[Rome] Altare della Patria - A Giant Wedding Cake
16.11.2014 - 16.11.2014
Previous entry: [Rome] Glimpses of the Ancient City
The Altare della Patria, which translates to Altar of the Fatherland (also known as Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II or "Il Vittoriano"), was built in honour of Victor Emmanuel, the first king of a unified Italy. Apparently, it doesn't sit well with the locals because a large area of the Capitoline Hill with a medieval neighbourhood had to make way for its construction, and it sticks out like a sore thumb among all the ancient buildings. Still, if you're in the area, you might as well pay homeage to the first king of Italy. The building itself is pretty nice on its own.
It annoyed me a little that a bus photobombed my shot, but Ivy said it's pretty cool because it has the logo of an Italian bus company on it.
Right at the front of the monument is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier built under the statue of goddess Roma after World War I.
It is air-conditioned inside the building, where there is a small museum. It is free, but you have to pay to take the lift all the way to the top floor for a 360 degrees view of Rome. We just made do with going up to the terrace on the first level. The following are pictures of the views we saw from the terrace.
The Colosseum is still visible from this distance.
Managed to photograph a bit of the inside. I assume that's the pay-to-access top floor.
Sculpture inside the building. Victoria (Goddess of Victory) and her quadriga seem to be a recurring theme in the monument. They are seen on the roof of the Altare as well.
Some pictures taken around Piazza Venezia:
I got really excited to see an advertisement for cable tv with Walking Dead Season 5 featured on it. The scaffolding on the building is done to mimic the original structure as much as possible, which would have been thoughtful if they hadn't decided to stick a big-ass billboard in front.
Posted by kurodatenshi 20:22 Archived in Italy Tagged buildings sculptures landmarks italy altare_della_patria