Exploring the Valley of the Aniene, and Pietralata, on a Sunday afternoon

On a warm Sunday afternoon in late April, we took a walk through an area mostly new to us: the Riserva Naturale della Valle del Aniene (Nature Preserve of the Aniene Valley).  On most days the park would be empty, or virtually so, but on this sunny Sunday it was full of families and friends enjoying a variety of activities in the way Romans do.  We followed the path/park until we arrived at the rather forbidding Ponte Mammolo, where we crossed the Aniene before returning through Pietralata (eventually on busy, possibly dangerous via di Pietralata).  If I remember correctly, the walk took about 3 hours.  Below, some pics with brief commentary.

The walk begins at the very old Ponte Nomentana (parts of it dating possibly to the 8th century), which is reached on a brief spur that angles off the broad via Nomentana in the north of Rome. The bridge carried this consular road over the Aniene. The walk over the bridge begins Itinerary 10 in Rome the Second Time, but that itinerary heads left over the bridge.  On this day, we headed right. through this large gate, which  is just over the bridge.

We went through it and found ourselves on a broad path that more or less tracked the Aniene.

We found a large water channel, purpose and origin unknown.

In the distance on the left, a family had anchored their tent to a roll of hay that provided additional shade. 

Further on, playground equipment for the kids.

And a soccer game, for all ages, amid the weeds.

Bicycles--a good way to get into the park.

Picnicking.  The Italian word is "picnic," pronounced "peekneek"

Here, the door to a garden (no doubt "abusivo," illegal) is made from a mattress frame.

Walking on Ponte Mammolo, which crosses the Aniene.

Below, a large and elaborate garden--again, likely abusivo.

The Aniene below.  It's one of Rome's 2 rivers, even if unimpressive here.

Turning right and entering the neighborhoods (bring a map to make sure you don't lose your way at this point) on our return.  Note the striking stairway on this apartment building.

Below, a restaurant on via di Pietralata, closed between lunch and dinner. As we recall, this is the Pietralata "suburban" outpost of Betto e Mary, the original of which is in Torpignattara, near the Wunderkammern gallery.

Almost across the street from Betto e Mary is the arts center, l'ex Lanificio (the former wool factory), where in the past we saw exhibitions of art by Biodpi (Anna Magnani walking the she-wolf) and Alice (the painted trailer).  The center was quiet this day.

The Butcher Shop.  Meat cured or cooked.

Blue Chair. Poignant art photo.

Acqua Vergine (one of Rome's important aqueducts), water meter, 1868. Acqua Vergine's "show" fountain is the Trevi.  The aqueduct also runs under, and is accessible (with permission) via Villa Medici.

Almost back. Graffiti-covered courtyard of a business. 

All in all, not a thrill a minute, but a nice slice of Roman life. 
Bill

Anna Magnani, Rome Icon

Anna Magnani died in 1973 in Rome.  The story goes that a passer-by at a funeral observance in Piazza della Minerva, behind the Pantheon (above), impressed by the enormous crowd--much too large for the space--asked one of the participants: "What's going on?  Did the Pope die?"  "No," was the reply. "Much more important than that--Anna Magnani."

Almost a half century later, the actress who personified postwar Italian neo-realist cinema remains an iconic figure.  Images of Magnani--her face, especially, but her body, too--continue to appear on

Rome's walls and, recently, on a set of stairs at one of Rome's large public markets.

In 2013, the artist Biodpi explored Magnani imagery in an exhibition at one of Rome's alternative galleries, an ex-factory space known as the Lanificio. 

Front gate of the Lanificio (wool factory)

Part of the Biodpi show on Magnani

A chic Magnani walking a hip she-wolf.  Biodpi  

An unattractive rendering, Pigneto

Anna Magnani was born in Rome March 7, 1908, and not at Porta Pia (as some claim) but in a house at via Salaria 126.  Her mother, Marina, was 20 years old, unmarried, and Roman; her father, who had left the household for good before she was born, was Calabrese.  For reasons that remain unclear, Marina spent much of Anna's childhood in Egypt, leaving her daughter in Rome to be raised by her grandmother and five aunts.  As a young child, Anna lived briefly in an apartment in Piazza Costaguti, then for some time in a substantial 4th floor apartment on via di San Teodoro--in a neighborhood between the Campidoglio and Circo Massimo.  She recalled those years fondly: a large living room, an expansive terrace, and a pet hen.

Pigneto 

When she was about 12 years old, Anna left elementary school and enrolled as a piano student (she took 6 years of lessons) at the Academy of Santa Cecilia in via Vittoria, not far from via del Corso (and still there).


At some point she discovered that the same building housed a well-known acting school--the Eleonora Duse Royal School of Acting--and at age 18 (1926), she began to study acting.  For several years she financed her lessons by singing in clubs while accompanying herself on the piano.  She was good enough to be known as the "Edith Piaf of Rome."  By 1930/31 she was traveling around Italy to take a variety of acting jobs.








Magnani married film director and script writer Goffredo Alessandrini in October 1935, in a civil ceremony at the Campidoglio, then took religious vows in December at the church of San Roberto Bellarmino in Piazza Ungheria (Parioli).  The couple lived for a time at viale Parioli 48. The marriage lasted until 1950.

Rome, Open City (1945).  Magnani as Pina, moments before her death.

Magnani became a star in 1945, in the now-classic film Rome, Open City.  She played Pina, the fiancée of Francesco, a resistance fighter.  With the Nazis occupying Rome, Francesco and others in the neighborhood are arrested in a Gestapo raid and put in a truck to be taken to a place of interrogation--or worse.  In one of the most famous scenes in all of Italian cinema, a distraught Pina runs after the truck, and is shot and killed.

In Mama Roma (1963), the Pier Paolo Pasolini film set in Rome, Magnani played a prostitute and mother.

Magnani, wearing the wolf.  Rome's Nomentana train station, 2016. LAC 68.

In both these films, and in many others, Magnani played a tough, no-nonsense, working-class woman, usually wearing a simple house dress.  Perhaps as a result, she is often identified with the Lupa (the mythic she-wolf that nourished Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome)--indeed, she was sometimes referred to as "La Lupa" or a "living she-wolf symbol."





Anna Magnani died in Rome in 1973.  She is buried in the Verano cemetery.
Bill

Somewhere

1962