neve

Rome hadn't woken up to this in 27 years, but some say this year's flakes beat the 1985 snowfall. I certainly never remember Rome seeing anything like this before.
Here are a few images of my neighborhood and Villa Borghese, taken Saturday morning. I wish I could only portray the silence and the awe.

seduti

I missed posting for Theme Day yesterday,  because I totally forgot it was July 1st. I however posted Green doors on my other blog a few days ago, totally unaware that 'green' was going to be the July theme. I must be some sort of psychic...

Today I spent the morning in the park, relaxing under the shade provided by umbrella pines and European sycamores. Here are some images of others doing the same.

modellino

Just playing around with Tilt Shift Maker (thank you Lori for introducing me to this fun effect). Here I used it to make Piazza di Siena look like a model. Images like these always remind me of the old Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends TV show, shot entirely in live action model animation at Shepperton Studios in England.
If you happen to stroll by Piazza di Siena in these days, you'll see nothing like this. The place is a noisy construction site in preparation for the annual show jumping horse competition to be held here at the end of May.

bici

acqua

Water is a common good. In Italy it's a precious public resource. There will soon be a referendum here to vote against (or to ratify) the privatization process of public water. With this post I wish to remind all Italian citizens how important our acqua is, and encourage them to vote at the coming May 12-13 election.

dolce far niente

Sweet idleness is a national sport these days. During the weekend folks go to one of the city's many public parks, bring a picnic or just lie on the grass, enjoying the warm sunshine and perfumy spring air.
We like to do the same.

famiglia

Last week I did a photoshoot with a Danish newlywed couple I met through Roma Every Day, and their two gorgeous daughters. We skipped on cobblestones, splashed in fountains and threw armfuls of leaves at each other in the park.
You can see more images we shot on Christina's Uni*C blog, along with their lovely seaside wedding pictures, also taken by friends and family.

muro torto

The Muro Torto (meaning, "askew wall") is an ancient Roman supporting wall located behind the Pincian hill, that cuts through the Villa Borghese, running all the way from Via Veneto to the Piazza del Popolo. 

Don't be fooled by this picture, weekday traffic here is always bumper-to-bumper. There are actual sayings to that effect, like for example, "Jammed like the Muro Torto at rush hour..." or, "Growing old on the Muro Torto," etc. I'm kidding, the maxims don't exist. But the traffic is indeed very real.

The wall–dating to the end of the Republican era (509 BC to 27 BC)–supports the sloping hillside that once housed many patrician mansions, like the ones belonging to the Anicii, the Acilii and Pinci families.

The wall was later included in the monumental Aurelian Wall complex; and in the late 1800s this is where suicide victims, thieves, vagabonds and prostitutes were buried.

For more interesting history and lore surrounding the Muro Torto, you can read this very well-written article (in Italian) by Domenico Augenti.

domenica

Mexican artist Rivelino is the author of the temporary sculpture installation I Nostri Silenzi that occupies Villa Borghese's magnolia-lined avenue near the Pincio terrace. With his ten mute bronze busts, the artist conceptually deals with the theme of silence as absence of verbal communication and hindrance of freedom of expression.

aquiloni

{...and send it soaring}

Last week if you happened in the northern entrance to Villa Borghese of Parco dei Daini–nearest the Via Veneto and Borghese Gallery–you'd have come across an interesting show. Exhibited parts of a disassembled eolian turbine, young girls handing out free whirlygigs, and children flying their own hand-made kites. 

Global Wind Day celebrated its 3rd edition June 15th, and for the occasion, kite-making classes were held for kids, nifty gadgets were offered to visitors, and an expert flyer launched a number of kites, including 100 lightweight frames connected to a main sail with a +1000ft line. You can see the main kite in the very far distance if you enlarge the image. The many shiny ones pictured here are only a few. The sky was filled with color at one point. It was beautiful.

The event also provided a bit of excitement when an unexpected stronger gust of north wind ripped the line to an orange and black sail anchored up at 400ft. It seemed lost, until it was later found by the adventurous kite-handler tangled in the antennas at the top of a building several miles away.

