You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.
On today's agenda, a reconnaissance of the main landmarks in the medieval parts of town (so we don't get lost someday and maybe arrested as loiterers), followed by our introduction to the wonderful Rocca Pia.
Located just 20 miles or so northeast of Rome, at the edge of the Sabine Hills, Tivoli (known to Romans as Tibur) has a history closely related with Rome's. It's presently a city spread out from its origins near the Tiber tributary the Aniene to host a population of over 54,000, all of whom can apparently be addressed at 'Tiburtini'.
Tivoli's origins are only legendary, but it's known that it was a city of the Sabines, an Italic people of the central Apennine mountains. It sided with the invading Gauls in 361 BC but was defeated and annexed by the Romans in 338 BC. It gained Roman citizenship in 90 BC and soon became a getaway destination for wealthy Romans' second-home villas for worthies like Horace and even the Emperor Augustus; it was famed for its temple of the Tiburtine Sibyl, one of the two pagan temples now overlooking the waterfall below the town.
In AD 273 the hostage queen of Palmyra, Zenobia, was given a home here by the Emperor Aurelian.
(Hadrian's Villa is just below the town; we'll visit it soon.)
We're off on our walk.
During the Gothic War, the Byzantine commander Belisarius fortified the city in AD 547, and (after the Goth Totila trashed it) it was inherited as a duchy by the Byzantine Empire. When Charlemagne conquered Italy from the Lombards in 774, Tivoli was set up under an imperial count. It became mostly independent from the 10th to the 15th century, even though evidently under papal control of prince-bishops after 1001. During the 13th/14th centuries of emerging aristocratic families contesting civic dominance, Tivoli like many other Italian cities went through a period of turbulence, with defensive family towers dotting the city, at least four of which still remain.
We've reached the Largo Cesare Battisti (named for the patriot executed by the Austrians in Trento in 1916). The Calice restaurant in the foreground became one of our favorites in coming days, and . . .
. . . there's one of the Mini-Markets that we found very helpful for condiments, etc.
From the 15th century on, the city became a bit of a suburb for the Roman elite, with the building of the Rocca Pia, largely to control the aggressive clans, aristocratic villas were created (mostly notably the Villa d'Este from 1550), and in the 19th century the then pope built the Villa Gregoriana round the river's waterfall. In 1550 Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, the Villa owner, was appointed Governor of Tivoli, and the Este Cardinals were prominent in the city for the next 75 years.
There have been some sorry times, e.g., when in 1527 bands of the Holy Roman Empire's Spanish and German armies, after their Sack of Rome, with their Colonna supporters sacked Tivoli too, and not long afterward the Duke of Alba, the Habsburgs' imperial commander, occupied it again; in 1849 the city's patriots, under their leader Luigi Coccanari, joined the 'Roman Republic', which failed when Garibaldi's 2,000 volunteers had to retreat from the French siege of Rome, passing through Tivoli on 5 May 1849 on their ways towards the Veneto. But Coccanari was back from exile to bring Tivoli into the new National Committee in 1870, hoisting the Italian flag in Tivoli two days before pontifical sovereignty in Rome gave it up.
We've been descending along the Via Trevio directly down from the Piazza Garibaldi, but . . .
. . . it becomes the Via Palatina (on the left) right here.
The other bit of historical bad news is that in 1944 the Allied bombers blew the daylights out of a lot of Tivoli, and in some places some of that is still apparent.
That's the Chiesa di San Biagio, facing onto . . .
. . . the street market in the Piazza del Plebiscito. The road is following the ancient Via Tiburtina Valeria, built by the Romans to travel up into the Sabine Hills and the Abruzzo mountains of the Apennines, along what is the SS5, presumably, now running more or less parallel to the Trans-European Motorway, the E80. Over centuries, that well-traveled road has brought a certain amount of prosperity to this city.
The first thing to know about the Chiesa di San Biagio is that it was built over pagan temples to Juno and Diana, then in its 12th century form was handed over by Pope Honorius IV in 1285 to the Dominican Order of Preaching Friars, who had no place in Tivoli to practice their craft. They soon launched a programme to build a much larger church with an adjoining convent -- it was like all Dominican churches dedicated to 'Santa Maria de Gloria', but the citizens decided it should be devoted to San Biagio instead if they were going to be contributing to its building, and they prevailed.
