il vicinato

Monteverde Vecchio, where I live, is on the west side of Rome, up the Gianicolo from Trastevere. It's a relatively new part of the city: through most of the nineteenth century, it was farmland, and didn't begin to be developed until about 1900-1930. Which makes me wonder: why didn't the Roman government take the chance to develop this area along a grid plan? There are some right angles, but also lots of curves. Maybe they're concessions to topography, or maybe it's just that wacky Italian character.

The other thing I realized the other day was that my building, which was built in the 1920s or 30s, is a century younger than my house in Philadelphia! Funny, that.