Strange Public Monuments: to Alcide de Gasperi, Europeanist and Founder of Christian Democratic Party

 

One of the stranger monuments we've found in our walks in Rome is this one of stone and grass, to Alcide De Gasperi, a giant in the political history of Italian and European politics, especially immediately after World War II.

We came across the bronze and grass (yes) monument by accident while trying to find another structure on the west side of the Vatican.

The monument is low and the "park" in which it's placed is surrounded by streets and cars. If you look closely, you can see the green of the grass in the photo below of the nameless piazzale - though the short street coming into it on the right here and around it is named via Alcide De Gasperi. The large street to the left of the pie-shaped building is the busy via delle Fornaci, coming off the Gianicolo.

As many times as we've zoomed down via delle Fornaci on our scooter, we had never noticed the monument. It took a trip on foot and some daring crossing of streets to see it.

De Gasperi (1881-1954), an anti-Fascist jailed for years, is considered the founder of the Christian Democratic Party, was Prime Minister in 8 successive governments, and was also a founder of the European Union.

It's difficult (for us, anyway) to read the inscriptions on the brass. They are a mix of quotations from the politician. According to the official Rome tourist website (Turismo Roma) "A number of quotations were engraved in lost wax, in capital letters and without interruption, on the covering, summarizing well De Gasperi's vision of the European community and calling for brotherhood, tolerance and the spirit of sacrifice in community service."

Our photos were taken in 2022. We've been back a few times, and the monument continued to be unkempt. It was restored in 2024, apparently. We also learned, from an article on the restoration, that the monument is within sight of where De Gasperi lived when he served in Rome, at via delle Fornaci 18.  He was from - and died in - Trentino, the very North of Italy. Per the restoration information, the artist Maria Dompè attempted to reproduce a valley in Trentino "with a sloping meadow enclosed by bronze slabs."

An overhead shot on the sculptor's website is perhaps more revealing of her vision:

Dianne

PS - Google's AI thinks the monument is in EUR; it isn't.

Pasolini's Last Supper, in San Lorenzo

Yes, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and, yes, his last check, yet uncashed.

Legend has it, and the legend is not controverted, that Pasolini had his last supper at Pommidoro dal 1890, a San Lorenzo restaurant now run by the 5th generation of the Clementina family.

Pommidoro, especially since the artist and filmmaker's murder in November 1975, has been famous for being one of the haunts of the controversial artist and filmmaker--controversial to most of the world, pretty much simply revered in Italy (at least on our and our friend's side of the cultural spectrum). We've posted about him several times, tracing his body as icon, his activities around and near Rome, and the site of his death in the coastal town of Ostia.

A vintage photo of artists gathered at Pommidoro.

He paid with a check, which seems quaint these days. The sign in the photo at top above, attested to by then owner Aldo Bravi, says he was a frequent customer and was in the restaurant that fateful night until he went to the train station for what would be the encounter with his assassin.

The title of this photo is "Oscar stars at San Lorenzo." In the photo, along with Tucci are Edward Berger, Ralph Fiennes, and the Bravi owners.

Since being discovered by Stanley Tucci, Pommidoro attracts more tourists, but it's still very much a local, family place, full of nooks and crannies as well as a large, disordered dining room.

Tucci declared its carbonara the best in Italy, and in his paean to it, used the word "cazzo" many times. More like "hot damn" I suppose.

I can't say we found the carbonara the best--in a city known for it, btw--but certainly serviceable. Enough so that we went back. Or maybe we were just enraptured by the atmosphere that Pasolini loved so much.

Often crowded, but also you usually can get a table. 

Pommidoro dal 1890: Piazza Dei Sanniti 44/46, San Lorenzo, 

+39 06 445 2692.

Garibaldi was here?! La Scoperta del Giorno

The latest in the now-and-then RST feature, La Scoperta del Giorno (the discovery of the day or, better put in English, Today’s Discovery). The Italian word “scoperta,” and its English equivalent, “discovery,” are similarly constructed; each is based on the verb “to cover” (coprire/to cover) and each is converted into “uncover” or “discover” with a prefix (the “s” in Italian, the “dis” in English).

Yesterday evening we headed up the hill to Villa Fiorelli, a small, comfortably round "pocket park" about a 10-minute walk from Piazza dei Re di Roma. We remember it from 1993, when we lived close by on via Nicastro, and last night it was humming with young children and their mothers enjoying the light at dusk. What we don't remember from decades past--and probably never saw--is a plaque commemorating the July 2, 1849 departure of Giuseppe Garibaldi and his red-shirted companions, from the very ground we were standing on and the kids were playing on, headed for Venice on their epic 30-day March on behalf of Italian independence. 

         And that's La Scoperta del Giorno for the evening of November 4, 2025. 

Bill 

See here for an RST post on Garibaldi in Rome.

Rome's Police Cabins: a History, the Sad Present, and Alternative Uses

 

This widely circulating photograph of a Rome police officer directing traffic in Piazza Venezia not only suggests that the officer may be auditioning for a a role in the latest Cinecittà epic, but shows the pedestal used by the officer for visibility and protection from the traffic at one of Rome's busiest intersections.

On our latest visit to the Eternal City, we became interested in the city's traffic control structures, usually referred to in Italian as "cabine" (cabins) or, in long form, "cabine per vigili urbani" (municipal police cabins). They are now sometimes referred to, in English, as kiosks or booths.

