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The Roman Spring of Tennessee Williams

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In the late winter/early spring of 1948, American playwright Tennessee Williams arrived in Rome in need of a change of scenery. Williams, of course, is known for his writing set in the American South, including ”A Streetcar Named Desire” (written in 1947) and “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof” (1955), both of which earned him Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. But few people know – or, perhaps, they have forgotten – that Tennessee Williams was also inspired by his short stay in the Eternal City.

“As soon as I crossed the Italian border, my health and life seemed to be magically restored. There was the sun and there were the smiling Italians,” Williams wrote in his Memoirs.

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The Seven Hills of Rome: What Are They and What Can You See?

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Map via Wikipedia

 

The Seven Hills of Rome mark the traditional boundaries of the city. It was on these seven hills – Aventine, Caelian, Capitoline, Esquiline, Palatine, Quirinal, and Viminal – that the first settlements of Rome began and these seven hills were the ones protected within the Servian Walls. The foundations, gates, and ruins of these 4th century-BC walls can still be seen in some parts of the city. Subsequent builds of fortifications in Rome, such as the Aurelian Walls (3rd century AD) and the Leonine City (9th century AD) included other hills (Janiculum, Vatican, Pincian), but the original Seven Hills are the ones in bold above and included within the red border in the map to the right.

Now that you’ve had a short history lesson, you may be wondering what you can see today on Rome’s Seven Hills. Rather than tell you, I thought I would use the power of Google’s Street View to show you.

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Anniversaries in Italian History: Dates Every Curious Traveler to Italy Should Know

Via XX Settembre in Genova

Via XX Settembre in Genova

This month, the women of the Italy Blogging Roundtable – Jessica, Rebecca, Gloria, Alexandra, and I – celebrate the one-year anniversary of our blogging experiment. This roundtable started on a whim thanks to an idea from Jessica, who thought it’d be fun to see what happens when five Italy-loving bloggers wrote a post each month on the same topic. Indeed, it has been fun as well as an eye-opening experience to see how each of us approach the topic.

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