The Times - UK (2022-04-09)

the times Saturday April 9 2022

Travel 47

The Chigis and the Barberinis may be

long exiled from their palaces, but the

grand Roman family the Doria Pamphilj

still live in theirs (there’s a Ferrari revving

in the courtyard when I visit). Much of the

Palazzo Doria Pamphilj is open to the

public and its collection includes works

by Titian, Velásquez, Bruegel and Raphael.

The state rooms and cluttered corridors

are dustily opulent.

We’re here to see Raphael’s double

portrait of the humanist scholars Andrea

Navagero and Agostino Beazzano, who

are looking superior in their black caps

and cloaks. What would this pair of intel-

lectuals make of Raphael’s portrait of a

Lady with a Unicorn in the Galleria

Borghese? She clutches her miniature

unicorn like a lapdog or a particularly

treasured handbag (if there’s a six-year-old

girl in your life, there are unicorn note-

books for sale in the gift shop).

But it’s the Vatican that we’ve really

come to Italy for. From 1508 to 1524,

Raphael and his assistants (he died in 1520)

decorated the papal apartments with a

series of biblical, historical and mytho-

logical subjects. These rooms are known

as the “stanze”.

The most famous scene is the School of

Athens, a gathering of ancient philo-

sophers presided over by Plato and

Aristotle. Look closely and you’ll find

Raphael among this cerebral company

(he’s second from the right, in black, with

his hair unbrushed). Sneak into the Sistine

Chapel — as Raphael did, to steal ideas

from the mighty Michelangelo.

Stuffed like a courgette flower each

evening after supper, I sleep unusually

well in my unusually large bed in the

unusually quiet Roma Luxus Hotel. The

walls of my room are painted with giant

vines and tropical flowers, a modern twist

on the fruity garlands of the Farnesina. I

prop postcards of Raphael’s stanze on my

bedside table. The frescoes won’t travel

to London, but I’m pleased to have a port-

able Vatican of my own.

priccio di Gerry, or Gerry’s fancy (Gerry is

the pastry chef and what he fancied that

day was a confection of pear, ricotta and

sweet almond biscuit).

We buzz over to the Palazzo Barberini

for a spot of bee-spotting. The bee is the

emblem of the Barberinis, one of the most

prominent noble families of the 17th

century, and we find the insects above

columns and in the spandrels of arches.

Challenge children to a hunt.

The palace has two staircases, each by a

rival baroque architect. The stairs by the

sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo

Bernini are a feat of trickery, all mind-

scrambling angles and trompe l’oeil

effects. The rival staircase by Francesco

Borromini is an elliptical marvel sup-

ported on slender columns that soar

through the storeys.

Inside the galleries is Raphael’s portrait

of his mistress, La Fornarina, or “The

Baker’s Daughter”, who is wearing a

striking blue and gold turban — and not

a lot else. She will be coming to London,

wrapped, one hopes, in more than silk and

gauze, for the National Gallery show.

On Raphael’s trail through Rome

Laura Freeman

samples the High

Renaissance just as

a heavenly slice of

it comes to London

A

fter asking for the wi-fi
password in a Rome
restaurant, I am handed
a scrap of paper with
the scribble: “Vespa2022”.
What else? The Italian
capital swarms with these
waspish scooters; they roar around the
Colosseum, zip through baroque piazzas
and disturb the peace of mosaicked
churches — in Rome, whether you are on
two wheels or on foot, you are always
travelling through time.
I’m here for the High Renaissance — the
triumphal 30 or so years of the arts in
Italy before the Sack of Rome in 1527. It
is the age of Leonardo da Vinci, Michel-
angelo di Buonarroti and Raphael da
Urbino. Raphael is my reason for being
here, discovering his Rome to before the
opening of the National Gallery’s spring
exhibition, which starts today. It is the tail
end of winter when we travel, and the sky
is improbably blue.
At the Villa Farnesina, the magnolias
are already pink with flowers and the
oranges are ripening on trees. The Farne-
sina was built for the stupendously
wealthy banker Agostino Chigi, one of the
big art spenders of his age. Chigi used to
take his guests to see the stable block,
designed by Raphael, so that they would
coo and say, “What a wonderful house!” —
to which Chigi would scoff: “My house?
Only the horses live here.” At dinner
parties in his loggia by the Tiber he would
urge guests to toss their golden plates in
the river at the end of the evening. (His
servants would be waiting downstream
with nets to fish them out.)
Neither the stables nor the loggia still
stands, but the villa — splendidly restored
and open to guests as a museum — is
spectacular. The most famed of its frescoes
is Raphael’s Triumph of Galatea. Raphael
shows Galatea, a beautiful sea nymph,
fleeing from the pursuing cyclops Poly-
phemus on a propeller-driven clam shell,
like a Vespa of the
seas. Raphael fills the
scene with swirling
movement and twist-
ing forms — I bet you
couldn’t Galatea’s
pose without losing
your balance.
Admiring the ceil-
ing painting of the
Wedding Banquet of
Cupid and Psyche, with
its garlands of gourds
and swollen melons,
makes us hungry. So it’s
off across the river to
the Osteria del Pegno,
on the Vicolo di Monte-
vecchio. Here we have
carciofi alla Romana
(braised artichokes)
and a bowl of the quintessentially Roman
pasta cacio e pepe (pecorino and pepper).
No time for gelati (mutinous mutterings)

because we’re due at the Pantheon, where

Raphael is buried. It is rather moving to

find such a great

admirer of classical

Rome at rest beneath

this greatest of Roman

domes.

Dinner at Il Falchet-

to, on the Via dei Mon-

tecatini, is a test for the

squeamish. The catch

of the day is scorpion

fish, a scarlet sea mon-

ster with porcupine spi-

nes. The fish’s cheeks

are thought to be lucky

and should always be

served to a lady. I’m

too chicken for the fish,

and instead order

deep-fried zucchini

flowers stuffed with ri-

cotta and lemon, fol-

lowed by bucatini

all’Amatriciana, another classic Roman

pasta dish of chilli, tomatoes and crispy

guanciale (cured pork jowl). Pudding is ca-

Laura Freeman was a

guest of the National

Gallery and the

Roma Luxus Hotel, which

has B&B doubles from

£230 (romaluxus

hotel.com). Fly to Rome.

Raphael opens in London

today (£24; national

gallery.org.uk)

Need to

know

One mile

ROME

Airport

River Tiber

Colosseum

Palazzo

Barberini

Villa

Farnesina

Roma Luxus

Hotel

Palazzo Doria

Pamphilj

Vatican

City

The Pantheon

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GETTY IMAGES; GALLERIA NAZIONALE DI ARTE ANTICA/MAURO COHEN

St Peter’s Basilica looms over the Tiber

A room at the Roma Luxus

La Fornarina by Raphael