L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 2018 www.italoamericano.org 4 NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS M ore than s ixty years ago the Italian writer and painter, Carlo Levi, w rote a series of essays about Rome that were published posthumously. These short essays, published in 2005 under the title Fleeting Rome, must rank among his best works, perhaps surpassing even his famous Christ Stopped at Eboli. The essays in Fleeting Rome focus on Romans' unique culture traits . O f cours e, it would be difficult in a country known for its regionalism and multiplicity of dialects, especial- ly in the 1950s, to sustain an argument that Rome and its inhabitants are somehow unique in Italy. P erhaps Levi w as us ing Rome as an example of Italian diversity in general. Neverthe- less, it becomes clear after read- ing just a few essays that he had a political agenda in writing about Rome. Levi's Chr is t Stopped at Eboli was about his exile to what is now Basilicata, where Mussolini had sent him for his resistance to the regime. Although the allies dealt Mus- solini and fascism a stunning defeat, in Levi's judgment, including the judgment of many other post-war Italian writers, the pre-war bureaucracy and fas- cis t conformitycontinued in post-war Italy. To resist the era's orthodoxy, he reveals the great diversity that existed in Rome among its population and loca- tions at the time. In just one example, Levi describes a relationship that a middle-class man has with a beggar. Levi claims that his sup- port of the beggar is a long- established Roman tradition: the Romans' acceptance of respon- sibility for a beggar in their neighborhood. It is perhaps a secular form of the older reli- gious tradition of giving alms to the poor. However, it is doubtful that anyone in today's modern Rome would acknowledge the practice continues today. He explains that one middle-class Roman man contributed weekly to the support of "his beggar" until one day the patron sudden- ly moved out of the neighbor- hood. But the beggar somehow found him, and they continued their symbiotic relationship. However, after a month or so, the b eggar knocked on his patron's door one morning and informed him that he w ould have to get a new beggar: it was just too far for him to travel each day for his handout. Today Rome, and indeed all of Italy, is threatened by a new form of uniformity, mas s tourism and international fran- chises. However, for the obser- vant traveler, Levi's unconven- tional Rome has not been erased entirely and in fact can be found in some of the most obvious locations. None of the cafés fall under the shop-worn, guide- book cliché of "hidden Italy." They are in plain sight. They are unique places that have stead- fastly resisted a new form of conformity that has erased some of Rome's mos t treas ured sites. A mong them is a café w edged betw een Campo dei Fiori and Piazza Farnese seldom frequented by anyone, including even locals. Out of curiosity, I have frequented it over the years. It does not conform to good bus ines s practices and seems to go out of its way to dis- courage tourist trade. Its win- dows are blocked during closing hours with heavy wood shutters, and it is seldom open when it should be. Its display cases are filled with an assortment of cor- netti, some stacked one on the other, which never seem to sell. Inexplicably, there is a sign in the window that shouts in Eng- lish, in case you might wonder who the offenders are, "No Pho- tographs." The three proprietors appear to be a family. The male coun- terpart of the trio opens late morning, long after Rome's morning breakfast hour. One morning I arrived shortly before 9:00AM, but, as I feared, it was boarded and closed. I lingered, just about giving up hope when at around 9:30, the gentleman Although Rome is without a doubt a treasure of art and architecture, we should try to get to know its lesser known corners, too KENNETH SCAMBRAY A walk through the streets of a diverse Rome Leave your map back at the hotel and explore the city following your instinct Continued to page 6

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