A Roman Corner

On Saturday we were making our way to Piazza Navona and stumbled upon a couple of interesting places at the corner of Via della Scrofa and Via dei Portoghese, which is so named because the Portugese national church is there. An old fashioned barber shop first caught our eyes.

And then we gazed above to the medieval tower known as the Torre della Scimmia, the Tower of the Monkey.

Georgina Mason in her Companion Guide to Rome gives this account of the legend connected with this tower.

"According to an old story, the owners once had a monkey which climbed to the top of the tower, carrying their baby in its arms. The anguished father returned home to find his neighbors in the street praying to the Virgin for the safety of the child. Uttering a short prayer himself, he called the animal with his customary whistle, and after carefully rewrapping the baby in its swaddling clothes, it climbed down and entered one of the windows. As a thank offering for this miraculous escape, the father raised a statue of the virgin on top of the tower and vowed that a lamp should be kept burning in front of it in perpetuity. Electricity has made this vow easier to keep."

Across the street, the doors to the church of San Antonio dei Portughesi (17th century) were open, so we went inside. We encountered a baroque interior with walls covered in many different kinds of marble. There were several chapels with interesting altarpieces and an 18th century guilt organ. It was a feast for the eyes!

A Portugese national church would not be complete

without a statue of Our Lady of Fatima.

Friday Night in the Garden

Last night there was a concert of Mediterranean folk music "from east to west" in the giardino on the Via della Sette Chiese, across from our apartment building. Three singers and eleven instrumentalists presented an hour and a half of traditional music with lutes, guitar, accordion, strings and tambourine. About 150 neighbors of all ages gathered to enjoy the music. While listening to the music, it was fun to see young children (and even older people) dancing around the perimeter of the performance area. The musicians were set up in front of the chiesetta (little church) of Ss. Isadoro and Eurosia built in the early 1800's when our neighborhood of Garbatella was farm land.

Apartments by Adalberto Libera

In the Tuscolano neighborhood in the southern part of Rome (near Cinecittà) there is an interesting housing project (1950-1954) designed by Adalberto Libera. It remains the only single level (one story) apartment complex in Rome.


The entrance to the apartments as seen from the adjacent neighborhood.






When you first approach the apartments on Via Selinute, you encounter a long row of storefronts, in a single-level building. It is interrupted in the middle by an almost “monumental” entrance, formed by a vaulted roof that seems to float above the walls that support it. On entering, you leave the rest of the city behind and walk into a large garden with radial paths that take residents to their apartments.



After crossing the garden you enter the apartment grid. Each section of the grid has four parts. Three of the parts are apartments and the fourth part is a patio. This plan offers residents a new possibility for outside space, a semi-private patio.


While this views shows that the roofs are not attractive when looked at from above, it does reveal the open patios. Between the apartments and the freight train, visible in the distance, is a small river, and beyond the train are ancient Roman ruins.

In addition to the low houses, Libera built an apartment tower of five floors, each with a “ballatoio.” The building’s stairs led to outside walkways that gave access to the apartments, rather than to inside landings with the apartment doors. This was an innovation that has been often repeated in Rome. (The Italian word” ballatoio” is often translated as balcony, but it is really more like a suspended bridge, a place for walking, or maybe even dancing!)

Note: Libera designed many other projects in Rome, including a post office.

Festa della Repubblica

Today is June 2, the Festa della Repubblica. It commemorates the birth of the Italian Republic when, in 1946, following the Second World War and the fall of Fascism, Italian voters decided that their country should be a republic instead of a monarchy. Before this referendum, Italy was officially a monarchy ruled by the House of Savoy.

This morning at 7:00 am I was awakened by the sound of over 100 horses outside the bedroom window. They were on their way to the parade to celebrate the Festa della Repubblica that went between the Colosseum to Piazza Venezia.

When I finished breakfast, I decided to take the bus and make my way to the area near the Colosseum and see some of the parade. It was crowded and raining, and I could not see much of the parade because of all the people and umbrellas, but here are a few pictures of the morning.

Music for Maria’s Birthday

On Thursday evening about 25 neighbors got together to celebrate Maria’s 54th birthday. She has lived on the top floor of our condominium building since she was about 7 years old, and now lives there with her husband and two teenage sons. Because of the weather, everyone stayed inside, but the grill was going under the covered section of Maria’s terrace cooking sausages and pork chops. The highlight of the evening was the music after dinner. Maria led her guests in singing traditional folk songs accompanied by guitars, accordion, clarinet, tambourine, and hand clapping.

Drama Festival: A Roman Time Line

Each primary class at Ambrit Rome International School puts on a play during the month of May. The fifth grade classes wrote twelve skits about events from the history of ancient Rome. Each class was responsible for acting in four of the skits. The finished production was an exploration of twelve important scenes along a Roman Time Line.

Here are photos of the actors from my classroom.

Above: A Roman senator stands with cast members of 

450 BC: The Twelve Tables.

Above: Octavian stands with Antony and Cleopatra

and solders from the cast of

31 BC: The Battle of Actium.

Above: Admiral Pliny stands above the cast members of 

79 AD: The Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius.

Above: Constantine and the cast from

312 AD: Constantine and the Battle at the Ponte Milvio.

Padre Pio

This past month the body of Padre Pio was exhumed and put in a glass coffin in the town of San Giovanni Rotondo in Puglia. We were recently in Puglia and I had hoped that we could visit this town, not necessarily to see Padre Pio, but to see the shrine church designed by Renzo Piano. (Renzo Piano has recently designed two projects in New York City: the Morgan Library atrium, on Madison Ave. at 36th Street, and the New York Times building on 8th Avenue.

We never made it to San Giovanni Rotondo, but during our trip we "encountered" Padre Pio every day. It has been reported that Padre Pio is the most popular saint in Italy, with more people praying to him than even the Virgin Mary.

Here are some pictures of Padre Pio as we saw him in Puglia.