middle Ages, it was believed that if one told a lie with one's hand in the mouth of the sculpture, it would be bitten off. There was also a medieval legend, wrongly believed to originate with the Roman poet Virgil, of an adulterous empress who managed to deceive her husband in a trial using the Mouth. This is an infrequent subject in medieval and Renaissance art, forming part of the Power of Women literary topos.[2] The piece was placed in the portico of theSanta Maria in Cosmedin in the 17th century. This church is also home to the supposed relics of Saint Valentine.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bocca_della_Verit%C3%A0
Il Fontanone: a very special fountain along Janiculum walk
Also known as “Fontanone” among Roman citizens, the Acqua Paola Fountain is one of the biggest fountains of Rome.
Built between 1610 and 1612, this fountain was supposed to be the end of the homonym Acqua Paola Aqueduct ...
Also known as “Fontanone” among Roman citizens, the Acqua Paola Fountain is one of the biggest fountains of Rome.
Built between 1610 and 1612, this fountain was supposed to be the end of the homonym Acqua Paola Aqueduct (formerly known as Trajan’s Aqueduct) and has been expanded and restored as requested by Pope Alessandro VIII in 1690.
Fontana dell'Acqua Paola
Enjoy the Janiculum walk, a path which goes up and down in the Janiculum park through the marmor busts of the most important fighters and heroes of the Italian Risorgimento.
In the big square where the fountain is located, try to close your eyes, then open them again and you’ll see one of the most breathtaking panoramas of Rome: in the background, twelve hills.
The best moment to visit “il Fontanone” is the sunset-time.
The view from Il Fontanone
From Hotel San Francesco you can easily reach the Acqua Paola Fountain by taking the bus 115 - direction “L.go Fiorentini” at the stop “Trastevere/Min. Pubblica Istruzione”, very closed to the hotel. Get off at the 4th stop named “Garibaldi/Iacobucci” and you’ll find the fountain nearby.
Author: our receptionist Giuseppe