Suvi’s Statues: Rome’s Eur

Do you know that there is a portion of Roma that was left unfinished because the war prevented the world’s fair in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Fascism in Italy? Do you know that Roma’s patron saints are Peter and Paul? And most strikingly: do you know that Roma has a square Colosseum too, and then they use it as a fashion mogul’s headquarters?

I often saw them in the distance when arriving in Roma by car: the white block with familiar vaults and the huge white cupola that one could mistake for St. Peter’s in Vatican, but I’ve never been until yesterday.

The marble part of the city in question, which was eerily empty this Saturday as most of Roma’s residential quarters in August, is called Eur and euros is what they make there, especially in the square Colosseum (Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana) that has been rented out to Fendi for the last few years.

I was inside for a free exhibition and was strolling around pieces of fur hanging off the ceiling among rare visitors and overpaid, bored guards playing on their phones. The feeling was Get the hell out. Once out, the feeling was Get the hell away.

But then the Church of Peter and Paul, the patron saints of Roma in celebration of whom amore is free on June 29, fixed that feeling, as churches tend to do.

I invite you to stroll through the images, form your own opinion, and search more info online if you’re interested. As for me, I’ve had enough of white, swords and tank-size boulevards for a while.

Right… everything for fur poets.

Resist to resist with swords.

The Church of St. Peter and Paul.

The top of the church.

The door remains in hiding for now. It’s not Thursday.

Peter and Paul. Or is it Paul and Peter?

The view from the church.

Ah, an obelisk too.

Photo: a © signature mmm production

For Suvi’s Saturday Statues challenge