Alice’s wonderland

“After being at the market of Piazza Unità, I had this strange dream. I was walking along a sunny street, it was a beautiful summer morning. Around me, many people: adults, children ... all dressed up in a very strange way. There was a little girl in a white dress with a funny collar and a hat, that I had never seen before, and then a boy in shorts, but not the ones in fashion now, some tight shorts.After a while I realized I was walking in Via Cola di Rienzo, but nobody could see me… nor hear me. I went to this ice cream truck and I asked for a chocolate cone, but the man didn’t even look at me. I have to say that he, too, was dressed in a strange way, with a funny hat on, but the ice cream looked yummy. Damn!

Then I kept on walking until I reached the entrance of the market. Inside: a deafening noise, a riot of fruit, vegetables, flowers and so many people going back and forward, as I had never seen at Unità market before. I saw a group of happy children running through the market and climbing up the stairs. I followed them on the roof and there, a vision: I saw dozens and dozens of children, teenagers, young women and men twirling happily holding their hands, chasing each other, making some great tumbles. All with strange hats, strange clothes, strange hairstyles, but they were so beautiful... they couldn’t see me nor hear me, but I was twirling with them, so happy.
I stayed there on the roof until the evening, then I went back down the stairs. I saw the wrought iron lamps go off and I started to walk towards home. Everyone in the streets was talking a lot, some seemed worried, some excited, others almost scared... I could tell something important was going on, so I listened carefully. I couldn’t understand everything, but they were saying some names that I had never heard before: Mussolini, Hitler, Churchill... they were talking about a war declaration, occupation and air-raids. Then I heard a man say “We’ll remember this day: June 10, 1940”. And right then, I woke up”.

Just around the corner

As Trionfale market, also Unità square market is just a few steps away from the Vatican. So let’s start from there to reach the symbol of Prati district: Castel Sant'Angelo. To get there, we’ll follow the same path that Popes have used for centuries to run away from barbarian invasions (Clement VII) or to visit their lovers in secret (Alexander VI): PASSETTO DI BORGO. It’s the overhead walkway connecting the Vatican Palace with the fortress constructed on Hadrian's mausoleum. The promenade, which runs along lion’s walls, is not usually open to the public, and it’s possible only in case of “exceptional” openings. Unless you want to imitate Robert Langdon, the hero of Dan Brown’s novels, who sneaks in furtively in one of the most important scenes of “Angels and Demons”.
However, don’t expect to get out directly in the Pope’s private library: that's just one of the many licenses taken by the American novelist to make his story more spectacular! It’s also a popular invention which believes the walkway has the power of giving back to men their lost virility: after all, the superstition that invites to walk back and forward for 77 times in order to make the miracle come true seems a cruel joke for desperate and gullible males.

After walking through the Passetto, you reach CASTEL SANT'ANGELO, one of the sites most loved by Romans. One of the reasons is certainly the sense of serenity and security given by archangel Michael’s statue, on top of the fort in memory of Pope Leo’s vision announcing the end of the plague in Rome in 590. Over the centuries, the castle cells hosted illustrious prisoners, from Pope Paul III to Count Cagliostro, from the ingenious goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini to Giordano Bruno, the noblewoman Beatrice Cenci, executed in the square in front of the castle as she was accused of the murder of her violent and incestuous father, later immortalized as a popular heroin thanks to the works of Shelley, Stendhal and Dumas. The rest of the castle is actually a perfect background for romantic dramas: from these walls Tosca threw herself down, after the painter Cavaradossi, her lover, was shot in Puccini’s opera.

Going from the castle along the river, you will come across another impressive building, definitely less loved by the capital’s inhabitants: the Palace of Justice, also known as Palazzaccio, a white travertine giant not really in harmony with the view along the river. But the real punch in the eye, a building even less in harmony with Rome’s architecture, stands a few steps further: an unusual Gothic church nestled between the umbertine style buildings and Prati. Due to its look, it gained the nickname of “little cathedral of Milan”, but the real interesting feature about it is the mystery kept inside: the MUSEUM OF THE SOULS IN PURGATORY, one of Rome's most incredible, unique in its kind. At the end of nineteenth century, in place of the church, there was a chapel dedicated to the Virgin of the Rosary, which was destroyed in a fire. But when the flames were extinguished, on one of the altar pillars there remained the shape of a man's head. A French priest saw in that picture the sign of a soul in Purgatory who was trying to get in touch with the living, so they could intercede for him/her, and he decided to try to collect more proofs like these. The result is this collection of fabrics, books and objects that bear the imprints of many “tormented” souls.rettante anime in pena.

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