Our Trip to the Esquiline’s area for the eTwinning RSS project A presentation by Niccolò, Federica and MarikaClass II F 2013-2014 Liceo Machiavelli in Rome

We are going to talk about…… our trip in the Esquiline’s area and what we saw. We will show you these things:The Esquiline’s Hill;Santa Maria Maggiore;Esquilino’s park;The market in Vittorio’s square.

Everything is connected to our exploration of theme of Religious time on the eTwinning platform

The Esquiline’s Hill. The Esquiline Hill is one of the seven hills on which Rome was founded.

Esquilino was founded on three hills: the Opius, in the Southern area, the Fagutal in the Western one and the Cispius in the Northern zone,

where there is now the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. We don’t have to confuse the orographich entity of Esquiline’s Hill with the administrative one of Rione Esquilino because the last one takes up the hill in its Northestern part. In Rione Esquilino has been forming a big

concentration of commercial activities by people from non-European countries.

Many researches have given lots of interpretations about the name Esquilino. One of them is that comes from the latin excubiae, in other

words the soldiers sent by Romolo for defending themseleves from the Sabin’s traps of Tito Tazio.

Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore is noun as Santa Maria della Neve, is one of the four papals Basilica. It’s located in the higtest part of Escquilino’s hill, it’s the only one that has conservated its original structure. It was been edificated by Pope Sisto III (432-440 a.C.) who dedicated it to Virgin Mary’s cult.

The building was done on a previous church; a diffused tradition says that it was been the same Virgin Mary to inspire him, appearing in a dream to Pope Liberio and Patrician Giovanni and suggesting the perfect place would have been indicated miraculously. So the morning in the 5 of August there was a strange snowfall and every 5 of August there’s the commemoration of the snowfall miracle.

In basilica’s museum of Santa Maria Maggiore is conservated the most famous crib done with statue and in this church there’s the highest bell tower of Rome, built between 1375-1376.

Esquilino’s park.

In this park there’s a door called la porta magica or porta Alchemica, a monument edificated between 1655-1680 by Massimiliano Palombara, marquise of Pietraforte. This door is the only surviver between the five door in Villa Palombara. On the bow of this lost door are written alchemical formulas about path of purification.

The Esquiline’s market. In this market there are all products from non-European countries. It’s located in Rione Esquilino because, like we said before, this part of Esquilino has been forming a big concentration of foreign people. From that you can buy some products that we don’t have in Rome but also in Italy.