This is the Season for the Feste Romane, think of the music of Ottorino Respighi and also elsewhere in cities like Venezia. It is also the time of parties given by the aristocracy. I am happy to think that once in the not so distant past we went to such parties in Rome. What elegant parties they were. Here are some photos of our friends at the home of Prince Jonathan Doria-Pamphilj in his palace in the centre of Rome near Piazza Venezia last week. I remember when we first visited this palace and wonder how can anyone today live in such a grand place, it is beyond real. But family tradition and owning such a place for several centuries brings not only attachment but also a sense that you owe it to your ancestors to continue. Other princely families in Rome like the Colonna, the Palavincini, BonCompagni-Ludovisi or Torlonia, the also have spectacular palaces but they are not open to visitors, you only enter as a guest invited as a friend.
Side view of the palace Doria-Pamphilj on Via del Corso (Via Flaminia in antiquity)
The interior courtyard of the palace.
It was a mask ball, here friends in the Mirror Gallery. (name withheld)
The Prince has through his family history a very large art collection of antiquities, Renaissance and Baroque masterpieces. Our dear friends C.E. and her husband P.C.
Palazzo Doria Pamphilj—the colossal, 1,000-room family seat, which dates from 1505 and is among the most treasure-filled palaces in Europe. Said to be nearly two-thirds the size of St. Peter’s Basilica, the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj may well be the largest private residence in Italy. It houses one of the nation’s most important private art collections, with 650 works, including masterpieces by Raphael, Caravaggio, Titian, and Velázquez. The Doria Pamphilj clan—whose family tree includes the renowned Genoese admiral Andrea Doria and Giovanni Battista Pamphilj, who reigned as Pope Innocent X from 1644 to 1655—is one of just a handful of Rome’s ancient princely families who have survived with their palazzi, fortunes, and staggering art collections intact.
Prince Jonathan Doria-Pamphilj and his husband Elson Braga with their children Emily and Filippo Andrea VII.
Larry Muffin At Home 
Great times when even an Italian Prince can live openly with his male partner and raise a family. Che gioia! But Jonathan isn’t an Italian name – do you know why/how? Mother?
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I believe he was adopted by the Princess Orietta Doria-Pamphilj who was herself married to a British Citz.
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Fascinating – do you know him?
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yes we met while in Rome
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The photos of the inside of that building! Wow. See, I LOVE scenes like that. I could spend hours just looking at and admiring all the art work hanging on the walls – AND in the artful details that was put into the architecture of that building! Thanks for sharing!
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