Dulcis in Pantheon

In the center of Rome, just a 5-minute walk from Piazza Trilussa, Piazza Navona, and Campo dè Fiori, the rooms of Dulcis in Pantheon boast an equipped terrace where you can enjoy a continental breakfast and a private balcony. The rooms consist of a spacious bedroom with a double bed, a very large bathroom with a shower, a walk-in closet, and a LED TV.

This property is located in one of the oldest streets in the Campo Marzio district of the characteristic Sant'Eustachio neighborhood.

Overall, one of the most authentic and sought-after districts in Rome. Its network of streets and alleys is filled with wine bars, pubs, breweries, trattorias, bookshops, and venues with live music. Squares, churches, fountains, shopping streets with the most important Italian fashion brands.

The heraldic symbol of the Campo Marzio district is a crescent moon on a blue field, perhaps taken from the martial image of a cemetery adorned with a crescent moon scythe. In fact, Titus Livius recounts that the "Tarquin's field consecrated to Mars was intended for military and gymnastic exercises since the founding of Rome." A focal point of the area, since ancient times, was a sanctuary, the Ara of Mars.

This altar was connected to the main function of this plain, the military one, so important that it gave the name to the area. As a military field, it declined very soon and with the increase of the cavalry arranged by Julius Caesar, the military field moved to "Centum Cellae" (Centocelle, a new district of Rome) and the soldiers' accommodations, especially the armed barbarians, were placed on the Caelian Hill. The Campo Marzio was not inhabited until the empire, when it became part of the IX Regio.

The district was established on May 18, 1743, with the decree of Benedict XIV. The medieval and Renaissance neighborhoods of Campo Marzio have largely preserved the orientation and topographic appearance they had in ancient times. Numerous streets still follow the original route: not only Via del Corso ("via Lata") but also straight axes formed by Via della Scrofa-Via di Ripetta; Via dei Coronari-Via delle Coppelle; Via dei Giubbonari-Campo dei Fiori-Via del Pellegrino, to name just a few.

This is due to the continuity of life that has allowed the preservation of the ancient urban layout. It is certainly the district that can boast the most famous monuments in the world, such as Piazza del Popolo, Piazza di Spagna, the Spanish Steps, and the Mausoleum of Augustus.

Via della Scrofa exactly follows the path of an ancient Roman road that, incorporating the route of the current Via di Ripetta, ran along the right side of the Tiber (at the height of the current Cavour Bridge) and on the left side of the Mausoleum of Augustus, and merged into the "Via Flaminia" at the height of today's Piazza del Popolo.

It is believed that the ancient road dates back to 29 BC, the time of the construction of the Mausoleum of Augustus.

The toponym of Via della Scrofa derives from the sign of an inn that already existed there in the 15th century, as mentioned in some documents from 1445, which indicate that this area was called "la Scrofa". The small sculpture depicting a sow (in the section of the street belonging to the Sant'Eustachio district), probably a fragment of an ancient marble bas-relief, was walled on the facade of the Augustinian convent and transformed into a small fountain by the will of Pope Gregory XIII only in 1580. This suggests that the fountain did not give its name to the place, as the toponym had already existed for over a century.

Via della Scrofa is shared by two districts: the first stretch, from Largo Giuseppe Toniolo to the intersection with Via della Stelletta (on the right) and Via dei Portoghesi (on the left), belongs to the Sant'Eustachio district. The stretch we are considering on this page, from the aforementioned intersection to the junction with Via di Ripetta, belongs to the Campo Marzio district. At number 117 of the street, at the corner with Piazza Nicosia, is located Palazzo Aragona Gonzaga (in the photo below the title), a building that only apparently constitutes a unique complex with Palazzo Soderini Cellesi to which it is connected, in addition to having interconnected courtyards, but in reality, they are two independent buildings.

The first was built in the mid-16th century by Giambattista Aragona and sold in 1587 to Prince Scipione Gonzaga; in 1645, it was purchased by Monsignor Cesa and later by the Cellesi, who in the second half of the 18th century sold it to the Negroni, originally from Bergamo, who also acquired Palazzo Soderini and more clearly defined the union of the two buildings.

In the 20th century, the building passed to the Galitzin princes of Russian origin. The palace underwent numerous transformations over the centuries, with Baroque features overlapping the original ones, as well as the 19th-century elevation.

The main portal opens onto Via della Scrofa, linteled and surmounted by a small balcony, on which there is a French window with a broken semicircular tympanum, in the center of which a woman's head is located; the other four windows on the first floor have triangular and semicircular tympanums.

On the second floor, there are five linteled and decorated windows, while those on the third floor, smaller, are framed. The ground floor has four wrought-iron windows, placed on the sides of the portal, and two plaques; the first recalls that "Torquato Tasso, a guest of Cardinal Scipione Gonzaga, stayed several times and for a long time in this palace from 1587 to 1590 - The City of Rome on the third centenary of the poet's death (1895)".

The second plaque reads as follows: "Luigi Gonzaga of the Society of Jesus was a guest in this palace of Cardinal Scipione Gonzaga, his cousin, in November 1585 - The City of Rome on the fourth centenary of the saint's death (November 1991)".

The chamfered corner of the building, at the corner with Piazza Nicosia, features a sacred pentagonal shrine (in photo 1) depicting the "Madonna on a throne with Child", flanked by two angels and surmounted by a dove. The shrine, rich in many votive offerings, also bears the following inscription: "Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of Divine Love, make us holy, Grace Madonna".

The same chamfered corner also features, on the ground floor, a sarcophagus basin (in photo 2) erected in the 16th century during the pontificate of Gregory XIII Boncompagni.

It is characterized by a simple rectangular basin of Roman granite, with large rounded edges, which receives water from two symmetrical spouts inserted on the supporting wall within as many modanate marble reliefs. On Piazza Nicosia, there is the secondary entrance consisting of a rusticated arch portal.