For forty years, Rome has been home to the Internazionali d’Italia, a tier one tennis tournament that takes place on the clay courts of the Foro Italico. Last week, Rafael Nadal came out on top of the men’s tourney. This week, the women are in action and today’s championship match pits Russian players Svetlana Kutnetsova and Dinara Safina against one another.
The two met last week in a final match in Stuttgart and Kuznetsova came out on top. But last night Safina, currently ranked #1 in the world and as fit as she’s ever been, imposed her iron will on Venus Williams and powered her way to victory in a match that lasted over three hours. What will today bring? Photographer Susan Sanders is sure to let us now. She’s been sitting courtside for most of the week and so today treats us to some action photos of the contenders.
For more photos of the Internazionali d’Italia (and other things happening in Rome), visit Susan’s photo blo, Rome With A View.
After a recent stroll past a scuola media or middle school near the eCool Compound, Susan Sanders gleefully returned to headquarters with this fabulous photo. As the school is located near enough to the Compound to serve as a kind-of soundtrack and stage set for all of our various eCooling activities, we were convinced that there are days when the learning level in this particular educational institution is a bit on the light side. This photo, however, gave us a whole new understanding of the place. Clearly, those fashionable middle-schoolers, lingering on the streets around the compound, adjusting their low-slung jeans, smoking, and tagging surrounding buildings are aereonautical engineers in training! Why didn’t this occur to us sooner?
In fact, it’s blissfully quiet at the Compound today. The 1st of May is a holiday in Italy–it’s labor day. There’s no school and no work; the Romans have headed to the beaches and the mountains–a kind of trial run of the upcoming summer holidays.
For more photos by Susan, visit her blog: Rome With A View.
As readers know, we’ve been celebrating Rome’s birthday all week. We started off with a fabulous chariot race in the Circus Maximus (no doubt just like those staged by Hadrian in AD 121 to celebrate the birthday of Rome), the projection of She-Wolves on Piazza del Campidoglio, and a re-enactment of the Foundation of Rome.
Today we take one last look at the birthday bash with a photo taken by Susan Sanders in the Circus Maximus. As the Gruppo Storico Romano prepared for a parade through the city (an event that was ultimately dampened by rain), Legionaries stood in formation and Susan managed to snap a photograph of a tattoo sported by one of the fearless warriors. It reads “fulmine” which means “bolt of lightning” and to our minds is a reminder that Jupiter stands firmly behind Rome in all of its military efforts.
For more photos by Susan, visit her blog: Rome With A View.
It’s been a hectic week here at the eCool Compound. We dedicated several days to the celebration of Rome’s victory, taking in such exciting events as a chariot race in the Circus Maximus, the projection of She-Wolves on Piazza del Campidoglio, and a re-enactment of the Foundation of Rome.
Through it all, Susan Sanders was out in the city with a multitude of cameras strapped around her neck and arms, shooting scene after scene. We’ve already been admiring her documentation of Rome’s birthday events in various posts listed above, thus it will come as little surprise to discover that this week’s Photo Friday is given over to further illustration of Rome’s fabulous 2762nd birthday.
The photo above shows the re-enactment of Rome’s foundation, in particular, the very moment when King Numitor and Romulus see 12 vultures flying over the Palatine Hill, so that it’s clear which of the twins will rule the new city.
Stay tuned. We’re going to feature another great photo from Rome’s birthday tomorrow. And, if you want to see even more shots, click on over to Susan Sanders’ photo blog, Rome With A View.
Photographer Susan Sanders recently took a spin through Sperlonga, a small beach resort about an hour south of Rome. Beach season isn’t quite underway yet, so the city is a bit deserted. Her photos capture the quiet calm of this seaside idyll.
For more photos by Susan, visit her photo blog: Rome With A View.
A few weeks ago, the New York Times posted an article titled, “Best Trattoria in Rome? Let the Debate Begin.” We’ve not talked about the article on eCool because we take issue with it in several regards.
First, we simply don’t believe (as the author asserts) that the bread in your local trattoria must be stale. Ridiculous.
Second, we’re having trouble wrapping our mind around the fact that a trattoria connoisseur would pay 80 euro for a meal that consists of 2 plates of pasta, 2 salads, and a dessert or two (as the author says that she did at Da Felice in Testaccio). Are you kidding? 80 euro? Those aren’t trattoria prices!
