Primo Piatto: Eight Days in Rome, Day 2

[Author’s Note: This post is the second of eight on this site that will recount a visit of Eight Days in Rome that transpired in September 2025. On that trip, my wife Carol, an art historian (PhD, Yale), contributed insights on art and other matters. Our son Matt, a prize-winning videographer contributed photos and insights. The overall narrative and construction are mine.]

The Pantheon

​Our first full day on the ground came after a rocky night—awake at 3, up at 5--par for the course the morning after a trans-world trip. Eventually, we headed out and walked 30 seconds to the Pantheon. This impressive building includes a portico with free-standing columns attached to a domed rotunda (roofed circular building). It was first built c 37 B.C. by Marcus Agrippa as a temple to “all the gods” (Pantheon) and finished later c 126 A.D. by Hadrian. In the 7th century it became a Catholic church. Much remains uncertain about the Pantheon’s historical evolution.

​The massive dome with recessed coffers and a 30-foot central opening (oculus) is the largest un-reinforced concrete roof in existence. The oculus is open to the sky and may have been structured as a reverse sundial marking time with light that shines on interior walls rather than shadow. At mid-day on equinoxes, a shaft of sunlight illuminates the intersection of the dome and northern wall. On April 21, the traditional founding of Rome, it illuminates the entrance. On our visit, it shone as below.

​The Pantheon’s height to the oculus matches the diameter of the interior circle, forming a perfect hemisphere that symbolizes harmony between earth and sky as well as the power and engineering prowess of the Roman empire.

Palazzo Altemps

​Our next stop was the Museo Nazionale Palazzo Altemps, at the northern edge of the Piazza Navona. The building was designed in the 15th century for a nephew of the presiding Pope. It changed hands over the years and eventually the Italian state acquired and opened it in 1997 as a branch of the Museo Nazionale Romano. [Tip: a single ticket provides admission to 4 National Museums in Rome: Baths of Diocletian, Palazzo Massimo, Palazzo Altemps and Crypta Balbi].

Palazzo Altemps

The museum holds several collections of sculptures. Among its holdings are beautiful pieces from The Ludovisi Collection assembled by 17th century cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi. The standout piece is the “Ludovisi throne,” found in 1887 at the Villa Ludovisi in Rome. It may or may not have been a throne and is uncertainly dated as 460 B.C. and attributed to Greek origin. This is a U-shaped structure with its exterior back side and one of its side panels shown below. The rear exterior may depict the birth of Venus/Aphrodite in diaphanous dress rising from the sea while one side panel shows a seated girl with legs crossed playing a double flute. Ultimately, the iconography remains open to interpretation.

The Ludovisi collection also includes a vigorously sculpted “battle sarcophagus” in high-relief depicting a chaotic, writhing battle scene between Romans and barbarians that is dated A.D. 250-60. These sarcophagi were popular commissions for military commanders during the “crisis of the third century” when the Roman empire nearly collapsed under the pressures of invasions, civil wars and economic crises.

​The relative scarcity of tourists at Altemps provides a welcome opportunity for a respite from crowds. The building offers spaces to occupy a window seat with a book, reflecting or collecting thoughts and plans for the day.

​Antica Bottega di Norcia, Corso del Rinascimento, 72

Afterwards, seeking caloric reinforcement, we spotted the Antica Bottega di Norcia where panini di porchetta were on offer. Norcia is a town near Perugia in the province of Umbria. Porchetta is crusty, roasted pig, redolent with herbs like rosemary and sage. During earlier car trips around Italy, we had often found porchetta roasting roadside for convenient pit stops. It is found in Rome as one of several components of “street food” (cibo di strada) that is an encompassing category of generally portable nourishment that also includes pizza, suppli, maritozzo, filetti di bacala, and even gelato.
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Part of the charm of places like the Bottega di Norcia is the production process itself, with full roasted pigs on display. We observed the artful construction of sandwiches from meter-long loaves of focaccia bread and sliced porchetta.

​On this occasion, we enjoyed panini di porchetta sandwiches sitting comfortably outside at one of only two available tables.

​Piazza Navona was nearby but filled with noon-hour diners and too hot in the mid-day sun to linger. We moved on to Campo dei Fiori with its sheltering tent-like market coverings on our way to the Jewish Quarter.

Piazza Mattei, Palazzo Costaguti and the Fontana dei Tartarughe

​We made our way into the Jewish Quarter where we had stayed for several weeks in 2018 and 2019 during two earlier visits to Rome. It still feels like home. We lived then in an apartment in the Palazzo Costaguti on the Piazza Mattei. This Palazzo is a large structure built during the first half of the 16th century. It was acquired in 1578 by members of the Costaguti family of Ligurian financiers who still own the property. Over the years, some Costagutis maintained residences while others created luxury rental apartments that retained original frescoed rooms by notable artists like Domenichino, Guercino, and others. The first floor (piano nobile) became an ultra-luxury 5-bedroom apartment with full concierge service that is marketed as "The Costaguti Experience." In Anthony Minghella’s 1999 movie, The Talented Mr. Ripley (based on Patricia Highsmith’s novel), Tom Ripley rented an apartment in the building or nearby while he assumed the identity of murdered Dickie Greenleaf.

