View to Palatine Hill
One of the more well-known 7 hills of Rome is Palatine Hill.
On a perfectly clear and sunny day like today, this is one of my favorite places to see it from, just outside Rome’s Rose Garden.
View to Palatine Hill
Oil on Panel
10 x 14″
SOLD
I’ve always loved this spot and the road up to Giardino degli Aranci on the Aventine Hill and one of the many parks of Rome that have spectacular views of St. Peter’s Dome.
I love looking through here to the Palatine and the shadows cast by the long-legged pines are the perfect segway to this view, not letting you quite see everything, but just suggesting the ancient Roman hill back there.
I made a friend while painting here, a Roman who was waiting along with a long line of others for the free hot lunch given out by the nuns at the cloister just behind where I was painting daily.
He took no notice of what I was doing, but was a fabulously rich encyclopedia of Roman history. He knows every street name and what it was called in the past and why. He knows every nook and cranny it seems of Rome. He listed every metro stop and what you find at the various exits at each of the stops and went on to list the nearest buses in the area and where each of them went.
I just couldn’t let myself stop and only talk to him fully, the light was on the move and I going to capture it. As I was wrapping up he was off to the beach at Ostia that afternoon and in fact he gave me the most exact directions of anyone I have ever met of how to get to what he considers to be the best free beach there.
The best things about being a plein air painter are first and foremost the light and being able to spend all of my days outdoors.
A close second is the opportunity to be a part of life happening all around. Meeting people and interacting with them is fun, engaging and on this particular day extremely entertaining.