Oct 29, 2018 | Rome> The rione of the week is Prati:

These rioni on the west side of the Tiber—b-sides a part of Trastevere—aren't inside the originul city walls... in fact, Prati wasn't an official rione until 2013, thus is the last rione, # XXII.

Aurelian map meme you used to see all over Rome (pic taken in 2009)

Below are the official boundaries of rione XXII, tho when folks talk about Prati they usually mean the entire area northwest of Rome/Vatican on the west side of the Tiber:

... + funny they got Castel Sant'Angelo in their logo cuz the castle lies within the Borgo rione... which is to say their aint much to say about Prati. Sure, like the Spanish Steps area (roamed last week) they got sum fancy shopping + it's considered posh. A lot of Romans move there to get away from the turisti, but anywhere near the Vatican has an insane # of tourists. Lots of clergy + nuns dwell over there too. Back in the day Prati was just a bunch of vineyards + meadows (what "prati" means), wasn't until the 20th century it was really developed, so unlike the rest of Rome, it's actually on somewhat of a grid.

Which makes it easy to traverse, but also a bit boring, especially the long blocks occupied by military complexes. There's a monument to Teresa Gullace outside 1 of the barracks, to mark the location where she was shot trying to talk to her husband, who was taken by Nazis back in 1944, an incident that inspired the famous scene in Rome, Open City (1945) where Anna Magnani gets shot. If u aks us, the only cool part of Prati is the area near p.zza Cavour, which is 1 of the parks in Rome that is actualy maintained, meaning they actually—gasp—clean up the garbage + pick weeds, etc. In fact there were protests here last week cuz of how janky Rome has become, to "to denounce the ragged state of the Italian capital, where roads are potholed, rubbish often goes uncollected and wild boar roam the streets." We say bring on the wild boar!

Supreme Court bldg (tho in Ocen's 12 (2014) they pretend it's an art museum, where Julia Roberts plays a Julia Roberts look-a-like to gain access)

piazza Cavour

a Roa (spotted when we spent a few weeks in the Prati area back in 2015)

the goth Sacro Cuore

the Castroni mothership (where we now have to get our maseca since the latinos at Esquilino can't afford to carry it.. tho there's a smaller Castroni closer to us)

B-sides Rome-ing, Sound Furies continue to lay down vox + finalize trax... almost done w/ side A. Originally we was thinking of having a dubble album but our senses got the bedder of us + now we're widdling it down to a single LP. Stay tuned.

a Sound Furie in the improvised vocal booth