The above picture is a view of Rome (as it was in 1857) from Monte Mario, a hill North West of the town center. Click here to see it enlarged. You might wish to compare it with a recent picture taken from the same place (which is called Zodiaco, and you might wish to visit). The mount you can see far away in the middle is named "Monte Cavo", namely the "Hollow Mount": it is a dead volcan, whose mouth hosts the lake of Castel Gandolfo. In the lower part of the middle panel, on the left, you may recognize the Tevere river (Tiber). The big church on the right panel is St Peter; at those times, it was outside of the city. The bridge on the left of the left panel is the only latin bridge on the Tiber still in existence in Rome, and is named Ponte Milvio.

The painting (32x285cm, 1857) is an oil on canvas (glued on paper) by Ippolito Caffi. Caffi was born in Belluno in 1809, in the mountains not far from Venice, and learned to paint in Padova, then in Venice. Stuck of the atmosphere, he moved to Rome in 1832, where his fame grew. He liked traveling; in 1843-1844 he visited the Middle East. In 1848 he moved to the Nort-East of Italy, and enrolled to fight the Austrians, who eventually emprisoned him. Caffi escaped, and kept moving (Venice, Genoa, London, Switzerland, Spain, Rome again, Venice again), and was again arrested and held in court. He was on the ship "Re d'Italia", which sank at the Lissa battle in 1866; he had embarked aiming at painting the battle, and he died.

You may see the original painting visiting the beautiful Museo di Roma.