Tag Archives: Trastevere

Architecture, Black and White, Cameras, Medium Format Cameras, Street, Travel

Santa Cecilia in Trastevere

December 17, 2015 dcphotoartist Leave a comment

The Piazza Santa Cecilia is one of the focal points of my part of Trastevere. It is named after the eponymous church and convent that borders its west side. The lantern on #21 Piazza Santa Cecilia casts a long shadow in the light of dawn:

The Piazza dei Mercanti abuts the Piazza Santa Cecilia. In this view as the sun sets and the street lamps come on, there’s not much to see of the piazza itself from all the cars parked in it, but a very large restaurant faces it that does a bustling business on a warm fall evening. A neighborhood resident is out for a stroll, perhaps on their way to the coffee bar up the street.

Piazza dei Mercanti, Evening, from the Piazza Santa Cecilia

Santa Cecilia’s courtyard remains open quite late into the evening, and the public can come and go through the gates. There has been a church on the site since the 3rd Century AD, when it was built over the location of St. Cecilia’s house. The main body of the church dates to the 13th Century, and some 9th century mosaics are preserved within. The facade and the courtyard are 18th century renovations, however.

This cherub keystones the arch over the main gate to the courtyard.

Inside the courtyard you can view the 18th century facade of the church, ancient mosaics and an ancient cantharus or water urn that now is the centerpiece to a fountain. The bell tower dates to the 12th Century, and looms over pretty much the entire neighborhood. Here young couples sit on the edge of the fountain to canoodle while admiring the church before wandering off to dinner or perhaps a more appropriate intimate location.

Architecture, Black and White, Cameras, Medium Format Cameras, Photography, Street, Travel

Trastevere Alleys

December 17, 2015 dcphotoartist Leave a comment

I rented an apartment at 38 Via Dei Genovesi in Trastevere for my stay in Rome. I wanted to get something of a more authentic Roman living experience rather than stay in a touristy hotel or b&b, without giving up the convenience of a central location. I got that in Trastevere – narrow cobblestone streets, populated with neighborhood restaurants frequented by locals and tourists alike, a little grocery store and bakery across the street, a coffee shop downstairs, and boutiques with interesting merchandise in the alleyways surrounding the apartment. Two blocks away was the street car that would take me to the Piazza Venezia, or the Trastevere train station in the other direction. Dante’s house in Rome was across the street from the street car stop.

The downsides? Well, the first one wasn’t so bad – I was on the fourth floor of what may well have been a 15th century building, so walking up and down it was. I wanted and needed the exercise. The second, that was my downfall, pardon the pun – there were down pillows on my bed, and as it turns out I am hyper-allergic to them. As in couldn’t really be in the same apartment with them, let alone use them. Also, for whatever reason, the apartment despite being four stories above the street, was exceptionally noisy. Pretty much twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Trash trucks would come rumbling through at 3 AM. That kind of noisy. I could deal with the people spilling out of the restaurants at midnight – that would be easy enough to sleep through for me. It’s the inorganic noises that get me. I would still highly recommend Trastevere as a fantastic neighborhood to stay in for all the above mentioned reasons – location, ambience, food – just not the apartment I stayed in.

How could you resist the charms of a neighborhood where THIS is a street? It makes you feel like any minute Robert Langdon is going to step out of a doorway and implore your assistance in solving another Renaissance Art code/murder mystery.

Street parking being somewhat at a premium, and garage parking extremely so, lots of people ride vintage bicycles around the neighborhood. Here’s one that belongs to a neighbor…

This flowering vine has been allowed to grow for possibly centuries until it has turned into a tree, swallowing the downspout and enveloping the wall, leaving room for the mailbox and its door just beyond.

Here a late-opening book shop is perused by a customer as night envelops the neighborhood.

Nuove Edizione Romane — Nuove Edizioni Romane

Cameras, Color, Medium Format Cameras, Photography, Street, Travel

Red Car, Alley, Trastevere, Rome

November 21, 2015 dcphotoartist Leave a comment

No words, just a found image.

Cameras, Color, Medium Format Cameras, Photography, Street, Travel

Old Cars, Trastevere

November 19, 2015 dcphotoartist Leave a comment

I love old cars. When I was in high school, I drove a 1962 Nash Metropolitan aka a bathtub on wheels, aka the car that floats (but it doesn’t- it’s not an Amphicar, which did float and drive in water- the Met just looks buoyant). I loved that car despite all its flaws and shortcomings. So I get a visceral reaction when I run across antique cars. These two were outside a restaurant in my neighborhood (which I did not have a chance to try).

