Garbatella district
As I see it, if you arrive in Garbatella in the middle of the night, without ever having been to Rome before, waking up in the morning, you might think your GPS[i] is drunk: well, it isn’t.
You ARE in the Eternal City, not far from famous monuments that attract people from all parts of the world, like the Colosseo and the Circo Massimo, just to mention a few.
Garbatella is a working-class neighbourhood, or, better, it’s a Rione: it’s situated just outside the Mura Aureliane (Aurelian Walls), a defensive circuit built between the III and IV century, 13 km of which are still visible.
Lost in Garbatella
It’s very easy to get lost in the Garbatella, and I would say that it’s a must: the roads aren’t parallel, some are winding, some turn unexpectedly, and some take you up and down. Three different ways to reach your destination are always possible, by choice, by chance, or by mistake.
In any case, you will never die of hunger or thirst in Garbatella because it’s full of life: people live and work here, children play in the courtyards, women hang out the wash on shared lines, people play cards in the sun, others share recipes while cleaning artichokes, and some go to the bakery for hot pizza…you can even bump into White Snow and the Seven Dwarves.
Colors and shapes
Garbatella could be described as a village within a town, a garden suburb: a correct but not exhaustive picture. Rome is certainly not known for its skyscrapers, and here in Garbatella, more than elsewhere, everything is horizontal. You can see gardens with citrus trees, agave, colored bougainvillaea climbing up the walls, mimosa trees in the shape of giant umbrellas, lush roses, marble busts watching you from above, maxims written on walls, fragments of sky framed by arches, eccentric chimneys, memorial plaques.
The result is one hundred years of life, architecture, and human stories that have made Garbatella an experimental, friendly, and welcoming place.
Do you want to know more? Come and join my tour.
