L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, AUGUST 9, 2018 www.italoamericano.org 16 L'Italo-Americano SIMONE SCHIAVINATO W ater: the locus w here the world of the seen and the unseen meet, the origin of life, the strongest of protection against enemies, the most melodious of voices for lovers and poets. In Rome, water means Tiber and just there, at the very heart of the Capital's own river, lies a small sliver of land, nestled between Trastevere and the Jewish area: the Isola Tiberi- na. Connected to rest of the city by two bridges, today it is home to one of Rome's largest hospi- tals, the Fatebenefratelli. And its presence here is not at all casual, as our short voyage into the Isola's history and -mysteries - will soon show us. The Romans used to call it a land intra duos pontes, between two bridges, as it was connected to the mainland by, you guessed it, two wooden bridges, the Ces- tius and the Fabricius. The first was built in 46 BC by Lucius Cestius and, because of the tur- bulent waters of the Tiber, had to be reconstructed several times throughout the centuries, gaining also different names, from San Bartolomeo bridge, to Ponte Ferrato. The Fabricius bridge was later known as ponte dei Giudei, the bridge of the Jews, because it linked the Isola Tibe- rina to the J ew is h ghetto of Rome. One of the many myster- ies of the island is, indeed, tied to it. Legend wants the double herms visible on the bridge to be nothing less than the four heads of the architects whom Sixtus V entrusted with the restoration of a s eries of buildings on the island: disappointed by their work, the fiery pope had them, apparently, beheaded. However, the herms on the bridge are not four but eight and it seems the gruesome tale stemmed from Sixtus' own violent repression of criminality around the city. The very origins of the island are surrounded by a mystical aura. According to some, it came to be when the Romans, freed from the tyranny of the Tar- quins, threw all of their wheat into the river; there was so much that, with time and the further accumulation of debris, a small island was formed. It was 509 BC. Others say the island used to be a ship and that's why it has that shape today: the Romans, who certainly enjoyed to play around with people's gullibility, made the res emblance even more striking by adding a stone fore and aft at its two extremes, and an obelisk at its centre, remi- niscent of a ship's mainmast. To something pretty real - the fact the island is located in one of the areas where crossing the Tiber is easier, and that the first port of the Eternal City rose just nearby for this very reason - is tied yet another legend: that the Isola Tiberina was the first strip of land Aeneas set foot upon w hen he finally reached Latium. But it is to the glorious Roman historian Livy we owe the best narration of all. Accord- ing to his writings, it was the year 229 BC when Rome was hit by a maleficent pes tilence against which nothing could be done. For this reason, a group of Roman doctors sailed to Epidau- rus, the holy city of Aesculapius, god of medicine: there, they hoped to find a cure and bring it back home to save their people. From Aesculapius' priests, they obtained a sacred snake which, when nearing the end of the trip, jumped into the waters of the Tiber and sought refuge on the Isola Tiberina. A temple dedicated to Aescu- lapius was then built on the island to guarantee health to the city and its inhabitants. In it, holy snakes were fed by the priests and kept in a pit: today, on that very location, you'll find the church of San Bartolomeo, w here the w ell created on a thaumaturgic spring central to the cult of the ancient pagan temple is still visible. The leg- end goes on, telling us about the miraculous healings taking place at the temple, w hich s oon became a place for the ill and the desperate to seek hope and good health: the waters favored by that first holy snake truly had regenerating virtues. Among other practices, we should men- tion that of incubatio, where the ill were kept fasting and out- doors for a couple of days to purify themselves, then recount their dreams and thoughts to Aesculapius' priests, who would diagnose their illness and pro- vide a cure: sounds like in Rome, already, people could find health through wording their issues to expert doctors. During the Middle Ages, pos- sibly because of the increasing urbanization of the city, they once thaumaturgic w aters became so polluted the well had to be closed. But the Isola Tibe- rina's reputation as a place to heal and to regain one's health had been long established and was there to remain, as the pres- ence on the already mentioned Fatebenefratelli hospital still tes- tifies today. Indeed, the original healing home, root of the hospi- tal to be, w as built here in medieval times and was run by the friars of the San Giovanni di Dio order: it is said the very name of today's hospital, which trans lates into "do good, oh brothers," comes from the friars' continuous exhortations to their flock to act following the rule of God. The San Giovanni di Dio's friars transformed the former xenodochio (a healing house) into a much better working insti- tution, where people could truly get their health back. They were also fundamental for the mainte- nance of the island's architecture and traditions: it was them who w anted and s upervis ed the restoration of another church, dedicated to hermit San Giovan- ni Calibita. As if it were neces- sary, this church adds more leg- endary tales to the many we've learnt already. The fire in the lamp of the Madonna della Lam- pada (the Virgin of the Lamp), on the church façade, remained miraculously lit after being sub- merged by the Tiber during a flood. And it was the very same representation of the Virgin to weep, it seems, when Napoleon entered Rome in 1798. Such a tiny piece of land, so many legends and so much histo- ry mingling on it: today, the Isola Tiberina, with its ship-like s hape and its tw o bridges , remains a place of healing, rising from the w aters of Rome's beloved river, telling her tales of snakes, miracles and friar-doc- tors that span through the millen- nial history of the Città Eterna. The Romans used to call it a land intra duos pontes, between two bridges The legendary history of l'Isola Tiberina, the heart of Rome ALL AROUND ITALY TRAVEL TIPS DESTINATIONS ACTIVITIES Today home to the Fatebenefratelli hospital, the ties of the island with the world of health and healing date back to Roman times

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