Alice’s wonderland

“The first time I went to Viminale market I was a few months old, it was very hot and I was a little tired. But I was curious to see fruits and vegetables. At the time, I still used to eat apple or pear baby food, together with other mush prepared by Mummy…
So, although my eyes were almost closing, I was looking around to see, on top of fruits and vegetables, all the bags, clothes, scarves, cheese and cold cuts. But then I got sick of it and started to cry, so Mummy started walking up and down Cesare Balbo road, which is actually a leaning road, made of small stones called sanpietrini and I fell asleep. But when I woke up I still saw a stall full of make-up with a sign “At Singh’s everything at 3 euros”.

Just around the corner

ust a few steps from Cesare Balbo road, there is the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, a ‘must’ of any Roman pilgrimage. Pope Francesco knows it well, as he chose this church for his first visit as pontiff , an early morning prayer early just a few hours after the white smoke that had consecrated him bishop of Rome. The chronicles told of how he prayed in the Pauline Chapel, where the ancient image of Maria Salus Populi Romani is honored, and in the Sistine Chapel, which houses the beautiful nativity scene carved by Arnolfo di Cambio. But we prefer to address our visitors to a monument that doesn’t really catch the eye, and it’s indeed difficult to find the first time. It’s under a step, on the right side of the main altar . It’s BERNINI’S TOMB. For once, the artist who has decorated the Eternal City with baroque splendor leaves us open-mouthed, not for his sculptural designs or architectural solutions , but for the absolute simplicity of his tomb, a sobriety which makes it almost anonymous. A slab of stone , and the inscription “Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini, glory of the arts and the city, here humbly rests”. A humility that even Pope Francesco might have appreciated.

And, being aficionado to this basilica, the pope coming from “the other side of the world” certainly knows the story of the probably most curious monument of Santa Maria Maggiore: NIGRITA’S BUST. It’s a sculpture made ​​of black stone on the cast of the death mask of the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Congo Antonio Emanuele Ne Vunda. His story actually deserves to be told: in 1604 the king of Congo Alvaro II decided to send a diplomat of his personal confidence to the Vatican to ask the Pope to send missionaries to his land, bypassing the mediation of Portugal, which until that moment, by exercising his spiritual protection on the kingdom, had sent “evangelizers” more devoted to slave trade than to spread God's word. So, Antonio Emanuele Ne Vunda, cousin of the king, was the one to be chosen. But his mission soon turned into an odyssey. On the way to Europe he was attacked by Dutch pirates, who stole all the gifts for the Pope. When he finally reached Spain, only four of his 26 fellow adventurers were left alive. With this modest suite, in October of 1607 he left towards Rome, but he became very ill during the journey. So, when on January 3, 1608 Vunda reached the Eternal City, Pope Paul V – who was preparing to welcome him with all the honors reserved to princes and emperors – met a man exhausted and debilitated by fevers. He ordered to host him in one of the most beautiful rooms in the Apostolic Palace, made him available his personal physicians and even paid him a visit while he was sick in bed, a scene which is still immortalized in a fresco in the corridor leading to the Sistine Chapel in Vatican. But the pontiff’s attentions were not enough: on January 6, Epiphany, “Nigrita” died. Paul V decided to bury him in Santa Maria Maggiore, where you can still admire the black marble commissioned by the Pope himself to the sculptor Francesco Caporale. Last note: according to some historians, the real purpose of Ne Vunda’s mission was to ask the Pope’s support to end the slave trade. One more reason to pay homage to this noble and unfortunate character.

Leaving Santa Maria Maggiore, crossing Esquilino square, you can reach the OPERA THEATRE, today home to the conductor Riccardo Muti, who has been appointed honorary director for life. Also known as Teatro Costanzi – name of its creator and first manager – it was opened in 1880 with the “Semiramide” by Rossini. In the horseshoe shaped room, at the end of '800 resounded for the first time the music of “Cavalleria Rusticana” and “L'amico Fritz” by Mascagni, but perhaps the most famous première was on 14 January 14, the “Tosca” by Puccini. The chronicles tell of an evening not without tension, with the conductor stopping the play because of the late arrival of some members of the audience. But the real tension was actually behind the scenes, and it was not only the anxiety that normally accompanies each debut: just before getting on the podium, the director had been informed by some police officers that a bomb could have exploded during the performance.
Whether it was by music lovers belonging to a group hostile to Puccini (in those years of tough music rivalry, often the fans of other composers would boycott rivals with quite extreme actions) or by anarchists (among others attending the play, there were the Chairman of the Board Pelloux and Queen Margherita), the threat was considered credible. Due to all of the above, the performance was not truly unforgettable, as the newspapers pointed out the day after. However, at the end, the public gave recognition to Puccini and his interpreters with seven calls and more than twenty replicas which were sold out, handing the “Tosca” at the place it deserves in the history of music. The visitors who pass today in the square named after the great tenor Beniamino Gigli will not find themselves in front of the neo-Renaissance style that welcomed the audience in '900 . The current appearance of the theater was designed by architect Marcello Piacentini , who was in charge of the renewal of the the “old” Costanzi in 1926 and then a second time exactly thirty years later. It was Piacentini to put up the breathtaking chandelier of Murano glass still showing off in the theater : apparently the largest in the world of its kind . Unfortunately, the door keepers will not allow you to take a look at any hour of the day: if you want to see it, you'll have to put on a nice dress or suit and buy a ticket for a show. But, you'll see , it's worth it .

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