The Ostiense Neighborhood in Rome
We started things out with a visit to Rome on Saturday, the 5th. This year, Italy has been inundated with tourists. Rome has been particularly mobbed so we decided to go to a less-visited neighborhood: Ostiense! We went to one of the Capitoline Museums, the Centrale Montemartini, where they currently have a special Mosaics exhibit.
The Centrale Montemartini - Rome's First Thermoelectric Plant
Ostiense is only five metro stops from Roma Termini, the main train station, but it is not an area that is teaming with tourists. Many guide books don’t include it. Centrale Montemartini itself was the site of Rome’s first public thermoelectric power plant, which provided electricity to the city from 1912 into the 1960s. It became part of the Capitoline Museum system in the 1980s. The old equipment is still in the building, and the juxtaposition of the industrial era machinery and the ancient art provides a striking contrast. In fact, it was hard to decide which pictures to include in this post because the museum is packed with an amazing number of interesting perspectives.
Masterpieces Among the Engine and Boiler Rooms
Then There Was the Special Mosaic Exhibit
The Papal Basilica St. Paul’s Outside the Walls
After the museum, we walked out a bit further to the Papal Basilica St. Paul’s Outside the Walls. It was established in 324 AD around excavations of the place where it was believed that St. Paul was beheaded. Over the centuries it has been enlarged and restored many times. In 1834 much of the Basilica was destroyed by fire. It was restored between 1854 and 1875. It is called a Papal Basilica because the building and land it is on are owned and administrated by the Vatican.
The various bronze entry doors are all beautiful. The Holy Door (Porta Santa) was commissioned for the Year 2000 Holy Year. The Pauline Door (Porta Paolina) was commissioned for 2008 which was the Bimillennium of the birth of St. Paul. And inside the church was the silver paneled Byzantine Door which came from Constantinople and is from the 11th century.
After All the Adventures, We Were Hungry - Lunchtime
You can also visit the cloisters, the benedictine abbey and the archeological site, but it was raining. It was also lunchtime. We walked back in the direction of the subway station and stopped at a great little place, Trattoria Zampagna. All of the interior tables were taken, but they have a covered terrace and we snagged a spot there. The menu had a lot of nice options. It was hard to choose. We started with a couple of appetizers – fried zucchini flower and fried baccala. For the main course, Virginia ordered Ravioli in a butter / sage sauce and James ordered the Beef Rolletini. Both dishes were outstanding with the house red. For dessert we split the mousse that our server recommended, but it wasn’t like a chocolate mousse, it was a Ricotta mousse over a thin slice of sponge cake with a layer of orange on top that made it tase a bit like creamsicle.
After lunch we took the metro back to Roma Termini, walked around town a bit, did some shopping and took our regular frecciabianca back to Foligno. Another wonderful day in Rome.
