Picspam! Here I go....

[fpb]

I have taken these photos at various points in the last couple of years, but I never thought they were up to much. I am rather unhappy about publishing them when so many of my f-list are so astonishingly good. However!

My mother's flat is within a short walk of the Via Latina, which is probably the most ancient road still in use in Rome, and so I took a few photos of Via Latina and Porta Latina:

The Aurelian Walls were built late in the history of the Empire, in 258 AD, and they were put up in a devil of a hurry, using everything that was at hand. Archaeologists have found all sorts of things within them. They are nevertheless huge and imposing.


Porta Latina, on the other hand, is remarkably tiny, obviously not one of the city's main ways out. Notice the modern quarter on the other side - my mother lives a few blocks and a couple of turns down the road.


Via Latina. This unremarkable street is the most ancient road in Rome and in Italy.


A delightful public park beside Porta Latina.


An image of the Blessed Virgin in the wall overlooking the Via Latina roadway. Notice the fresh flowers. Rome (and indeed Italy) are full of these.


The ancient church of St.John at Porta Latina. Not to be confused with the mighty Cathedral of St.John Lateran.


Unusually, there is a well near the church entrance...


...I could not decipher the inscription.


Inside St.John at Porta Latina. The southern half of Rome's historic centre has several churches that go back to the Dark Ages or even to the late Roman Empire. This one, I seem to remember, dates from the eighth century.

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And while we're at it....

...this is what I look like. Sorry!

(to be continued...>

Comments

Thanks

[saturndevouring.livejournal.com]

Growing up in the burbs near L.A., I couldn't imagine living so close to such history. For us, the Roman Empire was what we saw during the annual showing of 'Ben-Hur,' and "old" meant before the Dodgers came to town in 1957!

[super-pan.livejournal.com]

Hello Fabio! It's nice to see you, and see what you see! Thanks for the pics!

[becomethesea.livejournal.com]

AAAH, this is wonderful. I want to go and see this excellent architecture with my own eyes. Also... smile!! Thanks for sharing :-)

[amonseuldesir.livejournal.com]

hi .. and thanks.

[hermoinejean7.livejournal.com]

I loved the pictures. ♥ Really, really beautiful.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Well, to explain: the SUBJECT was worth photographing. The antiquities of mighty Rome are something whose power anyone can feel - let alone an immensely intelligent young lady from another of the world's great ancient countries. The photos as photos are mediocre - poorly composed, centreless, occasionally wobbly, and in some cases skewed. And these are a selection - you get to see the, ahem, best. And please no comforting words: I am an artist myself, and a photographer's son, and I know when a photograph is good or bad. Mine are bad.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

In general, being born Italian means that 70% of the time you feel sorry for anyone who isn't, and 30% you feel like ripping your passport, changing your name, and becoming Bolivian, Upper Voltan, anything but Italian!! In general, it depends on what the politicians or your fellow-countrymen have done that day.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

It is demanding. I guess that is one reason why a lot of Italians feel a sense of collective inferiority. And the heritage really is unimaginable - you can literally stumble in every village, at the turning of any road, on to treasures that would be famous across the world and be celebrated as central to national identity in any other country. Last year I went to visit - for research reasons - a neat little town called Ceprano, in the hills south-east of Rome, and wouldn't you know it - apart from the Roman and pre-Roman antiquities I was there to investigate, I found, almost without looking, a wonderful ancient Dark Age church that was actually closed and locked because it was not currently in use! The whole country is like that - there is always something to discover.

[joannesopercook.livejournal.com]

I should dearly love to visit Rome some day; these photographs illustrate parts of the city not usually featured in the glossy, crass brochures aimed at the obvious tourist. Lovely. Thank you.

[elegant-bonfire.livejournal.com]

I never made it to Italy during my travels around Europe. So much to see, maybe one day I'll make it there.

May I say (appropriately), you look Italian!

[mentalguy.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing the photos~

You know, you aren't classically handsome, but I think age is repaying you in other ways. In this picture particularly, you wouldn't look out of place among the Inklings.