The second thing to know is that our bombers blew the church halfway to smithereens in 1944, so much of what we see here amounts to inspired neo-Gothic reconstructions. That excellent portal, however, survived from the 16th century: it was financed by a brother of the Bishop of Tivoli, Vincenzo Leonini (as noted on the architrave above), who was captain of the papal guard and married to a Medici niece of Pope Leo X. The interesting relief of Madonna and Child, however, was commissioned from an American named Mosé Ezeckiel in the late 19th century, and the Virgin's head was knocked off by the Allied bombers and has been replaced.
San Biagio, aka St Blaise of Sebaste (in Lesser Armenia, now part of Turkey) was a physician and bishop who was martyred by Constantine's co-emperor Licinius in AD 316, and is considered to have been one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.
The church has a single nave with side chapels (six on the right, five on the left) -- in 1887, the local designer Luigi Petrucci was commissioned to renovate the interior, 'eliminating all of the 14th century peculiarities of the church' and emphasizing the Gothic sort of verticality. The apse was also lightened by three stained glass windows made in Marseilles in 1884, which however were also bombed out for military reasons, presumably.
The formerly beautiful floor was also bombed to ruins, which were removed in 1962 and replaced by this one in 'variegated Carrara marble'. And the bell tower as well, with only the lowest two registers remaining, out the back of the church evidently.
The replacement windows were made by a Florentine company, Tolleri, and replaced here in 1950. The central one is devoted to the Madonna, Child, etc., the left one to St Blaise and his miracles (he was especially revered for helping people with fishbones stuck in their throats), with St Dominic below; the right one is all about San Lorenzo (aka St Lawrence), patron saint of Tivoli, with his martyr's roasting grill.
We summarized all that from a translated online ramble paragraphs long, since from this distance we haven't the slightest idea what's up there, except the Madonna obviously.
Beneath all that is what must be a very fine fresco from Pietro Cavallini and workshop in the 14th century; it was badly damaged by our bombing raid but 'resurrected', so to speak. The marble balustrade in front of the presbytery is also much prized and also, like the altar, comes from the late 19th century.
In this side chapel, the picture in the frame looks potentially interesting, though the figurines in front are mere distractions.
Another side chapel, with its own uninspiring figurine
The picture on the right, though, is presumably old -- that's the way that evocative messages were often shown (like our cartoon speech bubbles).
Well, okay. One does understand the sentiment, and good luck.
The contre-façade, showing (if little else) the new rose window
-- All right, we get the point; that's enough.
Now, we didn't we see this one before. Nicely done!
Now, back out to the piazza, full of flowers and . . .
. . . very nice they are, too.
The masses of fruits and vegetables on offer look fascinating as well, to the discerning eye, but . . .
. . . we'd like to continue down this central Via Palatina.
Into the Piazza Palatina
The hand-painted sign in the archway by the bicycle says 'Asphalt Jungle'. (Just sayin'.)
That former defensive civic tower (probably lowered, as most were in the next political generation) is now a travel agency.
Piazza Palatina scenes
Another
The Piazza Palatina has now metamorphosed into the Via Ponte Gregoriana, with wall to wall trattorias and pizzerias. Kristin is presently assessing the virtues of the restaurant L'Ape 50 (we tried it out another day and it was very good).
That side street under the arch is the Vicolo del Moro, and the restaurant on the right is 'E Street Pizza' [no obvious connection with Bruce Springsteen's band, except the name].
The Via Ponte Gregoriana leaks into the Piazza Rivarola, with a number of more fast-foody offerings, near the bridge.
-- Mind the car.
A welcome moment of reorientation
Looking across the Ponte Gregoriana -- we turned back here and only later discovered what's really going on below that bridge, and into the astonishing gorge.
We have a lot to learn here: the dam and lake, the tunnel that has reduced the Aniene riverbed into a trickle, the huge waterfall, the two Greek temples overlooking the same thing. All coming soon.
That's the place with the €2 pizzas. They're not large.
To augment our loop round the sights, we're crossing the Piazza Rivarola to follow . . .
. . . the Via San Valerio, headed towards the Duomo some 200m farther on.
That little roadside charmer is described appropriately on Google Maps as 'Affresco della Vergine'.
Scurrying right past the Degusteria without even a glance
Lost again
Should we try this one? (It's probably Vicolo Spada.)
It's got to lead someplace, yes?
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All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 22 January 2025. 
