Wall-walkers circumnavigating il muro Aureliano to tie a knot into news in the new year

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1 Jan 2019 | Rome> Happy 2019, dear Inurnet. Urly this mourning we wint for a run, thru streets littered w/ trash, charred fireworks + broken prosecco bottles, reminiscing on our Romings. As we said in the last post (where we flâneured quarters in Rome's outskirts b'yond the walls), New Year's eve we walked the n-tire Aurelian wall... a fitting way to to wrap up our RomeRioni project—sum 25+ km for those curious to try it, even more for us cuz we had to also get to the wall + back from the city center.

We started on the east-side at Porta Settimana, the 1st of ~18 gates puncturing the walls to allow entry/exit + worked our way around counterclockwise.

Porta Settimiana

There aint much to the wall as it passes thru west Trastevere, except the above port, until u get higher up on Giancolo, at Porta Aurelia (now a refurbished museum in it's place). A newer portion of wall branches off down to the Vatican, but we're focusing only on the original Aurelian wall in this post.

wall near Porta San Pancrazio in Monteverde

 

plaques near Porta Aurelia

The wall is pretty intact up on Monteverde, but as you get back down into Trastevere it fizzles out at points.

structure built into wall in Trastevere

 

where what's left of the wall is broken to allow for viale Trastevere

 

continues w/ renewed vigor on the other side of viale Trastevere

 

close up of plaques that dot the wall

 

 

porta Portese

As mentioned in our Trastevere rione post, porta Portese is where Ricci chases the asshole who stole his bike in Bicycle Thieves (1948) + is also the entrance to Porta Portese flea market on any given sunday.

 

porta Portese (in 2013)

From there the wall is 1 + the same w/ the riverbank along the Tiber, on the Testaccio side. It continues up almost to the gasometro, into a no-man's land of gypsy camps, train track wasteland + the mattatoio that we've ventured into before, but garbagemen + carabinieri were blocking our way this time + the slaughterhouse complex wasn't open.

wall along river (from our Testaccio post)

 

wall peaking out from the slaughterhouse hobocamp (from Testaccio post)

 

wall along WWII cemetary (also inaccessible)

 

wall dividing Testaccio from Ostiense

 

portion of wall near Testaccio (in 2012)

 

Piramede + Porta San Paolo

 

portion of wall getting up near San Saba (in 2015, when we stayed up there for a few weeks)

It's worth noting that the wall is a popular spot in Italian film (like Nights of Cabiria + Mamma Roma) for prostitutes to hang out mongering their wares + the same is true nowadays, except more often than not they're Nigerian, aint nearly so glamorous as Giulietta Masina makes it out to be.

wall detail (from our San Saba roaming)

 

continuing up... many a times we've run these sections

 

Porta Ardeatina, where Cristofo Colombo severs the wall to make way for traffic (from our San Saba roaming)

 

Porta Appia

 

Arco di Druso (in 2017) (visible thru Porta Appia above)

The Museo delle Mura is thereabouts near Porta Appia, where u can find out all about the wall. We did it before so didn't bother this time around (was probly closed anyway). Porta Appia is also where u exit Rome if you are following Appia Antica, like when we walked it all the way to Lago Albano.

Porta Latina

 

looking thru Porta Latina

 

they've built a nice park along the section of wall past Porta Appia

The wall gets hard to follow after Porta Metronia, shrouded in Metro construction + then it disappears in the no-man's land between San Giovanni + the flea market at Via Sannio.

 

Porta Asinaria + San Giovanni

After this there's another nice park along the wall, w/ lots of cats living in the walls.

little church built into the wall

 

Castrense amphitheatre sticking out the other side

 

where the wall meets the awkworduck + the tangenziale jets out east

 

porta Maggiore

 

porta Maggiore

 

following the wall towards Termini (from our Esquilino post)

 

San Lorenzo side of Porta Tiburtina

 

Arco di Sisto bridging Termini w/ the Aurelian wall (from our Esquilino post)

 

apartments built into the wall in San Lorenzo

The section between ports Tiburtina + Clausa is probably the poorest section of the wall, it just sorta peters out or gets consumed by military bldgs or the natl liebury + doesn't really re-emerge until Castro Petrorio.

the wall petering out near Porta Clausa

 

the wall being restored or at least kept in tact near Castro Petrorio

 

a latrine sticking out of the wall near Porta Salaria (presumably so the guards could shit + piss down the enemy side)

 

Porta Pia (from our Sallustiano post)

 

more apartments built into the wall above via Veneto

 

wall in Ludovisi rione

 

Porta Pinciana (from our Ludovisi post)

 

wall along viale de muro torto

This section gets tricky again after Ludovisi, the wall gets consumed by sum sports club then flanks the "twisted wall" freeway as it descends to split Villa Borghese in 2 (the bridge above being the only way across)... until voilà, u come to the grand entrance to piazza Popolo.

Porta Popolo

After this the wall peters out again + then follows the river bank or becomes the river embankment (or vice-versa), all the way down to Ponte Sisto where we started our walk. Think now we can officially say we've done Rome.

612 <( current)>  614 > Sad tribal dirges on the noisey sewerside: "about" the face of The Daily Noose + the prosses + musing inspiration behind Sound ƒuries
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