Bella Garbatella

i happened to be in Rome in the last days of 2011 and first of 2012. 

1.1.2012 noonish, empty streets with news from past year

Damn i love Rome! It's been my second time, so i was partially ready. And also i could watch places from other perspective, see things i would miss on the first sight. Still, i got caught by the magic of the city, got lost many times just to find myself behind a place i was thinking about half an hour ago to go to.

Er Grottino der Traslocatore, place to go for a local lunch (big portions of good stuff!) 

But this one is not about Rome. Well, it is, but not about whole Rome, just about the quarter where we stayed at Alessio's place. About Garbatella.

From what i know, Garbatella was built in the 1920s, and is a wonderful place to live. Even though you're in walking distance from the very centre of Rome, you feel....well, at least i felt...like in some small town. The kind of town, where all the neighbours know each other, maybe even where one would go ask neighbour next door for emergency eggs when making a cake on Sunday with all the shops closed. People don't do that much these days. And the people of Garbatella live the place, love it, and as a phrase says, "keep it real" - they literally do. 

At least the "old" Garbatella is a quarter with a lot of green, parks, gardens, trees.

And then the mysterious apartment buildings, with their functionalist purity, now a bit faded. Somehow i felt that if someone offered me to live there, i wouldn't hesitate. This is a place to spend one's life. Or lives. To make movies. 

Grazie, Ale!