Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Antica di Palazzo Corsini
GALLERY
( 06 6880 2323; galleriacorsini. beniculturali.it/; Via della Lungara 10; adult/reduced €5/2.50, incl
Palazzo Barberini €9/4.50; 8.30am-7.30pm Tue-Sun; Lgt della Farnesina, Viale di Trastevere)
Once home to Queen Christina of Sweden, whose richly frescoed bedroom witnessed a
stready stream of male and female lovers, the 16th-century Palazzo Corsini houses part of
Italy's national art collection. Highlights include Caravaggio's mesmerising
San Giovanni
Battista
(St John the Baptist) and Rubens'
Testa di Vecchio
(Head of an Old Man).
Tempietto di Bramante &
Chiesa di San Pietro in Montorio
CHURCH
(
www.sanpietroinmontorio.it
;
Piazza San Pietro in Montorio 2; Chiesa 8.30am-noon & 3-4pm Mon-Fri,
Tempietto 9.30am-12.30pm & 2-4.30pm Tue-Sun; Via Garibaldi)
Considered the first great build-
ing of the High Renaissance, Bramante's sublime Tempietto (Little Temple; 1508) stands
in the courtyard of the Chiesa di San Pietro in Montorio, on the spot where St Peter is said
to have been crucified. It's a small building with a circular interior surrounded by 16
columns and capped by a proportionally perfect dome. Bernini added a staircase in 1628,
as well as a chapel to the adjacent church.
It's quite a climb uphill to get to the church but you can cheat by taking bus 870 from
Via Paola just off Corso Vittorio Emanuele II.
Basilica di Santa Cecilia
in Trastevere
BASILICA
(Piazza di Santa Cecilia; basilica free, fresco & crypt each €2.50; basilica & crypt 9.30am-2.30pm &
4-7.30pm, fresco 10am-2.30pm Mon-Sat; Viale di Trastevere, Viale di Trastevere)
This is the last
resting place of St Cecilia, the patron saint of music who was martyred here in AD 230. It
features a stunning 13th-century fresco by Pietro Cavallini in the nun's choir, and, in the
main body of the basilica, an exquisite sculpture by Stefano Moderno showing exactly
how St Cecilia's miraculously preserved body was found in the Catacombe di San Callisto
in 1599.
You can also visit the excavations of Roman houses beneath the church, one of which
was possibly St Cecilia's.
