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Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, or Altare della Patria Review

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Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, or Altare della Patria

Address: Entrance at Piazza Ara Coeli, next to Piazza Venezia, a, round Via del Corso, Rome | Map It
Phone: 06/6991718
www.ambienterm.arti.beniculturali.it/vittoriano/index.html

Victor Emmanuel Monument, or Altar of the Nation

Category: Memorials/Monuments
Location: Corso and Spagna

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Fodor's Review:

The huge white mass of the "Vittoriano" is an inescapable landmark—Romans say you can avoid its image only if you're actually standing on it. Some have likened it to a huge wedding cake; others, to an immense typewriter. Though not held in the highest esteem by present-day citizens, it was the source of great civic pride at the time of its construction, at the turn of the 20th century. To create this elaborate marble monster and the vast piazza on which it stands, architects blithely destroyed many ancient and medieval buildings and altered the slope of the Capitoline Hill, which abuts it. Built to honor the unification of Italy and the nation's first king, Victor Emmanuel II, it also shelters the eternal flame at the tomb of Italy's Unknown Soldier, guarded day and night by sentinels, and the (rather dry) Institute of the History of the Risorgimento—both relics of the struggle for the unification of Italy in the 19th century. You can't avoid the Monumento, so enjoy—neo-imperial grandiosity at its most bombastic.

The views from the top are some of Rome's most panoramic. For those not interested or able to climb the many stairs, there's now an elevator to the top (located to the right as you face the monument). Before you head up, stop at the museum entrances (to the left and right of the structure) to get a pamphlet identifying the sculpture groups on the monument itself and the landmarks you will be able to see once at the top. Opposite the monument, note the enclosed wooden veranda fronting the palace on the corner of Via del Plebiscito and Via Corso. For the many years that she lived in Rome, Napoléon's mother had a fine view from this spot of the local goings-on.

Cost: Monument free, museum free, elevatorEUR 7
Open: Tues.-Sun 10-4

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