According to ChatGTP (sorry, but our own searches failed), the first police booths were created under Mussolini, to make it easier for police to keep watch over the major intersections and grand new boulevards favored by the regime. They were not standardized.

The familiar green metal and glass kiosks were installed mostly between 1950 and 1980, to deal with a surge in automobile traffic and to assist tourists with directions, the loss of a passport, or other matters. Another factor was the police need for fixed communication posts, because radio systems were still rather primitive. The booths/kiosks/cabins were placed at major piazzas and intersections. This one is on the left bank of the Lungotevere.

The cabine were in decline as early as the 1980s, as traffic lights increasingly regulated traffic, tourist assistance became more sophisticated, and the police had patrol cars, motorcycles, and portable radios. Some cabine were removed and others were abandoned, like the one at the intersection of via Satrico and via Acaia, graffitied and surrounded by the ubiquitous orange security tape.

A few, like the one below in the Centro near the Italian House of Deputies (Montecitorio), continue to have a function—in this case, security, though there was no one inside when we came by. No graffiti (active police presence), and a chair inside.

Rome's graffiti writers have had a field day with the cabine, and why not? This one, at via La Spezia and via Nola, in the San Giovanni area, would seem to be dysfunctional, with one window totally obscured. The window graffiti, "Meloni a Fette," likely refers to the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni. The standard translation of "a fette" is "in slices," or "sliced up." 

The intersection of via Panama and viale Liege is so busy that via Panama was recently (and controversially) redesigned. Nonetheless, the police cabina doesn't appear to be viable.

Cabine at night. Piazza Buenos Aires at via Tagliamento (up the street from via Panama) in the Salario district, with graffiti obscuring one window; and a major intersection in front of San Giovanni in Laterano, the basilica behind, the cabin dark and abandoned (there may be a small light on inside).

One of the more interesting, and puzzling, cabine is located on viale Marconi as it intersects with Lungotevere degli Inventori—i.e., just as viale Marconi crosses the Tevere to San Paolo, south of the center city. Shots of the interior of the cabina reveal 2 chairs and, at the right, a button (to change the street light?).

 

The dysfunctional state of most of the existing cabine in time led to the decision to repurpose at least some of the booths as art installations. Under Mayor Robert Gualtieri, in 2022 the city government, in conjunction with the Zètema Progetto Cultura, held a competition, asking young (18-35) artists to present proposals for the decoration of 8 police cabins in "arte figurativa" (figurative) in the following locations: Piazza Vittorio, via Vico Jugario, via Petroselli, via Casilina, via Tor Pignattara, Piazzale Labicano, Circonvolazione Gianicolense, and Piazza di Villa Carpegna. Six artists were selected, and 6 cabins were decorated. We found some; you can try to find the others.

Here's what the cabina in Piazza Vittorio (outside the fence that surrounds the central piazza) looked like in 2025. It appears more than one artist may have worked on the project. The honeycomb design with bee (right side) was accomplished in 2022 by Biceluna (aka Frederica Mancini).

Two sides feature a hand holding a cell phone:

Finally, we thought it would be fun to come up with some non-art alternative uses for the police cabins. Here are a few:

Puppet Theater
Place for Unwed Mothers to Leave Babies
Doughnut Shop for Police

We regret to report that ChatGTP does it better, and funnier. Asked (by our tech-savvy son) to provide humorous alternative uses for Roman police boxes, the AI system produced 12. Here are 4 we thought worthy:

The World's Smallest Airbnb

"Cozy 0-bedroom micro-suite in the heart of Rome. Fits one human shin. E249/night. Cleaning fee E180. Guests must crouch diagonally. No bathroom. No regrets.

     Espresso Bar for Extremely Impatient Romans

A one-customer cafe' featuring:

     One espresso machine

     One barista

     One person yelling "DUE MINUTI!"

You drink standing inside the booth, like a caffeine phone booth.

A Confessional for People Who Don't Want Real Consequences

Step inside, hit a button, and the booth loudly whispers:

"It's okay, everyone hates their coworkers."

Then spits out a tiny printed absolution. 

Gelato Panic Room

For when the heat is unbearable and the line at Giolitti is too long. 

You step inside, the door locks, and it dispenses emergency stracciatella.

Thanks, ChatGTP!

Bill 

The Lights that Stole Christmas: The Newly Illuminated Cityscape of Rome

"The Lights that Stole Christmas." That's the line a Roman friend used to describe the tiny, bright, halogen lights that have recently become a feature of the Rome cityscape. 

The lights are especially common on the facades of restaurants—perhaps, to the owners, signifying a festive atmosphere, or just drawing attention to an establishment. These lit-up places were found in the historic center, where tourists are plentiful.

One wonders if some diners, especially those who aren't Italian, might be irritated. Having eaten our share of dinners at Rome restaurants and trattorias, we understand that Romans generally prefer to dine under light much brighter than the average American would think desirable. The shadowed intimacy that's common in American venues is hard to find in Rome. The photos are of two restaurants in the non-tourist, Re di Roma area, one on via Taranto, the other on via Aosta.

A proprietor on artsy, upscale via Margutta lined the shop windows with lights.

Because they're inexpensive to purchase and install, and especially to operate, some businesses have them on day and night. The 24-hour Todis grocery store on via Tuscolana is lit up around the clock.

The following photos were all taken on a 40-minute walk from Piazza della Repubblica to Piazza dei Re di Roma. 

Have dinner. While being illuminated. Voremmo un tavolo dentro, per favore.

Bill