A sidenote of interest is that when Pope Paul IV created the Jewish ghetto in 1555, Jews were required to live in the compact area, deprived of various rights and sequestered overnight. The main entrance to the Palazzo Costaguti found itself inside the Jewish Quarter, so it added a second entrance outside on the Piazza Mattei. Effectively, the building straddled the boundary between the Ghetto and central Rome. During WWII when Nazi troops occupied Rome in 1943, this strategic location enabled Achille and Giulia Afan de Rivera Costaguti, who were not Jewish, to hide Jewish families within the palazzo and to facilitate clandestine transit from the Ghetto into Rome proper, saving many lives. In acknowledgement, in 2002 the State of Israel recognized the Costagutis as “Righteous Among the Nations.”

La Fontana dei Tartarughe

​The Piazza Mattei features the celebrated Fontana dei Tartarughe (“Fountain of Tortoises”) dating from 1581-88. It was privately financed by Muzio Mattei to have a fountain near his house. Papal architect Giacomo della Porta conceived its intricate design and Florentine sculptor Taddeo Landini executed the design.

​This fountain was one of many constructed in the sixteenth century to provide free water to the people of Rome. It used a renovated Roman aqueduct named the Acqua Vergine that was first built in 19 BC. All fountains functioned by gravity alone (no pumps) and in this case the narrow spread in elevation between the water source and the fountain led to water pressure problems for all of them. This led to later modifications in the design of the fountain.

It has a square basin below with a circular basin mounted on a pedestal in the center. Four slim young adolescent men (ephebes) stand with one foot on the head of a dolphin that lies atop a conch shell. Water pours from the mouths of the dolphins into the shells and then into the basin below. Originally, there were no turtles. Instead, the hands of the ephebes held 4 dolphins spouting water. The dolphins were removed, and putti beneath the basin spouted water into the basin below. In a 1658 restauration, Gian Lorenzo Bernini replaced the dolphins with decorative bronze turtles scampering into the basin. The turtles symbolize longevity and the Latin motto of wisdom Festina lente (“make haste slowly”), while the youthful ephebes evoke balance and harmony in assisting the turtles’ arduous climb.

Beppe e I suoi Formaggi, via Santa Maria del Pianto, 1

We stopped at the fabulous (but easy to miss) Beppe e I suoi Formaggi (Beppe and his Cheeses) shop on Via Santa Maria del Pianto to buy a round of blended cow and goat milk cheese for snacks. It lasted for days as snack material. Beppe Giovale has an enormous selection of carefully curated raw milk cheeses from his own production in Piedmont as well as well-chosen French cheeses. For a small operation, this place pushes a lot of buttons. Sure, it’s a cheese shop but it also has salumi and wine, salmon and olives, offers tastings and has a restaurant with a piedmontese spin next door. It’s a little treasure on the edge of the Jewish Quarter.

Trastevere

In the late afternoon, we boarded the tram to Trastevere where we had reserved a table for dinner at Ristorante Il Tarallo. [Tip: We discovered that the initial validation of the CIS ticket requires insertion at a special machine on board the tram which was tricky to find].

Upon descending in Trastevere, a contrast between Trastevere and Roma Centro was immediately apparent. Centro is like a massive wave of people slowly moving from one spectacle to another, while Trastevere seemed more gritty, light and lively, and more animated and diverse in its vibes.

Santa Maria di Trastevere

Our first stop in Trastevere was at the church Santa Maria di Trastevere, where a wedding was clearly assembling in the piazza outdoors. We sneaked in quickly to outflank the ceremonies and gawked at the gorgeous mosaics illuminated in the central apse.

Suddenly the lights went out and we figured the wedding was about to begin, but we discovered it was only a light timer that expired so we contributed 0.5 euro for another 3 minutes on behalf of the collective good.
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We still had an hour before our dinner reservation so we set off strolling on a personal DIY walking tour that led down various paths.

Il Tarallo, Vicolo della Scala, 3, Trastevere

Our dining destination, Ristorante Il Tarallo, sits on a relatively quiet street trending up towards the Janiculum hill in Trastevere. We were early arrivals, but our hosts accommodated us at a terrace table.

​One of us ordered a starter of fritto misto and another chose a primo of orecchiette. The third person took a cautious step in the direction of quinto quarto with a primo of gnocchi vaccinara (oxtail), and a still bolder step in that direction with an order of trippa alla romana (tripe) to be shared by all three participants. As explained in the earlier post on Pasta, the term quinto quarto refers to the "fifth quarter" of butchered animals that is commonly known as "offal." As a result, we all emerged as certified members of the Roman quinto quarto. A nice Sicilian cru of vino Frappato sealed the deal. It was a very good meal. The total tab for 3 was 105 euros.