“Rome. Second star to the right.” An astro-tourist’s guide

Name: “Rome. Second star to the right.” An astro-tourist’s guide
Start: 2025-02-27T18:30:00+01:00
Location: Oscars gate 56, 0258 Oslo, Norway

Schedule

Thu, 27 Feb, 2025 at 06:30 pm

UTC+01:00

Location

Oscars gate 56, 0258 Oslo, Norway | Oslo, OS

This evening we are glad to present here at the Institute the English version of this very special guide to Rome, a journey through art, history and astronomy which reveals how important the sky has been throughout the ages.
Italy, a place of art, beauty and a life stile appreciated all over the world, but also a place of science, discoveries and technique which have formed its history throughout the centuries and is now a part of its cultural identity. Through "Rome. Second star to the right" a part of this scientific culture becomes available to all, being an astronomical-tourist guide that designs a path between art, astronomy and knowledge among the streets and buildings of the Eternal City. A journey in the name of curiosity that reveals the value that astronomy has always had in the societies of every era, so much so that it has left traces in works of art, architecture and urban planning.
The guide "Rome. Second star to the right" invites you to rediscover Rome in its ‘celestial’ places: you can admire representations of stars, zodiac signs and planets painted and sculpted in the monuments, you can look for clocks and sundials in the churches and squares and you will be struck by the passionate stories linked to the many scientists of yesterday and today who have frequented it.
From the symmetries of the Pantheon to the celestial allegories frescoed in Palazzo Barberini and in the many noble palaces of the city; from the Imperial Forum woven with ancient astronomical references to the sundials painted in Palazzo Spada and in the convent of Trinita dei Monti, as beautiful as works of art, to the monumental one that crosses the Basilica of S. Maria degli Angeli. And then the places of Galileo Galilei, who ‘unveiled’ the telescope in Rome, was an academician of the Lincei but was also tried and condemned in the Church of S. Maria Sopra Minerva.
The guide is conceived by "INAF – National Institute of Astrophysics" and the presentation will be held by Giangiacomo Gandolfi and Francesca M. Aloisio, both from INAF.