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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 roma: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12
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