Walking Around in Rome
San Lorenzo

 
Rome's fascination is heightened when seen while taking a long walk. One is overwhelmed by its architecture but outside of the precious parts of the wonderous historical centre, the real fascination is about people, about how modern Romans live right now.

A lovely lady I know who lives in a small country town said to me recently that whenever she is in Rome, she feels stoned. This might actually be the effect of all the fumes from the traffic that she is not used to but she has a point. Rome is, without doing anything in particular, exhilarating!

I have become good friends with an artist who lives and works in the district called San Lorenzo. Here is the kind of parallel world of freedom seekers of which Pasolini might have dreamt about. Girls and boys who want to have fun come to San Lorenzo. Here life is lived with less rules or so it seems - The Wild Side. And yet there is a certain sense of social order and respect and above all affection. People who live here are visibly seeking love, almost from anyone, there is an open declaration of amity. Hypocrisy only exists to the extent that even here, in the most democratic of all Roman neighbourhoods, the more successful artists, the better known personalities, the harder working shopkeepers are envied. Despite the general friendliness of the bars and night joints, the pub keepers know in the end where the euro is being made. One can escape certain legal controls but not the economic ones.

San Lorenzo is divided from the messy touristy Stazione Termini area by the magnificent remains of the Roman Wall. Only now its function has been inverted. The invaders are kept inside by the wall and San Lorenzo with its reputation as a hive of communists and drug users is not on the tourist map.

The things the tourist miss are not necessarily important according to the rules of monumentality but nonetheless in these walks one come across some remarkable visions and some things are just there for people to appreciate and still to use like this simple basin fountain.

Other things require further research because they look wonderful like an ancient pediment. The most remarkable thing of all is to realise how the wall not only keeps the barbarians from getting out but it is actually still lived in and so by definition it is not really a relic at all.

Roma, 2 12 2006