Both were being used to advertise the restaurant. I don’t think the truck got driven around much if at all, what with the barrels in the bed with the restaurant name branded into them, and the pumpkins and gourds on top. The FIAT wagon, though, certainly looked like it could be used. I passed them on two different days and on both days neither vehicle appeared to have moved any.

The FIAT wagon looks like the kind of car I’d enjoy having, though – folding canvas top, cute 1950s design, compact enough to be useable in the city, but enough space to haul stuff around. And it would definitely make all the right noises and have that old car smell. You know, a touch of motor oil and unburnt gasoline, combined with the funk of aging upholstery. Terrible cologne idea, but inside an old car? Magic.

Cameras, Color, Medium Format Cameras, Photography, Portraits, Street, Travel

Mailbox, Trastevere, Rome

November 18, 2015 dcphotoartist Leave a comment

Rome is a city known for many things – fine food, ancient architecture, more churches than you can shake a stick at, and among other things, graffiti. This poor mailbox has been heartily defaced – scribbled on, stickered, and overall abused. Yet it still soldiers on in its duty, collecting the mail. Here is my portrait of the mailbox to elevate it into the pantheon of my Ordinary Objects series:

Something I found fascinating was the degree to which English has penetrated into Italian life. In the big cities, almost everyone speaks it to some degree or other. Signage in museums is in Italian and English – no French, no German, no Spanish, no anything else. Just English and Italian. Even the graffiti is often in English, like the little mushroom to the right of the mailbox here, and some obscenities on a wall outside the Garbatella Metro station (forthcoming in a future post). I don’t know what quite to make of it – while it makes life easier for me as a visitor who is not proficient in Italian (I can fake it ’til I make it based on my fluency in Spanish), I do worry about global homogenization.

Black and White, Cameras, Color, Medium Format Cameras, Photography, Travel

Water Fountains

November 13, 2015 dcphotoartist Leave a comment

When I get finished processing all 79 rolls of film from this trip, I’ll have more of these to add, but until then, here’s a selection of public fountains. The Italians certainly love their water features and drinking fountains.

I’m certain I mentioned this before about the ancient fountain at the Colosseum, how you plug the bottom to get water to come out a hole in the top of the pipe so you don’t have to bend over to drink.

Well, here you can see that in action, at a similar fountain in the Castel Sant’Angelo:

Drinking Fountain, Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome — Drinking Fountain, Castel Sant’Angelo, Rome

And a full view of the fountain:

Acqua Potabile, Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome — Acqua Potabile, Castel Sant’Angelo, Rome

Here’s a little fountain in the piazza in front of San Lorenzo in Florence:

Lion Head Fountain, San Lorenzo, Florence

The Cellini fountain and memorial on the Ponte Vecchio. The interesting thing about it is that the fountain and memorial are 19th century, and their placement on the Ponte Vecchio is a little disingenuous.The bridge today is occupied by goldsmiths and jewelers, true, but in Cellini’s day, the Ponte Vecchio was home to butchers. Other than picking up his Saturday prosciutto, he didn’t spend time on the bridge. The modern day jewelers are just claiming inspiration from him.

Cellini Fountain, Ponte Vecchio, Florence

A fountain at the Pantheon, under the obelisk in the plaza in front:

Another public drinking fountain, on the Ponte Vecchio, in Florence. This one is actually a drinking fountain, whereas the Cellini monument is purely decorative.

Drinking Fountain, Ponte Vecchio, Florence

The fountain in the forecourt to the Palazzo Barberini, backlit by the afternoon sun:

A fountain in the Villa Borghese park, directly in front of the Palazzo Borghese:

A closeup detail of the Villa Borghese fountain:

A fountain outside the Vatican, with the water spigots emerging from the heads of Papal keys, crowned by a quartet of Papal tiaras:

A garden-variety public drinking fountain in Trastevere, the neighborhood where I lived in Rome:

A fountain crowned with a pinecone finial in the Piazza Venezia, especially appropriate decoration as it sits beneath a canopy of the famous pines of Rome.

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