RST Top 40. #34: a Fascist Era Post Office

Two of Rome's masterpieces of architectural geometry are located within a stone's throw, across the street from each other in via Marmorata, at the intersection of the Aventino and Testaccio districts. One is the ancient Piramide Cestia (the Cestia Piramid). The other is the neighborhood post office, a modernist gem designed by architects Adalberto Libera and Mario De Renzi and opened to acclaim in 1935, with Mussolini presiding (see photo above). Architectural scholars Mirella Duca and Filippo Muraia describe the building's elegant interior as "one of the most original spaces constructed in Rome in the 1930s." The via Marmorata post office is on Itinerary 4 in Rome the Second Time.

Libera was only 30 years old when he began working on the project, though he was already well known as a founder of the Movimento Italiano per L'Architettura Razionale (Italian Movement for Rationalist Architecture) and feted for his facade for the monumental Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution (photo at right), which opened in 1932 in the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, also a collaborative effort with De Renzi.

Though apparently not a zealous Fascist, Libera's close links with Fascist Party officials allowed him to compete for the regime's choice commissions, including the Palazzo dei Congressi, which he designed for the EUR complex. One of Libera's last works, accomplished with several other architects, was the Olympic Village (see photo at right), which housed athletes competing in the 1960 Rome games (including boxer Cassius Clay, who was seen taking photos of the complex). It is located in the Flaminio district, not far from Parco della Musica.

De Renzi's first commission, for the enormous 1931 Palazzo Federici apartment complex on via Aprile XXI, near Piazza Bologna, has also become one of his best known; it was the setting for Ettore Scola's 1977 film Una Giornata Particolare (A Special Day), starring Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren in a drama set in Fascist Rome in 1938. The building is on Itinerary 8 in Rome the Second Time.

Bill

Obamamania Italian style

Russians may be cool about him, but Italians are crazy for Obama, in our experience.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (he of the gaffes and young women scandals) takes every opportunity to be photographed with the U.S. President, as in this picture from April's G20 summit... yeah, that's Berlusconi in the middle with the thumb's up sign behind Obama's head, or as someone said "amateur hour at the G20". (For background on Berlusconi, see Frederika Randall's recent online piece in The Nation. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090629/randall) Berlusconi also famously referred to Obama as "abbronzato," which means "tan." Not to be outdone by his own gaffe, Berlusconi later said he would arrive at the White House also "abbronzato."

Right now, of course, Obama is in L'Aquila, the large city devastated by the earthquake this Spring, meeting with the G-8. So photos of the U.S. President are everywhere.

We encounter Obamamania everywhere we go in Rome, and not just among our leftist friends.

The woman who runs the long-established trattoria "Il Vascello" in Monteverde Vecchio has a collection of Obama items, and can't stop talking about him... in the same loud and enthusiastic voice she uses to tell you the daily specials.

The co-owner and barrista at the wine bar, "Il Baccoco" in Trastevere, tested us out first. "Obama?..." he asked, when his voice implying a question. When we indicated yes, we are Obama supporters, he sped up his Italian and waxed well, if not eloquent, at least enthusiastic, about our relatively new President.

And, perhaps more surprising, the men behind the counter at our small, local P.O. in Monteverde Nuovo, are hardly disgruntled postal workers. When they discovered I was sending a letter to the U.S., they started quizzing me about Obama and debating about whether the "speranza" or hope would really turn into action--they hoped it would.

We still have a small roll of Obama campaign stickers ("I voted early for Barack Obama") from our 6 weeks last Fall working on the campaign in the suburbs of Cleveland. We doled them out to some of these Obama fans, who were clearly elated by the souvenirs.

A question we have for these Obamaphiles is whether they also support their right-wing Prime Minister Berlusconi and Rome Mayor Alemanno. Hard to tell.

But for now, we'll enjoy the enthusiasm of the Italians for a U.S. President (for a change).

Dianne

Mystery Photo de-mystified and more...

Complimenti to Alexander Booth, of Rome, who identified the mystery photo (here) as the Fascist-era post office on via Marmorata in Testaccio. It didn't hurt that Alexander is a volunteer at the Protestant (Non-Catholic) Cemetery virtually across the street. Several other later guessers (btw, not all Fascist era buildings look alike, tifosi) mentioned other favorite Fascist-era post offices, including the one on via Taranto in the San Giovanni area (where Bill was "picked up" for taking a photo - hence the admonition in Rome the Second Time on not taking photos in post offices) and the gorgeous one in Rome's seaside town (once port) of Ostia.

The last two guessers were so quick on the draw we're still contemplating the next Mystery Photo.... so stay tuned.

The "more":

For those of you hanging on the edge of your seats, we made our choice in coffee bars. We now patronize 2: the "market bar" in our first post on coffee bars (the "g" in "gastronomia" is missing from its outdoor sign - so it says "astronomia" or not gastronomy but astronomy, and it features an apertif "apertivo panty" - a white martini with bitters, the barista told me... sorry, folks, I just couldn't bring myself to try it. And the barristas there chat us up and are cute (say I). The second bar (we have to walk around the block the long way and make sure we don't go in front of "market bar" - we hadn't even known about it when we were first trying out coffee bars) is Cafe' Desideri on via Ozanam, that Bill mentioned in yesterday's post. Desideri seems to run the block... On the same street are a well-regarded pasticceria and take-out too - so their morning pastries are the best ("ottimi"). Both places allow us to sit down inside and out, without paying extra... and their coffees are very good - i.e., it's all delightful.

And small sins - we finished off 2 after-Easter colombo (the dove-shaped sweet cakes) and one after-Easter enormous chocolate egg (for those of you never in Rome for Easter, those big colored things hanging from the ceiling are chocolate eggs in fancy paper). If anyone knows of any colombo still for sale in the Eternal City, let us know... we can't resist the half-priced stuff.

Dianne