Sofia Manmana - Amazing Roma Tours

🌲 Do you know why this is called the “Pinecone Courtyard” (Cortile della Pigna)?

In the heart of the Vatican Museums there is a gigantic bronze pinecone, 4 meters high and over 2 meters in diameter!

📜 This extraordinary sculpture was unearthed in the early Middle Ages near the Pantheon, and it still gives its name to this district of Rome (Pigna). It dates to the 1st or 2nd century AD and it still bears the signature of Publius Cincius Savius, the sculptor who made it.

In ancient Rome the pinecone was symbolically associated with the concepts of fertility, productivity and rebirth after physical death.🌱

According to the scholars it was originally made to decorate the Baths of Agrippa, or a fountain in the nearby Temple of Isis, and jets of water would have spurted out of it! 💧

📍 Over the centuries it was relocated several times until finally, in 1608, it was transported from the ancient portico of St. Peter's Basilica and given its present home in this courtyard designed and built by the great architect Bramante.

📖 In his “Divine Comedy” Dante compares this bronze pinecone to the face of a giant in Hell. Perhaps the great medieval poet saw it in person during the Jubilee of 1300!

✨ As you will have realized by now, this strange ancient object is more than just a surreal pop-art sculpture, made by modern artists like Salvador Dali or Claes Oldenburg!

📌 Save this post and share it with those who love the most special and iconic places in Rome!

Today is April the 21st, the legendary birthday of the Eternal City, which has reached the venerable age of 2,777!

To celebrate this day we feel we have to start with the animal that represents Rome more than any other: the she-wolf 🐺

📜 Her story is a blend of myth and symbolism.

Rhea Silvia, a vestal virgin, was seduced by the god Mars. When her usurping uncle, king Amulius, found out that she had given birth to the twins Romulus and Remus, he ordered that they be killed 😱... so they were cast adrift in a basket on the River Tiber.

A she-wolf (an animal sacred to Mars), who had lost her own cubs, found them by the river bank and nursed them. 🐺

Then the shepherd Faustulus took them and raised them together with his wife.

Spoiler: one of these boys would go on to found the city of Rome! 👑

🗿 A bronze statue of Romulus and Remus being suckled by the she-wolf can be seen in the Capitoline Museums, in the room that takes its name from her.

The wolf is probably very ancient, but the figures of the twins that we can see now were made at a later date, in the 15th century!

📍Fun fact: a bronze copy of this statue stands on a column to the left of Palazzo Senatorio, at the top of the Capitoline Hill!

✨ Have you ever seen the original she-wolf statue? Tag someone who you would like to see it with!

💌 Amazing Roma Tours wishes Happy Easter!! 🌸🐣

🌊 Do you know what these engraved marks are?

They might look like random marks carved into stones and walls, but in fact they had a very specific meaning!

Before the construction of the high stone embankments of the Tiber, completed in 1875, there were many devastating floods inside Rome that reached various heights.

As a record of these events, the Romans put what they called manine (little hands) on these stone signs, to indicate the levels reached by the floodwaters.

📍 I am at the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, where the Tiber reached a height of 20 meters in 1598! It was so devastating that Pope Clement VIII (yes, the same one who had poor Beatrice Cenci beheaded the following year) officially cursed the intrusive river waters! 😱

Share the post and amaze those people, like you, who love Rome and all of its strange legends and quirky historical features!

Now, when you walk past these strange signs engraved in stone, you will know that they are the enduring evidence of a time when the centre of Rome was deep underwater!✨

Hello all you lovers of trivia! 💖

🕵️‍♀️ Today I'm taking you to the original Capitol Hill: 𝗣𝗶𝗮𝘇𝘇𝗮 𝗱𝗲𝗹 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗱𝗼𝗴𝗹𝗶𝗼!

Do you know who designed the layout of this wonderful square?

Yes, it was the great Renaissance genius, Michelangelo!

It is on the northern side of the Capitoline Hill, once a citadel where the temples dedicated to the most important Roman gods stood.

🔎 A legend tells that in 390 BC the geese of the temple of Juno honked to alert the Romans during a surprise night attack by the Gauls who had raided the city.

👀 Just imagine it: the enemy soldiers are silently scaling the slopes of the hill, but the sacred birds start making a terrible noise, waking up the sentries who rushed to defend the citadel!

