About 180 metres - 200 yards downhill, the road reaches the famous Acqua Paola Fountain [map ref. i], named after the Acqua Paola aqueduct (originally, Aqua Traiana, see Aqueducts, part III page 3, built under the pontificate of pope Paul V. But to the people of Rome this is the fontanone ("big fountain"). You can read more about it in Fountains, part III page 12.
The Fontana Paola has a small garden at the back, with a tiny balcony looking centrally over the fountain's enormous basin; the garden, though, is usually closed to the public.
Don't miss the breathtaking view over the city from the terrace opposite the fountain.

On the left side of the terrace, a flight of stairs leads to a short lane: on the left hand side are some remains of the old Aurelian's wall [map ref. j], now partly hidden by trees and weeds. It looks indeed as a pathetic ruin, but this is the only standing part of the Roman wall that once climbed along the Janiculum hill reaching Porta Aurelia (see page 1), besides a few more small fragments now lying in private properties, and therefore no longer visible.

Keep following the lane, which very soon merges with via Garibaldi; the latter makes a bend to the right and keeps running downhill, towards the riverside. As you come down along via Garibaldi, you'll see a long row of houses on the left: most of them are rather old, and in their basements some of them still conceil a few fragments of the aforesaid Roman wall, which once followed this direction.

By the crossing at the bottom of the road, on the left, you'll see an archway framed with crenellation in the top part. This is Porta Settimiana [map ref. 11], the only surviving gate of the Roman wall still standing on this side of the city.
It was given this name probably after emperor Septimius Severus, who though lived about 75 years before the wall was finished; some sources suggest that one of the emperor's properties, or an arch bearing his name, might have stood nearby, whence the dedication. Pope Alexander VI (late 15th century), and later Pius VI (late 18th century), refurbished it into its present shape. On the sides of the passage you can still see the creases where the portcullis ran.
On the left side of the archway hangs an old painting, so spoilt by time that the religious subject it featured can be barely told. A similar one, on the inner side of the gate, has completely disappeared.

As soon as a large madonnella shrine painted on the wall comes into sight, just before piazza Sant'Egidio, turn right along the lane called vicolo del Cedro, and keep following it up to its end. You will cross a few typical lanes at the base of the hill, and then reach a steep stairway. At the top of the stairs, you will find yourself again on via Garibaldi.
Follow this winding road uphill, i.e. on the left, for a few metres; on the opposite side of the road, just before the sharp turn to the right, you will notice an iron gate that gives access to a passage. This leads to another short but rather steep stairway, with scenes of the Via Crucis (or Via Dolorosa, the road travelled by Jesus to Golgotha) along the wall. These steps climb towards a very interesting complex, the Spanish Academy in Rome, and the church of San Pietro in Montorio [map ref. j].

Montorio is an old name for the Janiculum Hill, used in the Middle Ages; the word is a contraction of the Latin mons aureus ("golden hill"), referring to the yellowish colour of the hill's sand. You can read about the church and its artistic features in The Rioni section, Trastevere.
In a courtyard adjoining the church you'll see the famous Small Temple, probably Donato Bramante's best known works in Rome (1502), and one of the most beautiful specimens of Renaissance architecture. The temple was built exactly over the spot where, according to the legend (still alive in the 1500s) the saint's cross had been stood.

Keep climbing along via Garibaldi; as the huge Acqua Paola Fountain comes into sight again, on the left hand side of the road you'll pass by a memorial monument in white travertine, where the many who lost their lives in the battle of 1849 are buried (see part II, page 2 for historical details).

The next stretch of wall encircles the western and southern sides of Villa Sciarra, which used to be the garden of a noble mansion, and is now a public park. Midway between two bastions, a service passage running through the wall has been left open, and now gives entrance to the gardens [map ref. k]: walking under the narrow arch, which features a Barberini bee on the keystone, you can realize the amazing thickness of these walls.

In 1849, during Rome's siege (mentioned also previously), this stretch of wall was affected rather badly by the heavy artillery of the French mercenaries allied with the pope. As a matter of fact, lengthy parts crumbled or were badly damaged. As soon as the papal authority was reinstalled, Pius IX had the wall completely restored, and plaques were hung, as usual, to remember the works. You'll see several of them. Curiously, besides the papal insignia, instead of the pope's own coat of arms, as in previous plaques, these ones feature the city's motto S.P.Q.R. (Latin for "the Senate And the People of Rome") and the year 1849 in Roman numerals; historians believe that this may have been a token of respect by the pope towards the city, whose unrest and dislike for the papal authority was clearly still alive.
Along the wall you'll also see large restored patches, which can be told by the slightly different brick texture, and some minor damages that were left unrepaired.

On the southern side of Villa Sciarra the road grows rather steep, reaching a small terrace from which you can take a view over the district. You may either follow the straight flight of steps, or walk along the winding road, down to the end of via Aurelio Saffi, where in the early 1900s some modern buildings replaced a short segment of wall; a small fragment is still standing, just before the corner with viale Trastevere.
The making of this wide avenue caused another part of the wall to disappear, but on the opposite side of the road you will see it standing again, along via delle Mura Portuensi. This last stretch is rather low, due to the considerable rising of the modern ground level. Where the road makes a slight curve, looking towards the opposite side of the road you will see in the distance the ancient church of Santa Sabina, high above the top of the Aventine hill.

With a last turn to the right, the wall reaches the southernmost gate of Urban VIII's boundary, Porta Portese [map ref. 12].
Its original Latin name was Porta Portuensis, after via Portuensis, the ancient road that led to Portus. This was the main harbour of imperial Rome, founded in the 1st century AD after the sand carried by the Tiber had gradually silted up the older harbour, Ostia (see map of ROME'S ANCIENT SURROUNDINGS).
You will notice that the coat of arms that hangs above Porta Portese does not feature the well-known three bees of the Barberini family: in fact, Urban VIII had died shortly before the last part of the walls was finished. So his successor, Innocent X, from the Pamphilj family (who were bitter enemies to the Barberini in the struggle for power), got the credit for having sponsored the making of this last gate. For this reason, above Porta Portese hangs the Pamphilj device: a dove with an olive twig in its beak over three fleur-de-lys.

Therefore, Porta Portese is the only part of the walls built by Urban VIII where the ancient boundary slightly shrinked instead of being enlarged. This was a strategic decision: it would have been easier to defend this gate from the nearby Janiculum Hill (i.e. the dark shape in the bottom left corner) than to do so from the spot where the old one was located.
Up to the mid 1600s, the chosen site for the new gate had been used by Rome's Jewish community as a burial place. The making of the new Porta Portese caused the cemetery to be removed. The community was then granted a new ground where to bury their dead, on the Aventine Hill, next to the area of the Circus Maximus (see further details in Curious and Unusual, Rome's Rose Garden).

* * *
Here the tour of the popes' walls comes to its end.
To reach the closest public transport line, walk back to viale Trastevere: tram no.8 will take you towards the city center (largo di Torre Argentina, not far from piazza Venezia). Otherwise, you can cross Ponte Sublicio (i.e. the bridge next to Porta Portese), and walk straight down the wide via Marmorata for about 800 metres - ½ mile: it will take you to Porta San Paolo and Gaius Cestius' Pyramid, by the metro station "Piramide" (line B).