Daily Rome Shot 105

3 Comments

1. Gab says:

   18 March 2021 at 6:16 AM

   I sure do miss ThePapalCount’s commentaries on these Rome shots.
2. Fr. John Zuhlsdorf says:

   18 March 2021 at 4:09 PM

   You are walking into the Jewish quarter. Before you is the Portico of Octavia, who was the sister of Augustus Caesar. He built this in her honor around 27 BC. It was part of a larger complex of libraries and meeting places. A little church, Sant’Angelo in Pescheria, was built into the ruin and, just on the other side of that, is a large and important Church Santa Maria in Campitelli with its miraculous icon of Mary. The Church is special to the English, who since the time of The Old Pretender, James Francis Edward Stuart, have been praying for the return of Our Lady’s Dowry to the one true Church.

   The medieval brick building stands on the edge of the depression where the Theatre of Marcellus stands in part well preserved. It is the Palazzo Orsini Savelli, and once the palace of the Piereleoni, one of whom became anti-Pope Anacletus II. The building was eventually turned into apartments and is now a museum.

   To your sharp left is the Roman Synagogue and the Lungotevere. To your six is the tiny church that was at the wall of the Ghetto, San Gregorio della Divina Pietà or rather a Quattro Capi, which has on its facade an inscription in Hebrew: Isaiah 65:2-3. The “quattro capi” refers to the ancient four-faced herm built into the wall of the Pons Fabricius that links the Tiber Island. It was made more famous by the statue in Trastevere of the great Roman poet Giuseppe Gioachino Belli leaning next to it on the bridge. I’ve read his stuff here, as has The Great Roman.

   Near the Portico and to the left along the street is a famous restaurant in Rome, Da Giggetto, which is know especially for Jewish Roman cuisine and fried artichokes, “alla giudia”. Farther along there was a small bakery that used to make American style cookies. In the main Piazza delle Cinque Scole I used to see on a Friday evening the older men teaching the young ones how to bind their phylacteries.

   Some upscale places have opened in the neighborhood as of my last visit, and in recent years a lot of the area beneath the Portico has been excavated and studied. There are walkways into the dig.

   Particularly engaging is the little red “Topolino” and characteristic street lamp.
3. Sid Cundiff in NC says:

   19 March 2021 at 11:22 AM

   Thank you for mentioning Da Giggetto by name. In the same street is Ba Ghetto, kosher, which I can also recommend.

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