ONE WEEK IN ROME - PART 8



FROM THE FICTIONAL DIARY OF A BRITISH TRAVELER

After one day and half I had already seen, even if without visiting in depth, enough things to ensure prosperity to the tourist business of several cities.

A little bit tired by the long walk of the day before, and still eliminating the beer of the evening, I took the opportunity to talk about the place where I was staying.

San Lorenzo Guest House is located in a building of the late XIX century, the period of the development of the neighborhood.
It has always belonged to the same family, since the moment it was erected.
In contrast to the other houses of San Lorenzo, built for families of workers and artisans, this building was built for a family of wealthy merchants, as evidenced for example by the beautiful staircase leading to the first floor where there is the part that was intended to house the owners.
On the ground floor there were shops and, on the back, a courtyard with coal deposits, the goods traded by the family, and hospitalizations for wagons and horses.
Nowadays the first floor is used by San Lorenzo Guest House, and the shops on the street are used by a bar and a library that is specialized in university textbooks on psichology.
 In fact, right in front of San Lorenzo Guest House there is the faculty of psychology that deals with the area where previously there was a brewery.

The chimney of the old beer factory

The brewery was almost completely destryed during the bombing of July 19, 1943. Only the chimney and an office building survived. And the chimey, still standing high, has become a symbol of memory.

The office building of the old beer factory

And it can be considered, somehow, a symbol also for Rome, still standing over the other cities of the world after almost three millennia.
When one starts knowing more about San Lorenzo, it is possible to uderstand why this neighborhood is the soul of modern Rome, while San Giovanni, by the way just 15 minutes walk away, is the heart. Probably Prati is the brain and Esquilino the digestive system. The proximity to the university makes San Lorenzo a place where you will experience the new, the desire for freedom.
You can not say to have been in Rome if, in the evening, you do not drink a beer with the students crowding Piazza dell'Immacolata mixing with immigrants of all races or if you do not seat, at lunch time, in one of the cafe-restaurants serving quick meals and look to the students that, while eating are talking about the last lesson or are reviewing their works
Perhaps it is no coincidence that San Lorenzo, despite being a poor district, was already known in the world before the Second World War, being the place where the great educator Maria Montessori, whose methods are still widely used, founded the first Casa dei bambini (children house). unfortunately that was destroyed during the bombing.


THE FAN

Link to part 7