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Visits of Rome:
- Visit of Rome's Colosseum
- Visit the Roman Forum
- Visit Rome by night
- Rome shore excursion from Civitavecchia
- Visit Capitol Hill of Rome
- Visit Rome Vatican Museums
- Visit Rome Vatican's Sixtine Chapel
- Visit Rome's Trevi Fountain
- Visit Rome's Piazza Navona
- Visit Rome's Circus Maximus
- Visit Rome's Constantine Arch
- Visit Rome's Spanish Steps
- Visit St Peter Basilica in Rome
- Visit Rome's Trajan Forum
- Visit Rome Pantheon
- Visit St Mary above Minerva in Rome
- Private tour or big bus?
- Rome tourist information and advice
- Visit Venice Squares' Vittoriano in Rome
In other languages…
The Mouth of Truth
The Mouth of Truth (Bocca della Verità in Italian) is a mask of marble in relief (rose pavonazzetto marble brought from Turkey) of great diameter (1,75 m) which served in Roman epoch as a trap against the bad smell for the dirty waters of the Cloaca Maxima, ancient collector in the Roman forum built between the 6th and the 5th century BC.
Devoted in the ancient Rome times to a river divinity, it has circular eyes and an open mouth, and it is walled in the portico of the church of Saint Mary in Cosmedin (Santa Maria in Cosmedin, 1200's church where still today it is officiated with the Byzantine rite) from 1632.
The name derives from a tradition according to which those people who lent oath putting the hand in this mouth could not withdraw it if they said a forgery because the mouth was brusquely closed and the hand was removed with a violent bite.
Although in the antiquity it didn't have terrific semblances, this mask of stone has been through however spectator of capital executions by mean of the guillotine. In the square in front of the Mouth of Truth, in fact, the executioner of Rome Mastro Titta cut only him 516 heads from 1796 to 1864, more sadder picture than the laughing medieval legend.
This legend narrates of a jealous husband that wanted to disperse the suspicions on the unfaithfulness of his wife making her hand put in the Mouth of Truth. There were many spectators and among them a youth jumped out before she put the hand inside, kissing her. The young one, believed stupid and allowed to go, was in reality his lover. When she swore to never have been touched neither from her husband, neither from that young fool, she said therefore the truth, its hand was not cut and the doubts of unfaithfulness of her husband were dissipated.
The church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin was built in an area called in the ancient Rome Forum Boarium, which was also the area of the ancient port of the city on the Tiber river. It includes the Arch of janus (Arco di Giano, 4th century BC), the Temple of Hercules Olivarius (145 BC, built as a donation to the city by a rich olive oil merchant and incorrectly called Temple of Vesta), the Fountain of the Tritons (Fontana dei Tritoni), built in 1715 by Carlo Bizzaccheri under commission of Pope Clemence XI (Clemente XI) and the Temple of Portunus, river divinity of Rome, built in the 4th century BC.
Once you arrive in Rome, it's time to hire a limousine or a minibus and go to discover the history as well as the myths about Rome with a personal english speaking driver guide. Many different Rome excursions are today available when coming, for example, from its port.
The Mouth of Truth can be for example the beginning of a wonderful car tour of Rome that continues to the Circus Maximus, considered the biggest stadium ever built in the ancient world and keep going to see the Appian way and the Catacombs that are few minutes far away one to each other if you take a private driver guide with you during your holiday in Rome.