The "Doctors" of San Giovanni in Laterano: a Neighborhood Treat

This year we lived in the area generally known as San Giovanni, after the basilica at its northern end, San Giovanni in Laterano.  Our apartment was on via Olbia, and the commercial center of our particular neighborhood--and in Rome all neighborhoods are "particular"--was via Gallia.

The neighborhood has many virtues, including quick access to some of Rome's biggest attractions--the Coliseum is just a mile away. And one of them involves the basilica, though we seldom go inside.

The building is rightly famous for the 12 statues of the doctors of the church--teachers, intellectuals, popes and saints--those involved in religious and moral instruction--that, along with Christ and the two Saint Johns, grace the top of the facade.

Because the building is so large--with the statues adding additional height--and because the basilica is located on a bluff overlooking the community to its south, the "doctors" become one of the neighborhood's now-and-then pleasures, poking up here and there, sometimes surprisingly, sometimes comfortingly, reminders of the area's storied past.

Bill

Man Bites Dog.....Fai da Te comes to Rome

Rome isn't Manhattan, where the failure to pick up after your dog can get you yelled at, ostracized, and fined.  No, in Rome dog owners let their dogs do what they want, then walk away, leaving the sidewalks a mess and the dirt around trees covered in dried feces.  If that sounds unpleasant, it is. 

So we were surprised one day on Piazza dei Re di Roma to see a man bending over, plastic bag covering his hand (and another in his back pocket) to clean up after his dog.  Not "man bites dog," but perhaps as uncommon. 

Man sweeping sidewalk, via Olbia

Since we took that photo in 2013, we've seen a few other dog owners picking up after their
canines.  But until this year--2014--we had not seen home/apartment owners sweeping the sidewalk in front of their buildings.  We've seen it twice, now, both times on the street where we live--via Olbia.  These efforts are not sufficient--two guys sweeping now and then on a block with maybe 20 buildings will not make the area look "clean," but it's a start.



AND THEN the real shocker: a major story in La Repubblica noted several volunteer ("fai da te" [do it yourself]) efforts to clean up and beautify Rome neighborhoods.  In Monteverde, two women had taken matters into their own hands, cleaning sidewalks on via dei Quatro Venti and neighboring streets--while asking scooter owners not to drive on the sidewalks--and in the zone of Ardeatina had begun to plant flowers at the base of trees.  On one of the trees they had posted a note: "Dear neighbors," it read, "come see that we've begun to clean and decorate your street." Something is happening in Rome.  Man bites dog.  Bill

More evidence, again from via Olbia

Volunteers--area residents--clean the sidewalks of via dei Quattro Venti