So I’ve mentioned this wall time and time again, even shown a few pictures of some of the gates. Well, this morning I completed a simple task I’ve been wanting to do since I got here. I walked around the entire outside of the wall, only deviating from my course by visiting each gate. So 73 photos, 1 hour, 2 MacDonald's, 14 cat calls, and 3 moments of panic thinking I lost the wall, I completed my circuit.
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| Porta di Valle |
I live equidistant from several gates, so I just decided to pass by the Piazza del Popol to get to that gate. It’s a nice walk, such a beautiful church that way. This took me to Porta di Valle. This is a small gate, not made for cars to pass through. Around 1568 they closed this one because just a short distance to the north they opened a larger gate, Porta del Carmine. This gate isn’t just the wall, there are a few buildings that use the wall as one of their walls, including a small little pizzeria I haven’t had the chance to try yet.
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| Porta di Pianoscarano O del Carmine |
For some reason I decided to go counter clockwise. Took me a long time to come up with this decision, but eventually my girl scout badge came in handy. Pedestrians are supposed to walk against traffic, and I wanted to stay against the wall. (Also I knew there was a big hill just to the south and I wanted to get that over with while I wasn’t tired!) The pathway pulled away a slight bit from the wall over a nice little paver pathway, past some bum’s homes in some very old ruins, past a few apartment buildings, then back to the wall. The next gate was Porta di Pianoscarano O del Carmine. This one for some reason isn’t on the map I’m staring at... It least straight into San Pellegrino, the medieval district. Lexy and I had ventured in this way once, very pretty but dead part of town.
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| Porta Fiorita |
Next was Porta Fiortia. My first adventure to this one was two nights ago going to Alfredo’s friend’s concert. Another pedestrian gate, this one has a small staircase you have to walk up single file to get into the city. I’m sure a vespa or two have gone down it on a dare, but you aren’t getting anything else through there! Simple gate, again leading to the San Pellegrino area.
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| Porta S. Pietro |
Very close to Porta Fiortia is Porta San Pietro. Makes sense, this one allowed cars into the city. This gate has a small castle built on it to protect it. In the 1500s Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini (who was Pope Pius III for 26 days in 1503) lived there, then it was taken over by Donna Olimpia Maidalchini, Pope Innocent X’s sister-in-law.
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| Porta Romana |
Next is one of the two most popular, most used, largest gates on the wall. Porta Romana. I’ll give you one guess which direction this gate points to. I’ve talked about this one a lot, it’s a typical meeting place for the USAC. Out this gate you can find one of the campuses for the university. This gate was severely bombed in 1944, however the apse of San Sisto was spared. This is the only section in the wall where the designs found on the loggia of the Papal palace is shown. Right inside this gate is the church of San Sisto, we’ve been lucky to see several wedding parties collect outside this church in our time here.
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| Porta della Verita |
Next was the truth gate. I’ve learned not to call it this, I get lots of weird looks. But the real name translates to this! Porta della Verita is right by my favorite gelato shop. I think I’ll be heading over there later tonight even... Anyways, this one is the most common meeting spot for us, I’ll actually be meeting Paula out this gate bright and early in the morning to leave for sampling. This gate is adorn with a coat of arms, although I’m not sure who it was for...
I then found a pseudogate... I think it was some kind of administration building. There is one of these on the opposite side too, but I’m just not sure. There are several places in the wall where building have been build right against the wall, then they wall off these buildings. It gets a bit confusing when they all use the same pellegrino stone.
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| Porta San Marco |
Porta San Marco is a much smaller, not so used gate. There is a small statue of (I’m assuming) San Marco right outside it. This one also isn’t for cars to travel through, there is a ballard right in the middle of the area with no street leading to it. On the inside of this gate were some beautiful paintings, a man coming out of the door, the shutters were painted on a window. They seemed very recent, very bright.
Before the next gate there is a section of wall still missing. I’m not very good on my WWII history over here, I blame the bad internet here for my current lack of knowledge, but after Italy changes sides Germany bombed over 70% of Viterbo. Viterbo is one of the only cities that has completely rebuilt, but you can still see the scars. Most of the wall was put back up, however there are still sections of it missing.
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| Porta Murata |
The gate after the breech is Porta Murata. This is another quiet street, however it is used. While I was snapping my pictures there was this cute little old man washing his car from his front door. I wanted to take a picture of him, but his grimace told me that would be folly.
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| Porta Fiorentina |
And now we come to the most grand of all the gates. I’m kinda shocked this one is nicer than Porta Romana, maybe it simply suffered less damage in WWII. Porta Fiorentina. Guess where this one points to! We take this gate when we go to our section of the university, so you’ve heard of this one before. This one is very large by the standards of the gates, there are two pedestrian arches, two single lanes, and one double lane arch. Both sides of it are beautifully done, complete with a working clock on the top. (Insert Back to the Future joke here) This gate was opened in 1643 and was considered the most important because it was the gate most people came in from the outlying cities. A smaller gate was originally build here, and in 1705 it was redesigned. The coat of arms of two different popes is present, as well as a statue of St. Rosa, Viterbo’s patron saint.
My next jaunt was one of those times where I swore I lost the wall. I ended up on what looked like a city street with apartment buildings between me and the wall. I kept on though! And I’m glad I did.
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| Porta Faul |
I eventually came to Porta Faul. This gate was opened in 1568 by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, a grandson to the current pope of that time. The gate was originally names Porta Farnesiana, however since there was a depression named Faul right outside the gate this name was replaced and forgotten. This is a single lane gate, no light, just hope that no other car is going the opposite way when you enter. This is the gate Alfredo uses to take us back to Piazza della Morte. I’m always glad he is driving and not me when we get here!
And at last, we are back to our starting point. I’ve now written almost three paged on just an hour long walk. I’d call that a good blog! I definitely want to read more about the wall and it’s history, so in five days (GAH! Only five!) when I get back to the states I plan on abusing my unlimited fast internet on that. I can’t find any books here about it in Viterbo that are in English, and let’s just say my Italian doesn’t go much past ordering gelato and cheese at this point.
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