Neorealism Memory Lane in Pigneto

May 29, 2014 |

Time to light up this blog with some fun vacation posts! I used some airline miles to book a last-minute trip to Rome, Florence, and some Tuscan hill towns in between. It’s all working out so far and I’m at the end of day one, in the land between exhilaration and exhaustion, making good on a promise to flex some creative muscles and write about my travels more.

The trip was so last-minute that I didn’t even really have time to get excited about it or make any concrete plans. The only rule I made for myself was that I had to do something completely new in each city. This was a hard rule to follow for Rome.

Street art, Pigneto

There are so many slices of history in Rome it’s hard to decide which one to take in when you’re physically there. I’ve seen Roma Antica and the Vatican, but I’ve never really ventured out past the city center. So for Rome I decided to stay in Pigneto, an area just a few Metro stops away from Termini on Linea A.

Pigneto’s dotted with locovore cafes, tattooed hipsters, and pleading “Legalize Marijuana” signs that mean the rents here must be soaring. But its place in World War Two and Neorealism / Pasolini street cred means the area’s much more than just “the next Brooklyn,” and that’s what made me want to stay here for a couple of nights.

If you’re ever feeling down, fill up your Netflix queue with a few Italian Neorealism films from the masters, and you’ll probably start feeling a lot better about what’s bothering you. Rosselini’s “Rome, Open City” has to be on that list. It’s one of the best, if not the best, of the Neorealism bunch, and THE SCENE with Anna Magnani is one of the reasons why. When I did my paltry research on Pigneto and learned THE SCENE was flimed in Pigneto, I had my itinerary for day one.

THE SCENE from Rome, Open City

After my initial jet lag wore off, I decided to check out this neighborhood more and checked out the street where the scene was shot – Via Raimondo Montecucoli, about a ten minute walk from where I’m staying. During World War Two it was a working class neighborhood and carries that feel today—it’s lined with cars belonging to the people who in live in apartment palazzi with laundry hanging from the windows. It’s so non-descript that I kept wondering if I had the right street until I saw the historic marker outside #17, the apartment house where THE SCENE happened. The marker’s well written and details the where the key events before and after THE SCENE took place.

The scene of THE SCENE, today

In a sense there’s not much to see, but I love that movie and had to see where it was filmed. I realized that the street dead-ends into a little cortile with trees and a nice brick wall, something I never knew from watching the film. That little detail makes THE SCENE even more heartbreaking for me, as did reading the other signs around Pigneto that tell you how the area really suffered during World War Two.

Tomorrow I’m off the Vatican and other assorted sights in the morning, and am hoping to end the day at Bar Necci, one of Pasolini’s old haunts.

4 thoughts on “Neorealism Memory Lane in Pigneto”

Mary Lou says:

May 31, 2014 at 6:54 pm

Loved reading about your adventure….thanks for blogging
Now I have to look for The Scene and check it out
1. admin says:
  
  June 1, 2014 at 7:45 am
  
  Thanks MaryLou, I”m glad you liked it! Steve must know “Rome, Open City,” it’s unreal. More posts to follow and thanks again for your good words and encouragement!
ambrose roche says:

June 24, 2014 at 12:04 am

Great I’ve always wondered where to get a drink in Italy and to settle in to oblivion at Necci, and spill an offering on the floor to the spirit of Pier Paolo sounds like a pilgrimmage indeed….
thanks for the kind of tips Rick Steves doesn’t offer…
1. admin says:
  
  June 24, 2014 at 1:27 am
  
  Ambrose thanks for the good words on this! You would LOVE it there, atmosphere in spades with oblivion around every corner (at whatever speed you wish). I really wish I had a chance to eat there because the food looked really good, but man, not a seat to be had in the house.

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