I like the wind.

casa del cinema

"Marcello... come here!"

While taking a weekend stroll in our neighborhood park, my son and I came upon the familiar Casa del Cinema and noticed how Meryl was swooning at the thought of being in the sweet company of Marcello.

Casa del Cinema hosts events, screenings, photo exhibits, panel discussions, professional association meetings and press conferences–all involving or connected with the seventh art, cinema. The abandoned and completely run down Casina delle Rose building was converted in the Casa del Cinema in 2001, and inaugurated in 2004. Besides the 3 top of the line screening rooms and the many conference spaces, the Casa del Cinema boasts a cafe, a restaurant, a bookstore and an outdoor movie theater seating 200.

The old turn of the century structure has been embellished with more modern additions, and the interiors are elegantly decorated. The walls display photo portraits of international and Italian stars, movie icons and historical filmmakers.

The images on the entrance window rotate. This month it's a 12-foot Meryl Streep. She is among my favorite thespians, she always manages to make me forget she's acting. Marcello Mastroianni–to whom the Casa del Cinema address is dedicated, and a wonderful man I had the fortune of meeting on more than one occasion–always said that he was the luckiest man alive, "This is not work. I'm being payed to play."

Casa del Cinema
Largo Marcello Mastroianni, n.1
Villa Borghese, Roma

Tel. +39 06 4201 6224

marzo pazzerello

 

white and pink and grey

The weather changes so quickly in the spring. The sun plays hide and seek with the clouds, jumpers and jackets come on and off at the speed of an eyelid bat. Nature blooms, hormones surge, and beauty awakens with renewed life.

There's an Italian nursery rhyme that portrays March as being loony:

"...marzo pazzerello, aprile mite e bello, maggio sognatore..."

è primavera

Bellis perennis | homage to Gina

Don't care what the calendar says. It's officially spring. When the wild daisies start to bloom, to me it's spring, period.

The name 'daisy' is a corruption of "day's eye", because the whole crown of petals closes at night and opens in the morning. Here we call this flower "margheritina," a diminutive of Margherita. In both languages this is a beautiful girl's name.

For more Sundays in My City images from around the world, click HERE

pedala!

Rent-a-kart

If you've been to the Villa Borghese park, you'll most probably have seen kids (and silly looking adults) zooming by on these odd pedal powered go-karts.

For more Ruby Tuesday images from all over the world, click HERE

palloncini

He ~ helium

giostra

Horses, elephants, trains and automobiles

Every Sunday morning my son and I take a long walk in the park. When the weather is nice, we even stretch as far as the Pincio, where I like to sit on a park bench and read the paper, sipping a cappuccino, while my little boy rides the merry-go-round, blissfully.

Spot a familiar subject in this photo?

For More Sundays in My City images, click HERE

innamorati

Lovers' locks

There's a recent custom among young lovers. Fastening padlocks to a chain in a public place near water, like a bridge or a lake as a romantic symbol of solidity, which seals a promise of love made between two people. The ritual involves the couple locking the padlock to a lamppost or a chain, and then throwing the key into the water. There are places around Rome where thousands of locks are clustered together. But as you can see, in this romantic place, the practice has only just begun.








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fontana dei cavalli marini

Circles and sea horses

How many fountains are there in Rome? A million dollar-question. No other city in the world, I believe, can compete in number of fountains with the Eternal City. Percy Bysshe Shelley–(1792–1822) English poet, and leading figure of the romantic movement famed for his radical political views–observed that, "The fountains alone justify a journey to Rome."
Water and the myriad fountains from which it spills are part of Rome's artistic and cultural heritage and have always been one of the city's prominent characteristics.

The Fontana dei Cavalli Marini, 'fountain of the sea horses,' was designed in 1791 by Cristoforo Unterberger, some say built by Luigi Salimei, others by Vincenzo Pacetti.
It stands in the middle of a round plaza, surrounded by trees and a pedestrian walkway at the Via Pinciana main entrance of Villa Borghese.

My son likes to throw pebbles in the fountain's wide basin, and watch the sun play with the circular ripples in the water.

For more Watery Wednesday images from around the world, click here.