EUR: De Chirico Writ Large

Yesterday I rode my Vespa through the deserted streets of EUR in these torrid days without names at the tail-end of August. In the umpteenth heatwave of this most Roman of summers it’s not unlike being in a hairdryer.

The Esposizione Universale di Roma planned for 1942 was to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Fascist rule. Initially known as E42, the project had begun in 1936, with construction on the buildings of the “new Rome” underway by 1938. As it transpired 1942 would see rather more pressing events and the Expo never took place. Above is the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, now the HQ of Fendi, below is Adalberto Libera’s Palazzo dei Congressi.

After the end of the war this Fascist era White Elephant was gradually turned to other purposes, mostly government offices. The area was also one of the hubs of the Olympic Games held in Rome in 1960.

In its yearning for the sort of modernity favoured in the 1930s (& not only by totalitarian regimes) it is all vast boulevards and gleaming marble. Unlike Rome’s eminently walkable city centre, EUR is not on a human scale. The monolithic architecture is best seen, as yesterday, on a torrid day in the week after Ferragosto when everyone is still on holiday and the deserted streets only serve to emphasize the unsettling oddity of this exercise in hubris. It always reminds me of the metaphysical paintings of Giorgio de Chirico. This is his Piazza d’Italia of 1913, painted in Paris and now at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.

Any hint of metaphysical angst can be banished with a stop at the gloriously 60s Caffè Palombini with its colonnade inspired by the courtyard of Doric pillars at Hadrian’s Villa (and where even the usually cheerful bougainvillea was looking wearily dusty yesterday).

In the summer months, I suggest passing through EUR en route to the beach at Ostia, where any hint of disquietude that may remain can be banished with a plate of spaghetti alle vongole amid the cheerful cacophony of the Roman seaside.