Third, we believe that the title “best trattoria” is something personal. One’s “favorite trattoria” should be one’s second home, a place chosen on the basis of any number of subjective criteria. Ideally, it should be located near enough your house that you can dash out for dinner when it becomes apparent that you’re not going to cook and that no one else in the house is either. When you arrive, you should be treated well by a staff that recognizes you and wants to take care of you. And your trattoria should serve traditional dishes (at a reasonable price) that you swear cannot be equaled by any other of the trattorie in town that serve the same dishes.
We could go on….
Instead, however, we give you a photo. Today, Susan Sanders brings you a snap of the very best trattoria in the small town of Fondi, just an hour’s ride from Rome. If you’re really nice to us, we’ll give you their phone number and address. It’s very close to the train station.
For more photos by Susan, visit her blog: Rome With A View.
Friday rolls around once again and so it’s time for us to post another fabulous photo taken by Susan Sanders. Today, Susan takes us to the Victor Emmanuel Monument, that massive, white, classical-to-the-max (despite being modern) altar that stands at Rome’s very center.
Visitors to the monument pass through a gorgeous iron fence that blocks out the chaos of Piazza Venezia (the place where all those roads leading to Rome converge!) and sets the reverential tone appropriate for a visit to the Altar of the Fatherland and its associated Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
On a recent visit, Susan caught this photo of a tourist who, overwhelmed by the scale and the grandeur of the monument, sank to her knees in an effort to capture the moment with her camera.
For more photographs by Susan, visit her blog: Rome With A View
It’s a wonderful day in Rome — cool, sunny, and clear. And it’s made all the better by the fact that it’s Photo Friday!
Regular readers will know that we’ve spent some time at Rome’s Palazzo Massimo recently, admiring some of the spectacular objects that have been hauled out of the storerooms and cleaned up in honor of the museum’s 10th anniversary. We were thrilled to discover the frescoes from the Doria-Pamphili Colombarium there, and even happier to see the Portonaccio Sarcophagus beautifully displayed.
Today, photographer Susan Sanders adds a bit of humor to our series of Palazzo Massimo posts, giving us an image that confounds our senses of scale and perspective. She’s photographed the bronze Hellenistic Prince for us before, but this time she caught another museum visitor in the frame, and the effect leads one to believe that the over-lifesize bronze statue is of unfathomable proportions.
For more photos by Susan, visit her blog: Rome With A View.
A year and 1/2 ago, we published an article about Rome’s museum of antiquities at the Centrale Montemartini, suggesting that the museum’s gorgeous display juxtaposes ancient gods with modern ones.
Today, photographer Susan Sanders brings us a photographic essay of the museum — a reminder of just how beautiful and compelling the contrast between antiquity and modernity can be.
If you’ve not visited the Centrale Montemartini, be sure to put it on your next itinerary (Or if you live in the Eterna, run there! You’ve been missing something great.) The museum is a branch of the Capitoline Museums and is located at Via Ostiense, 104. It’s in the same neighborhood as the Protestant Cemetery, the Pyrmaid of Cestius, and the Basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura so you can easily spend the day visiting some of Rome’s off-the-beaten-track monuments.
And if you find yourself feeling a bit Rome-antic today, click on over to Rome With a View, Susan Sanders’ photo blog, where you can enjoy more of her compelling images of the city. Don’t forget that Susan’s created a fabulous Rome calendar and it’s not too late to get your hands on one. Click here for more information.
Long time readers of this blog will know that photographer Susan Sanders has a long-standing interest in layers of publicity that are applied to the walls lining Rome’s streets. Last May, she brought us a wildly interesting series of photos showing just how interesting things become when ads accumulate, on atop the other, and then begin to peel off, creating collages that are a testament to Rome’s busy social and political life.
Today, Susan once again entertains this interest, as she brings us a photo of the streetscape along Via Marmorata. There, a series of political posters mounted by the Partito Democratico were delcared abusive (meaning that the correct permits were not obtained before they were put up) by means official red and yellow Roma posters that are layered on top those of the PD and read “Affissione Abusiva.”
For more photos by Susan, visit her website: Rome With a View.
