Staycation: Layers of history

Something that never ceases to amaze me is the incredible layering of history here in Rome.  This spot has been in continual habitation for nearly 2800 years.  That's a lot of years and a lot of building and rebuilding.  It hasn't stopped.  The Capitoline hill at the head of the Roman Forum was rebuilt in the early 20th century with the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II, or the wedding cake, or typewriter if you prefer.  Before that there were ancient, Renaissance, and Medieval buildings on site.  The piazza is bordered on the north by a recently refurbished palace once occupied by Napoleon Bonaparte's mother.  The palace is now a museum currently featuring an exhibit of Impressionist artists upstairs and Legos downstairs.  Piazza Venezia and the surrounding streets are changing once again to make way for a new Metro station.  It never ends.

Late one night after the kids were in bed we went for a walk.  We headed up along the Aurelian wall and through the Porta Latina.  We saw a sign for the Basilica di San Giovanni a Porta Latina.  We knew the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano.  It is in the same general direction as the sign and we thought the road might go through.  Nope.  Different Basilica di San Giovanni.  It was late and the church was closed, but it was really interesting to look at the outside architecture.  You can see how they used mismatched Roman columns and added a bell tower after the main part of the Medieval church was built.  The church was built around 490 AD and restored in the 8th and 12th centuries and most recently in about 1940.  I'm sure at some point it will need fixing up again.

In November John and I stumbled across a concert at the Basilica di San Giovanni e Paulo al Celio.  It was lovely.  The original church was built in 398 over the house of two Roman soldiers martyred in 362.  The church was damaged and rebuilt many times through the centuries with a later addition of a monastery and bell tower.  In the 19th century more excavations were done and the original Roman houses were discovered underneath the church.  The older one dates to about 111.  The houses are now open as a small museum.  It is amazing and especially fun when you have it mostly to yourself.

Many wall frescoes and floor mosaics are quite intact.  There is a part where you can see what was once a road between buildings, now covered over.

mosaic floor

fresco in the nymphaeum

So much to see and learn.