During the 18th century, men and women of noble rank taking the grand tour used letters of introduction to gain entrance to Rome's villas and palaces, which held some of the world's great art collections. Today, although many once private works have been moved to museums, a surprisingly large number of masterpieces remain tantalizingly behind the gates of residential palazzos. There is, however, one way for travelers to see them: with Count Stefano Aluffi-Pentini, whose company, A Private View of Italy, makes such sites available, pulling strings to reveal Rome's most elusive treasures.
Stefano founded A Private View of Italy eleven years ago, drawing on his knowledge of art history and on his impressive connections among his fellow Roman aristocrats. "Because of my background, I have access to certain collections that are off-limits to others," he explains over coffee in his library, near the Colosseum.
Growing up, Stefano was highly influenced by the academics in his family. "As a boy I was lucky enough to see Rome through the eyes of my grandfather, Bruno Apollonj Ghetti," he recalls. Apollonj Ghetti, a famous archaeologist, was on the team that discovered St. Peter's tomb in the 1940s. "I often used to accompany him on digs in palaces, villas and churches around the city."
Stefano's uncle, historian Fabrizio Apollonj Ghetti, amassed the prints, antique maps and some 18,000 books that line the room we sit in. The library's rare volumes, in particular guidebooks and memoirs by 18th-century travelers, help inspire Stefano's 21st-century itineraries, which are based on hours of painstaking research. He completely customizes each one.
"We spend a lot of time with our clients working out the specifics by phone and fax," Stefano says. "From the minute you hit the ground, we anticipate and arrange everything: transportation, guides and more." Most of his clients--among them the trustees of the American Academy in Rome and of the World Monuments Fund--request excursions lasting a few days to a week. Prices vary considerably, depending on the logistics. Although Stefano oversees every detail, members of his staff of fellow art historians (which includes, naturally, a titled docent or two) usually lead the trips. He recently organized an event for the trustees of London's Sir John Soane's Museum Foundation during which they made a candlelight visit to the grotto of the Cumaean Sibyl, at Lake Avernus, and sailed from Naples to Palermo.
Stefano usually caters to groups of twenty or more, but today he agrees to arrange a special one-day tour of Rome for me alone. I give him simple parameters: I wish to focus on Baroque interiors, but I also want to see a garden or two and meet local artisans. Above all, I want to be surprised. Since I've lived here for almost twenty years and have even written a book called Private Rome, I doubt he can meet this last criterion. Relishing the challenge, Stefano assures me that what we see will amaze me.
We set out on a sunny spring day. Following his usual procedure, Stefano chooses a mode of transportation to fit the journey. Although he may use a horse and carriage in Sicily or a river barge in Syracuse, today we will ride on his red Vespa. "For speed," he explains. "If we are to pack in everything in one day!" I climb on behind him.
"Rome is all about continuity," Stefano declares as we head out into the city's notorious traffic. "The past and present overlap in a way that's intriguing and unique." He underscores his point by weaving among the Fiats circling the Colosseum.
As we park the Vespa on Via XX Settembre outside the gates of the Palazzo Barberini, I think with slight disappointment, Ah, just another visit to a museum. Pope Urban XIII commissioned the palace in the 17th century, and Carlo Maderno designed it; Bernini and Borromini later altered it. The main building, which the government acquired in the forties, houses the exceptional Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, two of whose masterworks are Caravaggio's Judith Beheading Holofernes and Raphael's La Fornarina.
Many grand residences in Europe have long since been turned into museums, but Stefano explains that the situation in Rome is much different. "Of all European cities, this one has the most historic palaces and villas still in private hands," he says as we walk across the portico. "This is because in Italy, the papacy was elected. Each time there was a new pope, another family came to power and was able to commission incredible buildings. Amazingly enough, many of the descendants still own and live in these."
I am more than a little confused, since I assume that the Barberini family no longer resides here. As we talk, Stefano leads me down the imposing halls and out to a hidden garden. Soon we are knocking on the door of a building nestled in the garden's farthest corner. To my astonishment, the door is opened by a woman Stefano introduces as Princess Giovanna Barberini.
"Welcome," our hostess says graciously, ushering us into her library. The room, which boasts 16th-century frescoes, has a lofty ceiling and hand-carved bookcases that hold her husband's collection of rare volumes. My eyes go to a wall on which hangs a remarkable 17th-century tapestry depicting the family coat of arms. After seeing the rest of the home, including an intimate flower-filled courtyard and a divine salon, we are on our way again.
"This is the Rome I try to share with my clients," says Stefano as we climb back on his Vespa. This time we proceed to the home of one of his childhood friends. It's no ordinary house, of course, but an immense palace: the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, on the Piazza del Collegio Romano, southeast of the Pantheon. Containing major works by Raphael, Caravaggio and Velázquez, its picture gallery, which is open to the public, remains the most important private collection in Rome if not in Europe. Forty-two-year-old Prince Jonathan Doria Pamphilj receives us in the Galleria degli Specchi, or Hall of Mirrors, where, true to the room's name, Baroque mirrors in glittering gilt frames line the walls. Stefano frequently organizes exclusive dinners and concerts here after the public has left for the day.
Our next stop, the Palazzo Colonna, just a few blocks away, is equally spectacular. I live almost in the shadow of this splendid palace and have often longed to explore it. Although the painting collection is open to the public one day a week, the Colonna family, which has lived on the grounds for more than a thousand years, rarely receives visitors curious to view the other interiors.
Commissioned by Pope Martin V in the 15th century and completed in the 18th, the palace has glorious staterooms and the famous Galleria Colonna. We go straight to the gallery, which rivals the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles for magnificence. While I marvel at the frescoes celebrating the lives of the Colonna family, Stefano quickly approves the tables that have been set up for a dinner he is giving here tonight. We proceed to the Sala della Musica, where his guests will attend a concert beforehand.
"The quartet, which includes someone playing an antique harpsichord, will perform a piece by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi that may have been played in this very hall in the 18th century," says Stefano. "It's exciting, and a real privilege, to be able to create events that incorporate music and instruments from the same period as the palace itself!"
Afterward we take a break for a much needed midmorning cappuccino at the renowned coffee bar Natalizi, on the Via Po near the Villa Borghese. Stefano piques my curiosity by telling me that he next wants to show me artisans at work on a project for the palazzo we've just seen. We motor west, across the river, to Trastevere, one of Rome's oldest and least known neighborhoods. For years Trastevere was the domain of artisans and small-scale manufacturers. Today it is predominantly residential, but workshops survive. In a small building not far from the Tiber, we are ushered through the heavily fortified portal of one of them: Ditta Paolo Medici & Figlio.
"Ditta Medici has been restoring Rome's marble since 1838," says our hostess, Priscilla Grazioli Medici, the latest member of the family to oversee the vast workshop. The rooms reveal works in progress, with every available surface covered in brilliantly colored marble pieced into intricate geometric designs. "This is for a private chapel at the Vatican, and this is for the Palazzo Colonna," says Medici, indicating marble paving waiting to be delivered and installed. "But we also have a 'ready-to-wear' line that we sell by the square meter. We realize that not everyone has to pave a ballroom, so we offer smaller versions of the same patterns."
