Si sedes non is...

...but, mind you, si non sedes is.

Esquilino is a neighbourhood, a rione to be precise, in central Rome, just next to the main train station, Stazione Termini. Until a few years ago, it wasn't exactly the nicest place to go, especially the area comprising and surrounding Piazza Vittorio, which is a large square with arcaded walks all around it, and a garden in its centre — it sounds nice, but it wasn’t.

What's the story there, what happened to Piazza Vittorio?

Most shops were closed or abandoned, as Italian patrons had left the neighbourhood, substituted by immigrati (mostly people coming from China, Bangladesh, and north African countries). But of course they were not the problem, as they're just people running their shops and living their normal lives: the actual problem was the abandoned garden right in the centre of it all, which had become home to drug dealers, and their “customers”, therefore not a place for children to go and play, nor for adults to go and relax. A pity indeed.

There's a book by Amara Lakhous (who is currently a faculty member at the department of Italian Studies at New York University) titled Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio, which is an anthropological essay masquerading as a detective story, told in first person by Amedeo/Ahmed, an immigrant from Algeria who tries to pass off as southern Italian (and this is where I remind you that Italian immigrants to America weren't labeled as “white” on their arrival at Ellis Island, because you can't really tell a southern Italian from a Greek, or a Spaniard, or a Northern African, or any other people in the Mediterranean area, and you know what? That's fine!), that vividly depicts the situation in the early 2000s.

Luckily enough, a process of regeneration of the neighbourhood (which is still ongoing), prompted first and foremost by its very inhabitants, Italians and immigrants alike, led to the gardens being restored to their original beauty, and above all being given back to the community — and in fact it's inside that garden that Esquilino Jazz Festival is taking place from 10th to 16th July 2023:

Horti Magici is a lovely bistrot inside the garden of Piazza Vittorio, they're sort of the spin-off of Gatsby Café (a cafeteria that once was a hat shop under the arcades), and they're hosting the jazz fest, which is sponsored among others by Scatola Sonora, a nearby music school (my friend Susanna teaches there, too!).

But, apart from a cafeteria, you know what's in that garden?

An alchemical gate! 😱

Ah, this should (also) be

Barocco e i suoi fratelli

stuff, but while I decide if I should keep writing that newsletter in Italian or switch it to English as well, I'm going to tell you the story of this magic door here: it was built between 1678 and 1680 by order of the marquis of Pietraforte (listen, I know democracy is the best and everything, but how cool are those marquis of this, duke of that, count of someplace, prince of someotherplace names? It's no wonder franchises like Bridgerton et al are so successful, we're still fascinated by aristocracy…).

The marquis, who was born Massimiliano Palombara, was a member of the brotherhood of the Rosy Cross, had a deep interest in the occult, mysticism, and Kabbalah, and was among the acquaintances of Queen Christina, the former monarch of Sweden, who had abdicated, converted to Catholicism, and was at the time living in exile in Rome. The marquis lived in the villa Palombara (pictured below, in a detail of a 1676 map of Rome by Giovanni Battista Fadda), which unfortunately was demolished sometime after 1870 (that’s when Rome was annexed to the then newborn Kingdom of Italy), but they saved the magic door, that once belonged to the private garden inside the villa.

There's a legend according to which the gate was designed by none other than Pedro Pascal Gian Lorenzo Bernini, together with Athanasius Kircher (a Jesuit scholar and polymath, “maestro in un centinaio d'arti”, i.e. master of a hundred arts…) and Giuseppe Francesco Borri (a physician/alchemist/freethinker who thought of himself as Prochristus, the prophet of the new era, go figure…).

Bernini, Kircher, and Borri

The marquis of Pietraforte, Bernini, and Kircher allegedly all died at the end of November in 1680 (although some sources report that the marquis actually died in 1685, but I'm sure they're only saying so to spoil the fun…), and it's rumoured that Borri had poisoned the three of them, because he believed they'd revealed secret formulas through the inscriptions they’d put on the gate! 😱

Back to our days, as I said the cafeteria in the garden of Piazza Vittorio is called Horti Magici, i.e. magic gardens (or “of the magic garden”, if we consider that as the genitive singular of “hortus magicus”…), because that's one of the inscriptions on the magic door:

HORTI MAGICI INGRESSVM HESPERIVS CVSTODIT DRACO ET SINE ALCIDE COLCHICAS DELICIAS NON GVSTASSET IASON

(“Hesperius the dragon guards the entrance of the magic garden, and, without Hercules, Jason would not have tasted the delights of Colchis” — what does this mean? That's beyond me… 🤷🏻‍♀️)

Anyway, if you're in Rome next week and would like to attend a jazz festival in a garden full of mystical mysteries (and maybe try your hand at chrysopoeia, who knows…), now you know where to go.

Here's the full programme (all gigs start at 9 PM):

• Monday, 10th July: Empathree > Lorenzo Tucci, Max Ionata, Luca Mannutza

• Tuesday, 11th July: Imperfect Trio > Roberto Gatto, Marcello Allulli, Pierpaolo Ranieri

• Wednesday, 12th July: Gabriele Coen Quartet > Gabriele Coen, Francesco Poeti, Riccardo Gola, Luca Caponi

• Thursday, 13th July: Patrizio Destriere Quartet > Patrizio Destriere, Claudio D’Amato, Dario Piccioni, Giampaolo Scatozza

• Friday, 14th July: Greg Burk > Greg Burk, Giulio Scianatico, Reinaldo Santiago

• Saturday, 15th July: Opus Magnum > Ettore Fioravanti, Marco Colonna, Andrea Biondi, Igor Legari

• Sunday, 16th July: The Original Box Brothers > Fabrizio Sferra, Enzo Pietropaoli, Edoardo Ferri

To book, please call +39 345 563 0443

• Dinner + gig: € 35.00 per person

• One cocktail + gig: € 20.00 per person

A presto!