Mediaval - Rome
On the ground floor of
the building several rooms were occupied
by the inn called della Sciacquetta.
The Romanesque poet Trilussa
lived for a
certain period in the building on the
corner of Via della Lungarina.
From Piazza in Piscinula we
take the
Via Arco dei Tolomei
which
takes its name from the medieval arch
which can still be seen, even if it has
been considerably reworked.
The monument was
erected for the noble Sienese family who
lived in this quarter from the 14th
century. From Via Arco dei Tolomei we
turn onto
Via dei Salumi (of
the Cold Cuts: like many streets of the
quarter, it owes its name to the trades
of the shopkeepers), from which the
picturesque Vicolo dell'Atleta
starts.
The Vicolo dell'Atleta is so named
because the Apoxyomenos statue (The
Scraper: an athlete scraping
off the
sweat and dust mixed with the oil with
which he was coated before the fight) was
found there in 1849. The sculpture, a 1st
century
A.D. Roman copy of a Greek
original by Lysippus, is now kept in the
Vatican Museums.
At no. 14 of Vicolo dell'Atleta
we can see a pretty 13th-century
construction, with a loggia and small
pointed arches on stone corbels,
and with
an inscription in Hebrew on the central
column. It is considered the only
surviving ancient Jewish synagogue in the
quarter,
which was populated by a
sizeable colony of Roman Jews in the
Middle Ages.
In this zone of Rome,
the centre of the oldest Trasteverine
folklore, people danced the saltarello, a
typical dance from the regions of Abruzzo
and Ciociaria dating from the 14th
century.
Each year since 1535, the traditional
Festa de Noantri (Festival of Us Others,
i.e. the citizens of Trastevere as
opposed to voantri, the you others of the
other quarters) is held, dedicated to Our
Lady of Carmine, whose feast-day falls on
16 July. The religious feast-day is
supported by the civil festivities which
include concerts, sports competitions,
and various attractions, ending with a
display of fireworks.
Going back to Via dei Genovesi
we can take
Via di Santa Cecilia which
leads into the
square dominated by the church of the same name.
Across from the entrance to the Basilica
of Santa Cecilia, at the corner of
Piazza dei Mercanti there is a
lovely example of a 14th-century
house.
Discovering Rome: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12