Today, 29th June is the feast day of Santi Pietro e Paolo, the patron saints of Rome. Therefore, in the city, it’s a Roman holiday and one that the locals take seriously. Everyone gets the day off to roam the city and eat street food, and the celebrations culminate in a huge firework display, the girandola in Piazza del Popolo.
I’ve recently been spending more time in Rome, a city that needs no introduction. It’s a city I know well but until now I’ve spent most of my time visiting the main sights. But Rome is packed full of breathtakingly important things that many visitors never get to see. So, I’ve decided to do a series of posts choosing one ‘off-the-beaten-track’ sight, starting with the Pyramid of Caius Cestius, and then recommending somewhere to eat nearby. Enjoy!
An inspection of the Rome Metro map reveals a stop curiously named, Piramide. Its name derives from the fact that just outside is a large, Egyptian-style pyramid dating from about 15 BC. It was the tomb of one Caius Cestius, who we are told via an external inscription, was a priest and magistrate during the reigns of Julius Caesar, and Augustus.
The Pyramid of Caius Cestius seen from the Via Ostiense.
The pyramid forms part of the Aurelian Walls, built around the city in the 270s AD. But when it was built, it was just outside the walls of Rome, on the Via Ostiensis (in Latin, Via Ostiense in Italian), the road which led to the port of Ostia. For the Ancient Romans, it was illegal to bury people within the boundaries of the city and so tombs and monuments were erected by the sides of the roads leading away from the city. The richer and more important you were, the closer to the city you would be placed: Caius Cestius obviously fulfilled these criteria.
The pyramid seen from inside the Cimitero Acattolico.
One side of the pyramid faces the Via Ostiense, one of modern Rome’s busy thoroughfares, but the other side faces one of the most beautiful and tranquil places in the whole of Rome: the Protestant Cemetery.
The Protestant Cemetery, or to give it its official name, the Non-Catholic Cemetery (Cimitero Acattolico di Roma), was founded in the early 18th Century, appropriately in the shadow of the Pyramid. It is the final resting place of many British, German, Greek, and Russian nationals who died in Rome, as well as Italians who identified as non-Catholic (this category includes Antonio Gramsci, 1891–1937, the founder of the Italian Communist Party).
Perhaps the two most famous burials are those of the English Romantic Poets, John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley, both of whom died in Italy.
Keats died of tuberculosis in 1821. His tombstone, which is very close to the pyramid, doesn’t contain his name, but instead the following epitaph:
“This grave contains all that was mortal,
of a young English poet,
who on his death bed,
in the bitterness of his heart,
at the malicious power of his enemies,
desired these words to be engraven on his tombstone:
Here lies one whose name was writ in water.”
The grave of poet John Keats.
Shelley drowned the following year, whilst sailing near Viareggio in Tuscany. His friend, the poet Lord Byron, arranged for his body to be cremated, classical style, on the beach. His heart, however, was removed from his body and given to his wife Mary, the author of Frankenstein. Found in her desk, after her death, the heart is now buried with her in Saint Peter’s churchyard, Bournemouth, England.
Shelly’s tomb contains a quotation from The Tempest, by Shakespeare, in which the spirit Ariel describes what is happening to the body King Alonso of Naples, who is thought to have been lost at sea.
“Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change,
Into something rich and strange.”
The tomb of Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Although many visitors visit the cemetery each year to see the illustrious tombs, it remains an unspoilt part of the city and a beautiful place to pass some time if you are in the area.
The Tigelleria Romana is on the Via Ostiense about five minutes walk from the pyramid. It serves tigelle (a sort of palm-sized flatbread originally from Emilia-Romagna) and gnocco fritto (fluffy parcels of deep fried dough) with different toppings. You choose one of the topping sets and then the tigelle and gnocchi are served on an all-you-can-eat basis. With menus starting at €13.90, it’s a real bargain. They also served gluten free menus.
Spaghetti alla carbonara just like it’s served in Rome.
After pizza, spaghetti alla carbonara is probably Italy’s most famous dish, but also its most controversial. Everybody knows that this plate of bacon-and-egg pasta is supposed to have a rich, creamy, sauce, but few know the real secret of how to achieve it. Outside—and even inside—Italy, people often cheat and add a little (or sometimes a lot of) cream to get the right consistency. But to purists (and even not so purists), cream might as well come in bottles with the number 666 printed on the label. They will tell you, with a stronger than religious fervour, that it is not part of the original recipe. Nor, for that matter are peas.