I left Castel Sant'Angelo via its eastern exit and walked around its star-shaped perimeter, heading north into the pretty neighbourhood of Prati. The area is not a tourist destination but a quiet and well-to-do place with lovely art nouveau-style apartment blocks. Wooden shutters adorn the simple designs of the buildings that are painted in cream or ochre colours.
Taking a counterclockwise approach, I swung back towards the Tiber River, passing the Vatican City, a city-state and enclave. Besides being the Pope's residence, the Vatican City holds some of the most precious art and antiquities collections in the world within its museum.
The Sistine Chapel is famous for its frescoes, and St. Peter's Basilica is renowned for its Renaissance architecture and stunning central dome. A staggering 1.1 million printed books and 75,000 codices are held within the Vatican Library, one of the oldest libraries in the world.
as I walked up the wide cobblestoned Via della Conciliazione, I saw the Basilica rising before me and framed by a grand piazza. There are 284 colonnades, four rows deep, surrounding the piazza, topped with 140 statues of saints and martyrs. At the centre is an Egyptian obelisk with two disks on either side. When I stood on one of the disks, only a single row of colonnades was visible instead of four.
Instead of crossing the river, I continued south towards the Piazza Guiseppe Garibaldi for a fantastic aerial view of the city. Several prominent landmarks could clearly be seen in the distance. Nearby was the statue of Guiseppe Garibaldi, an excellent military leader who, in the 19th century, helped with the unification of Italy and the creation of the Kingdom of Italy.
I passed through the bohemian neighbourhood Trastevere, where artisan shops, craft beer pubs, and trendy restaurants were tucked away in narrow streets. Ivy-draped walls gave the streets a gorgeous garden-like character. Trastevere wasn't always this funky. As wealth seeped into the area, grand villas were established, evoking old-world charm and chic commercial businesses.
Crossing the TIber River, I walked to Aventine Hill, one of the Seven Hills of ancient Rome, to check out a unique view through the Knights of Marla Keyhole. Peeking through the keyhole, I could see a garden path lined with tall hedges beautifully framing the dome of the Basilica. The keyhole is tiny, and part of the oldest chivalric order in the world called the Knights of Malta or, more correctly, the Knights of St. John Hospitaller.
Satisfying my curiosity with the keyhole view, I moved on to Parco degli Acquedotti (The Aqueduct Park), where the ruins of seven different aqueducts are contained within a public park. Built between the 3rd century BC and the 2nd century AD, the aqueducts supplied water to the urban areas. A typical aqueduct consisted of arches supporting the top section where the water flowed through a carved groove. Four of the seven aqueducts - Vetus, Anio Novus, Claudius, and Aqua Marcia - were considered the "great aqueducts of Rome". Ranging between 40mi (64km) and 56min (90km) long, each aqueduct partially ran underground. The remains in the park are an amazing reminder of the Romans' exceptional engineering and construction skills.
Today I celebrated Valentine's Day for the first time in living memory. I decided decades ago to stop subscribing to the commercialism of Valentine's Day; but it still feels good to mark the occasion. So having agreed on no gifts, I went forth to hunt and gather food; and prepared a home cooked meal for a special human. And despite having agreed on no gifts, said special human turned up on my door step with a single red rose. Thus demonstrating that he is indeed a special human!
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