Enjoying Rome's 'hoods: The Wild Sides of via Tiburtina

Once in a while, one of us (guess which one) gets the itch to explore a new Rome neighborhood--not that easy when you spend three months each year in the city.  This time, he chose a section of via Tiburtina--the busy thoroughfare running northeast to Tivoli--just beyond the Verano cemetery, over the bridge, and you're there.  We took a right on one of the first side streets and parked the scooter.  At first blush, the neighborhood appeared alarmingly ordinary.  Desperate to find something of interest, we enjoyed a 1960ish front gate to an apartment complex.

We noted that Tiburtina, like the rest of Rome, has a garbage problem.

Turning onto via Bertarelli, we found this curious, below-ground church, San Giuseppe Artigiano.

Then things changed.  We dipped onto vialetto Tiziano Laudani (probably not on any map, including Google), a charming country lane.

It spilled out onto an large open green space, where Dianne was able to get a much-needed workout.

A back-building with neo-Nazi slogans, invoking Mussolini. One imagines it's a youth hangout in the evening.

Ahead, a newly fenced-in, mowed! dog park.

A jogger passed by.

A play area.

As we exited the space, this sign told us where we had been: Parco Galla Placidia Ottoboni.

Turning left out of the park onto via Galla Placidia, we found BricoBravo, a suburban-style outdoor store, catering to the area's middle class.

Crossing via Tiburtina, we admired the pasteups.

And just beyond, in a tiny "mall," a store with a box of buttons outside: 3 for Euro 1.

And beyond that, a still-functioning film studio.  Cool! Our discussions with the portiere (doorman) indicated the studios still were used, but now primarily for TV series.

We turned right into the neighborhood, then right again on what we think was via d. Casale, with its older buildings and country feel, just a stone's throw (literally) from the traffic of via Tiburtina.

Another charming vialetto beckoned, and we took it.  Turned right, toward via Tiburtina, once again coming upon the movie studio, its upper reaches marked with signs of the past.

Crossing via Tiburtina, we found this poster at a gas station.  It expresses the frustration of residents with a construction project, intended to provide more traffic lanes, that has been ongoing for 10 years.  "Per Fare il Colosseo," the poster says, "Ci Hanno Messo di Meno."  (It took less time to build the Coliseum).  There's more to it than that, if you read Italian.

Left, to the scooter.

Love the 'hoods!
Bill