Who would have thought that the Romans would have a flock of geese to thank for saving the city in its darkest hour?😄

Here’s a curious fact about the magnificent equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius that stands in the centre of the square: it is actually a replica!

The original gilded bronze statue of the philosopher emperor has been conserved nearby in the Capitoline Museums since 1990, to protect it from the weather. 🏛️✨

Save this post for your next trip to Rome and share it with people like you who love curious facts and stories! 📩✨

Amazing Valentine’s Day! On the trail of the saint of love...

💘 Today is February the 14th, Saint Valentine’s Day!

In my post about the month of February I told you that a mysterious relic of St. Valentine would be revealed in Rome today... but before telling you where, I’d like to talk about who the saint of love really was!

🤓 He is usually identified as a bishop of the town of Terni, about 90 km north of Rome, who was supposedly martyred on February the 14th, 273 AD under the Emperor Aurelian.
He was said to have celebrated forbidden marriages between young lovers, and so he became the patron saint of love! 💍❤️

😎 His day also represents with ancient Rome because in the 5th century the Church officially replaced the ancient pagan festival of fertility, known as the Lupercal, with a more Christian celebration.

So now let's get back to the relic😏... 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘄𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝗦𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗲’𝘀 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗵𝗹𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀❓❓

His skull decorated with flowers🌸 is on display today, in the 𝐵𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑆𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑎 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑎 𝑖𝑛 𝐶𝑜𝑠𝑚𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑛! In fact it can be seen throughout the year, but today it is more significant than ever! ☠️

Have you ever seen this macabre relic yourself?👀 Tell me about it in the comments! 🤩

💦 Since we are in a romantic mood today, 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬☝☝ I will take you with me to 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬... who knows, maybe it will bring us all good luck in love! 😉💫

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!! 😍💕

'sDay

The 𝐵𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑆𝑡. 𝑃𝑎𝑢𝑙 𝑂𝑢𝑡𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑠 is a building that has survived many centuries of history, being subject to destruction by fire and some extraordinary transformations.👀

Did you know that it also contains an exceptional and unique art gallery? 🤩

Oh, I almost forgot... the Basilica has a Holy Door with an inscription in Latin that wishes those who pass through it peace and eternal salvation.

It is one of the four Holy Doors of Rome, and this year it has been reopened for the occasion of the Jubilee! 🚪✨

📍 Do you want to visit this place and many other wonders of Rome in person? 🥰 👇

Take a look at 𝗺𝘆 𝘄𝗲𝗯𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲 to view all the different tours available and find the perfect one for you!

📲 𝐆𝐨 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 to see if you got the answer to the quiz right! 🎯

👥𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐞 and 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐞𝐛𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞 https://amazingromatours.com/
to discover my Amazing Roma tours! 🏛💬

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬.
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Pilgrims, merchants, sacred objects and... a woman who left her mark on Renaissance Rome! 🏦

Via dei Coronari has seen many centuries of history pass by. It once thronged with pilgrims heading to St. Peter's, and it is still one of Rome’s most fascinating streets, where every house conceals its own special story! 🤩🕵️‍♀️

🚀 Share this post with your friends who love curiosities, and if you want to find out other curious facts and mysteries of Rome, please follow my profile! 🔍✨

Greetings to all mystery lovers! 🤩

Today I'm taking you to an out-of-the-way part of Rome to see something that could have come straight out of a Gothic novel: the Magic Door of Piazza Vittorio! ✨

This is the only surviving entrance to the aristocratic Villa Palombara. It is covered with alchemical symbols and esoteric inscriptions, the true meaning of which is still unknown!🕵️‍♀️👀

🔎 According to legend, a mysterious alchemist spent a night in the villa working on a secret recipe for transforming base metal into gold.

The next morning he had disappeared into thin air!😱

He left behind him a few pieces of gold and a manuscript full of incomprehensible symbols...

The owner of the villa, the Marquis Palombara, convinced that these cryptic formulas contained the alchemist’s secret, had them carved in stone around a doorway, in the hope that one day someone would be able to decipher them.

👀Fun fact: standing next to the Magic Door is a statue of Bes, the Egyptian god of magic and of exorcisms.

Is he trying to send us a hidden message?

What do you think? 🤔 Let me know in the comment section! 🤩