"EUR" stands for Esposizione Universale Roma. The area was chosen in the 1930s as the site that Mussolini would use for the 1942 world's fair, where Mussolini planned to celebrate 20 years of Fascist rule in Italy. War intervened and the fair never took place -- but the name stuck. EUR was also intended to direct the growth of Rome towards the south-west and the sea, and to be a new city center. That did not happen either. But EUR is nevertheless interesting.
The EUR area has been called "Orwellian" due to its wide boulevards and white linear buildings. While that itself does not sound so appealing, some of the buildings are considered classics of 20th century rationalist architecture. Indeed, Mussolini chose several world-class rationalist architects to work on the project, and he wanted his magnificent suburb to be a symbol of the new times and of their historical continuity with imperial Rome.
The most stunning building -- which is considered a rationalist masterpiece -- is the Palazzo della Civita del Lavoro (Palace of Workers). This massive monument has become known as the Colosseo Quadrato, or Square Colosseum. You'll see why in the pictures. I gotta tell you: this was awesome. It's absolutely gleaming and it seems darn near perfect in its construction.
 |
| Just so you have a sense of scale, the "Square Colosseum" is over 160 feet tall. |
There are some other pretty cool buildings in the EUR area too.
 |
| The Santi Pietro e Paolo church (St. Peter and St. Paul), as framed by the giappanesi (Japanese) gardens of the pond in EUR. |
I also loved this huge relief that is supposed to evoke the reliefs on Trajan's Column, and that traces 2000 years of Roman history. You can see Mussolini down at the bottom, as well as Romulus & Remus (up top), St. Peter's, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Vittoriano ("wedding cake"), and even the menorah representing the sacking of Jerusalem.
 |
| Publio Morbiducci made this in 1939. |
 |
| Here is more of a close-up. |
It's nice to see you using the Italian names of the various places you've visited. I'm sure this is a great convenience for those Italian-speaking readers who enjoy reading the blog, but would be thrown off by references to "Rome" or "Sardinia." This is a fine display of cultural sensitivity that we might not have seen in Marco 1.0.
ReplyDeleteBryan, thanks for noticing our courtesy to our Italian readership, which -- as you probably imagined -- is quite large. Our stats indicate that, as of this morning, we've had 1,290 page views from Italia. (There are 10 countries from which we've had more than 75 page views.) Your comment also raises the age-old question that we've all wrestled with for ages: why do American journalists refer to locations (e.g., cities and countries) for certain parts of the world with inflections, accents, or pronunciations that mirror the native tongue (think of the Middle East or Latin America), but use plain ol' regular English for other parts of the world (think Europe and Asia)? I've never understood that. Is there something in the Blue Book or Strunk & White that sheds any light on this?
ReplyDeleteSo it appears the blog is very popular in Italy, or Marc opens the blog multiple times per day. I also have a theory that Bryan is travelling the world simply to check Marc's blog to make it seem like he has worldwide appeal.
ReplyDeleteAs for Marc's question about journalists and their insistence to pronounce some words with what they believe is the correct accent, I think it would be simpler if everyone just spoke plain old English - everywhere.
It should also be noted that Marc's use of an Italian phrase (that he clearly looked up for spelling purposes) is evidence that whatever he is spending on a tutor is finally paying off. How did you find this person?? Do they even speak Italian?? Are they even really a teacher?? How about a picture of her??