Filming the ancients at the home of Modernism.

The Roman Forum?  Cinecitta'?  A Hollywood sound stage?  Not exactly.  We stumbled on these scenes at EUR (Esposizione Universale di Roma/Universal Rome Exposition), the massive 1930s/1940s complex to the south of the city center, on both sides of via Cristoforo Colombo.  Mussolini's Fascist regime built the place--now a fashionable suburb--to celebrate the 1922 March on Rome and to represent Fascism's ties to the imperial monumentalism that was perhaps the most important quality of the architecture of ancient Rome.  Obviously the Fascists did it well--so well that movie companies seeking the look of ancient Rome come here to film.  In this case, they were shooting outside the Museo della Civilta' Romana.  . Bill