Rome’s Piazzas

Rome’s Piazzas

The piazza is where all social life happens in Italy. It is the meeting point, the place to take a break during the day, to take a walk after lunch or dinner, or just to get some sunshine and fresh air.
ppopolo

Views Towards Pincio, Piazza del Popolo
Oil on Panel
8 x 6″
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Growing up in America we didn’t really have these kinds of public spaces in the suburbs, but they do exist in the city. I don’t think that Americans appreciate piazza life quite as much as Italians.

Being seen in public is a funny concept, all about show and sometimes strutting your stuff, at least in small towns anyway. The evening walk in smaller towns and villages in Italy where people literally walk up and down and back again through the square is called “swimming laps”.

Rome has hundreds of fabulous piazzas of all shapes and sizes, but this one, Piazza del Popolo, is probably the largest.

Complete with Egyptian obelisk and a series of balconies climbing up the hillside, this grand piazza has always been a meeting place for large events.

Sitting and painting here today, 2 older Roman women came and sat on a bench near me. They were admiring the piazza, a real treat to hear from Romans themselves. Then they reminisced about how it used to be a clogged parking lot, “wasn’t that terrible”? one said to the other. In fact, they reminded each other of this film, a Roman classic, which shows you exactly what Piazza del Popolo used to look like a in the 1970s.

I’ll leave you with this classically Roman clip. Even if you don’t understand Italian, you’ll enjoy seeing what the place used to look like (and the little Fiat 500s too).