Wall-walkers circumnavigating il muro Aureliano to tie a knot into news in the new year |
post |
|
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. 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. The wall is pretty intact up on Monteverde, but as you get back down into Trastevere it fizzles out at points. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. After this there's another nice park along the wall, w/ lots of cats living in the walls. 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. 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. 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 | ||
[ (ɔ)om.Postd 2019 Anon I'm us | calamari archive ] |