At the end of this street is the Porta Portese, built by Urban VIII., through which runs the road to Porto and Fiumicino.
Outside this gate was the site of the camp of Tarquin,—afterwards given by the senate to Mutius-Scævola, for his bravery in the camp of Lars Porsenna. The vineyards here have an interest to Roman Catholics as the scene of one of the miracles attributed to Sta. Francesca Romana.
"One fine sunny January day, Francesca and her companions had worked since dawn in the vineyards of the Porta Portese. They had worked hard for several hours, and then suddenly remembered that they had brought no provisions with them. They soon became faint and hungry, and, above all, very thirsty. Perna, the youngest of all the oblates, was particularly heated and tired, and asked permission of the Mother Superior to go to drink water at a fountain some way off on the public road.
"'Be patient, my child,' Francesca answered, and they went on with their work; but Francesca withdrawing aside, knelt down, and said, 'Lord Jesus, I have been thoughtless in forgetting to provide food for my sisters,—help us in our need.'
"Perna, who had kept near the Mother Superior, said to herself, with some impatience, 'It would be more to the purpose to take us home at once.' Then Francesca, turning to her, said, 'My child, you do not trust in God; look up and see.' And Perna saw a vine entwined around a tree, whose dead and leafless branches were loaded with grapes. In speechless astonishment the oblates assembled around the tree, for they had all seen its bare and withered branches. Twenty times at least they had passed before it, and the season for grapes was gone by. There were exactly as many bunches as persons present.'—See Lady G. Fullerton's Life of Sta. F. Romana.
From the back of S. Michele a cross street leads to the Church of Sta. Maria dell' Orto, designed by Giulio Romano, c. 1530, except the façade, which is by Martino Lunghi. The high altar is by Giacomo della Porta. The church contains an Annunciation by Taddeo Zucchero.
"Cette église appartient à plusieurs corporations; chacune a sa tombe devant sa propre chapelle, et sur le couvercle sont gravées ses armes particulières; un coq sur la tombe des marchands de volaille, une pantoufle sur celle des savetiers, des artichauts sur celle des jardiniers, &c."—Robello.
Close to this, at the end of the street which runs parallel with S. Michele, is the Church of S. Francesco a Ripa, the noviciate of the Franciscans—"Frati Minori." The convent contains the room (approached through the church) in which St. Francis lived, during his visits at Rome, with many relics of him. His stone pillow and his crucifix are shown, and a picture of him by G. de' Lettesoli. An altar in his chamber supports a reliquary in which 18,000 relics are displayed!
The church was rebuilt soon after the death of St. Francis by the knight Pandolfo d'Anquillara (his castle is in the Via Lungaretta), whose tomb is in the church, with his figure, in the dress of a Franciscan monk, which he assumed in the latter part of his life. It was again rebuilt by Cardinal Pallavicini, from designs of Matteo Rossi. Among its pictures are the Virgin and St. Anne by Baciccio, the Nativity by Simon Vouet, and a dead Christ by Annibale Caracci. On the left of the altar is the Altieri chapel, in which is a recumbent statue of the blessed Luigi Albertoni, by Bernini. In the third chapel on the right is a mummy, said to be that of the virgin martyr Sta. Semplicia. The convent garden has some beautiful palm-trees.
Following the Via Morticelli we regain the Via Lungaretta near S. Benedetto. This street, more than any other in Rome, retains remnants of mediæval architecture. On the right (opposite the opening to the west end of S. Chrisogono) is the entrance to the old Castle of the Anguillara Family, of whom were Count Pandolfo d'Anguillara already mentioned, and Everso, his grandson, celebrated for his highway robberies between Rome and Viterbo in the fifteenth century; also Orso d'Anguillara, senator of Rome, who crowned Petrarch at the Capitol on Easter Day, 1341. "The family device, two crossed eels, surmounted by a helmet, and a wild boar holding a serpent in his mouth, is believed to refer to the story of the founder of their house, Malagrotta, a second St. George, who slew a terrible serpent, which had devastated the district round his abode, and received in recompense from the pope the gift of as much land as he could walk round in one day."[361]