Hadrian’s Hall
Charles Freeman visits the Eternal City, and finds the Castel Sant’Angelo, home to emperors and popes, to be the clue to unravelling its fabulously rich and complex history.
...The memorial to the emperor Hadrian is a temple of marvellous size, all covered in marble and adorned with various sculptures, enclosed by bronze gates decorated with a gold bull and gold peacocks, from which were taken the two that now stand at the fount of St Peter's. [They are now in the Vatican Museums], In the four corners of the temple there were four horses in gilded bronze, and in the middle ring stood the porphyry tomb of Hadrian which is now at St John Lateran as the tomb of Pope Innocent II.
FROM MIRABILIA URBIS ROMAE, THE MEDIEVAL GUIDE TO ROME c. AD 1150.
The experience of visiting Rome is overwhelming. The truth of the famous saying, Roma, non basta una vita, 'Rome, a lifetime is not enough' becomes apparent as soon as one tries to arrange even a fortnight's stay in the city.
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