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| Rome without the tourists, near the Pantheon |
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| the palms of Piazza di Spagna |
January
and February are
the best months to explore the center of Rome and when the
sun is shining it is always a good
excuse to spend the day in Rome.
It is rather fun to be a tourist in your own town.
We took a leisurely stroll through the centro storico from Piazza
di Spagna to the Pantheon pausing to take photos and do some shopping.
I was
surprised to find parrots making a
racket in Piazza di Spagna's palms and the Orthodox church on
Via delle Coppelle gave an exotic touch to the city.
Around the Pantheon the
empty tables awaited the few tourists who could be
spotted immediately - young couples in jeans without jackets, some even
in short sleeves .
We turned
right at the giant foot at Via S. Stefano del Cacco to make our way
to the magnificent Scuderie, the former stables of the of Palazzo Altieri
restored by Architect Gae Aulenti. Here the Italian Banks
Association ABI was inaugurating a unique library with
10,000 volumes (especially art books) published by Italian banks
The opening of the ABI library gives
researchers access to all those expensive volumes commissioned
by Italy’s banks from about 1850 to the present
and used as gifts for the banks’ major clients. Check the website for information and the online catalogue.
I was pleased to
recognize a few volumes picked up over the years at second hand
bookshops in Moscow and on Rome’s Via del Pellegrino.
Since
the beautifully illustrated volumes were published in small quantities
and not for the general public, some have become quite rare and
worth a great deal.
There were few tourists as we
crossed the usually crowded Trevi Fountain area and
continued towards Via Veneto. Stopping to
admire the Tritone fountain in Piazza Barberini, I spotted
a memorial plaque dedicated to American journalist Margaret
Fuller who lived in the building during the first years of the
Italian Risorgimento
A close friend of
Giuseppe Mazzini, Margaret Fuller ‘s articles kept the
American reading public informed of happenings during
the early Risorgimento years (1848-49) and she also coordinated the
nurses caring for the wounded at Fatebenefratelli hospital on
Tiber Island .
The romantic, tragic life of Margaret
Fuller is well described in the latest biography "The Lives of
Margaret Fuller " by John Matteson which you can find at the Anglo American bookshop on Via della Vite, near the Spanish Steps. They are also the exclusive agents in Rome for my books.
