Dear Garbatella

Yesterday I felt like Nanni Moretti in chapter one of “Caro Diario” (Dear Diary). The city  – Milan in my case, not Rome – was almost empty and no movies worth seeing. I tried with exhibitions – Alfred Hitchcock, Andy Warhol, Berengo Gardin, South African apartheid… – nothing really attractive. I decided to go for a drink in one of my favourite bars, ‘mom cafè’, but it was closed. I took a shared bike ( I have no Vespa) and went to another of my favourite bars , ‘la belle aurore’ that was closed as well. In the meanwhile I started enjoying biking around, looking up at the facades along the streets in different neighborhoods, enjoying the blue sky and the pleasant evening breeze, quite unusual for August in town. I did not take any pictures this time, but I Like to illustrate this short post with a piece of the film.

“There is one thing I like the most”, writes Moretti on his diary at the beginning of the movie meaning to drive around the various neighborhoods of Rome and discover what is behind the facades. Here is the full “In Vespa” episode with English subtitles.  Below a one minute excerpt of the Garbatella, Moretti’s favourite neighborhood in Rome.

That is something I like very much too, especially when I am visiting a new place. Last June I walked around the Garbatella for a couple of hours and took some pictures I will comment in the next post.