Category: Rome News

Springsteen comes to Rome amid controversy over Ferrara concert.

Final preparations are underway in Rome ahead of a sold-out concert by Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band at the Circus Maximus on Sunday.

Springsteen faced widespread criticism for going ahead with a concert in the northern city of Ferrara on Thursday, days after the surrounding Emilia-Romagna region was devastated by floods that have led to at least 13 deaths.

The American rock star, 72, was defended by the Ferrara mayor Alan Fabbri who wrote on Facebook: “I am sorry if anyone may have thought that Ferrara was insensitive to the tragedy in Romagna just because it did not cancel the concert by The Boss”.

Fabbri said that cancelling the concert would have “solved nothing” and caused economic hardship for the area as well as the workers and companies involved in hosting the major event, and the “thousands of tourists from all over the world” who travelled to Ferrara.

Italy marks Liberation Day with holiday on 25 April 2023.

Italy on 25 April celebrates the Festa della Liberazione which marks the country’s liberation from German occupation and fascist rule at the end of world war two.

A public holiday across Italy, all state schools and offices are closed on Tuesday 25 April, with many Italians planning a “ponte” long weekend by taking Monday 24 April off work.

The day is marked in Rome with a ceremony at the Altare della Patria at 09.00 when Italian president Sergio Mattarella will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The event will result in traffic diversions and bus detours in the area around Piazza Venezia.

• Why does Italy celebrate Liberation Day on 25 April?

Also in Rome, at 08.30 supporters of ANPI, the National Partisan Association of Italy, will pay homage to the victims of the massacre at the Fosse Ardeatine where the Nazis murdered 335 anti-fascist prisoners, Jews and civilians on 23 March 1944.

This solemn event is followed at 10.00 with a walk from Largo Benedetto Bompiani, in the Ardeatino / Tor Marancia area, to Piazza di Porta S. Paolo by the Piramide Cestia landmark.

Italy’s state-run museums and archaeological sites will be open to the public for free on 25 April, the country’s culture minister announced last week.

This year Rome will celebrate the Italian Resistance with a three-day festival in the Garbatella district, backed by the capital’s centre-left mayor Roberto Gualtieri, from 23-25 April.

Last year Gualtieri marked the Festa della Liberazione by visiting the Historic Museum of the Liberation of Rome, a former SS prison which documents the persecution of Jews and Resistance figures tortured there during the Nazi occupation of Rome from 1943-1944.

Vatican Museums hosts Pietà sculptures until 6 January.

Plaster casts of the three Pietà sculptures by Renaissance master Michelangelo are on display together in the Pinacoteca at the Vatican Museums from 7 April until 6 January 2024.

The three “historic casts” portray the Pietà in St Peter’s along with casts of the Bandini Pietà, from Florence’s cathedral museum, and the Rondanini Pietà from the Vatican Museums.

The display in the Vatican is the third and final part of an exhibition that saw the three casts displayed first at the Museo Dell’Opera del Duomo in Florence and then at the Palazzo Reale in Milan last year.

The cast of the Bandini Pietà dates to around 1882, while the cast of the Rondanini Pietà was made in 1953.

The plaster cast of the St Peter’s Pietà was made in 1975, three years after the masterpiece was badly vandalised in the infamous attack by Laszlo Toth.

Organisers say the display will allow viewers to study the evolution of Michelangelo’s art over a period of more than half a century.

A brief history

The St Peter’s Pietà dates to 1498–1499 and was completed when Michelangelo was aged just 24. The world-renowned work of art depicts the body of Jesus on the lap of his mother Mary after the Crucifixion.

Michelangelo worked on the Bandini Pietà, also called The Deposition or The Lamentation over the Dead Christ, between 1547 and 1555 when he was in his 70s.

It depicts Jesus after his descent from the cross, supported by the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene and an aged Nicodemus, who bears a resemblance to Michelangelo himself.

The artist sculpted the Rondanini Pietà, his last work, from 1552 until the last days of his life, in 1564.

The marble statue, which was left unfinished, is on display today at Milan’s Castello Sforzesco.

It depicts the mourning Virgin Mary struggling to hold the upright body of Jesus close to hers.

The exhibition at the Pinacoteca is included in the Vatican Museums itinerary. Photo ANSA.

Easter in Rome: Via Crucis ceremony at Colosseum on Good Friday

Way of the Cross at Colosseum in 2023.

The annual Via Crucis or Way of the Cross ceremony led by Pope Francis will take place at the Colosseum on Good Friday, 7 April, at 21.15.

The candle-lit procession – which dates to the 18th century and was revived in 1964 – attracts thousands of faithful who listen to meditations re-enacting Christ’s crucifixion.

Each year the pope assigns the meditations and prayers accompanying the Stations of the Cross to a group, association or individuals.

Last year the Vatican chose families linked to Catholic communities and associations for voluntary work, with a controversy breaking out after the 13th station was assigned jointly to a Ukrainian and a Russian family.

There are no tickets required for the Via Crucis which is part of the pontiff’s liturgical programme for Holy Week or Settimana Santa.

The Easter Vigil Mass takes place in St Peter’s Basilica at 19.30 on Saturday, with Easter Sunday Mass celebrated in St Peter’s Square at 10.00, followed by the pope’s traditional Urbi et Orbi blessing at midday.

In preparation for the Via Crucis, access to the terrace of the Temple of Venus and Roma will be closed from 29 March until 8 April, and the Baths of Elagabalus from 30 March to 8 April. Both sites are located in the Roman Forum directly opposite the Colosseum.

The temporary closure, announced by Parco Archeologico del Colosseo, is necessary to set up the equipment required to film the event which will be broadcast by RAI Uno from 21.00 on 7 April.