Roman Hoods: Della Vittoria
Thanks to HomeExchange we recently discouvered the Roman neighbourhood of della Vittoria. In Roman terms it is a rather new quater because it was constructed in the 1930ies. The name refers to the victory of the first World War. There is a close link to the military in the area, because it used to host military baracks. It is located north of Prati. Also Prati is relativly new. The name Prati means "peasture" in Italian, because before this area had been urbanized in the 1870ies it was used as pastures for cattle.
We did not know della Vittoria well, because it is basically a residential area for the upper middle class and there are no sight or other attractions that would bring you there. I did pass through it once when I was riding an e-bike up Monte Mario. A nice little hill with a nice view over Rome.
Correction: no, the view is not just nice...it is breath-taking.
So staying at the neighbourhood of della Vittoria for a week showed us, that this quater is actually really charming.
The most amazing thing was that we had a bus stop with 3 buses in front of the house and these buses actually showed up! If you have been moving in Rome for a while this qualifies as a veritable miracle.
Than the architecture is very interesting: big castel-like apartment buildings, geometrical streets, tree-lined avenues with wide sidewalks that remind you of Paris .
The palazzo where we lived still has the same elevator since 1932. Very Roman. And it even comes with a couch! I had read about elevators with seats in one of my favorite Italian novels "Il Splendore" by Margeret Mazzantini (but I will present my favorite Rome novels in another post).
This was the view on Monte Mario from our exchange-home.
Right across the street is a gelateria I had heard of for a long time, but had never tried out before. It is called "Settimo Gelo" - a play of words that basically wants to say that you enter the seventh heaven of ice-cream there. And it is so true! We went there every day. If we could twice.
Their flavors, traditional (pistace) as well as innovative ones ("I wish I was a kid again"), are simply exceptional.
If you go a bit further north you can visit Ponte Milvio. This bridge over the Tiber was the location of the famous battle where Konstantin won against Maxentius in a quarral about who would be the most powerful of the three remaining Roman empires. Uffa, this is very confusting historical stuff that I cannot fully pin down here. Sorry, guys! Anyway, legend has it that Konstantin had a vison of a cross at the bridge saying that he will win under this symbol. That is why he became Christian and history changed for ever...
Today Ponte Milvio is a hang-out for partying teenagers and the place to attach a lock and throw the key into the river as a promise of eternal love.
During my research for this post I got sucked into the origins of the urban development of the quater and found out that the design of the whole area was also inspired by a famous German city planner: Joseph Stübben.
How cool is that! Again where ever I do a little research about Rome I come up with surprising and interesting stuff, I would have never known otherwise.
So here are some more pictures of the great urban planning in della Vittoria:
Other important features of this neighbourhood are more interesting for foodies.
A real crowd pleaser since 1927 is Antonini! This bar and pastry shop is famous all over town for their strawberry cake. I tried it. It is fantastic. But whatI like most about Antonini is that you feel like time is standing still there. Couragiously resisting hyper-modernity. This is one very Roman characteristic that I became very fond of.
And finally there is also a very nice in-door fruit and vegtable market. All you need to do is keep going straight after your breakfast at Antoninis.
Allora, in somma...in conclusion: We love this neighbourhood. And that is quite a statement because we are heavily biased by our favorite neighbourhood Colle Oppio, where we had spent our Roman year. It is still closer to the heart, but I could live in della Vittoria.
We did not know della Vittoria well, because it is basically a residential area for the upper middle class and there are no sight or other attractions that would bring you there. I did pass through it once when I was riding an e-bike up Monte Mario. A nice little hill with a nice view over Rome.
Correction: no, the view is not just nice...it is breath-taking.
So staying at the neighbourhood of della Vittoria for a week showed us, that this quater is actually really charming.
The most amazing thing was that we had a bus stop with 3 buses in front of the house and these buses actually showed up! If you have been moving in Rome for a while this qualifies as a veritable miracle.
Than the architecture is very interesting: big castel-like apartment buildings, geometrical streets, tree-lined avenues with wide sidewalks that remind you of Paris .
The palazzo where we lived still has the same elevator since 1932. Very Roman. And it even comes with a couch! I had read about elevators with seats in one of my favorite Italian novels "Il Splendore" by Margeret Mazzantini (but I will present my favorite Rome novels in another post).
This was the view on Monte Mario from our exchange-home.
Right across the street is a gelateria I had heard of for a long time, but had never tried out before. It is called "Settimo Gelo" - a play of words that basically wants to say that you enter the seventh heaven of ice-cream there. And it is so true! We went there every day. If we could twice.
Their flavors, traditional (pistace) as well as innovative ones ("I wish I was a kid again"), are simply exceptional.
If you go a bit further north you can visit Ponte Milvio. This bridge over the Tiber was the location of the famous battle where Konstantin won against Maxentius in a quarral about who would be the most powerful of the three remaining Roman empires. Uffa, this is very confusting historical stuff that I cannot fully pin down here. Sorry, guys! Anyway, legend has it that Konstantin had a vison of a cross at the bridge saying that he will win under this symbol. That is why he became Christian and history changed for ever...
Today Ponte Milvio is a hang-out for partying teenagers and the place to attach a lock and throw the key into the river as a promise of eternal love.
During my research for this post I got sucked into the origins of the urban development of the quater and found out that the design of the whole area was also inspired by a famous German city planner: Joseph Stübben.
How cool is that! Again where ever I do a little research about Rome I come up with surprising and interesting stuff, I would have never known otherwise.
So here are some more pictures of the great urban planning in della Vittoria:
A real crowd pleaser since 1927 is Antonini! This bar and pastry shop is famous all over town for their strawberry cake. I tried it. It is fantastic. But whatI like most about Antonini is that you feel like time is standing still there. Couragiously resisting hyper-modernity. This is one very Roman characteristic that I became very fond of.
And finally there is also a very nice in-door fruit and vegtable market. All you need to do is keep going straight after your breakfast at Antoninis.
Hi! My name is Roser and I work at HomeExchange.com :) On behalf of the company, thank you very much for sharing your story and wonderful recent Roman exchange. Happy Home Exchanging!
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure! We had many great experiences thanks to HomeExchange...maybe I should write a separate post about it...
ReplyDelete