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April 18, 2009
An antidote for the Burden of History
Sometimes walking around Rome can get to be a little much. I find that modern music helps - in 2003 I listened to a lot of Verve: Remixed as an antidote. This year I haven't been in much of a music mood - and my walk has been really short - the joy of living close to what one needs to look at.
Thursday, though, I kind of snapped. I woke up, walked to Termini, and checked departure times for Latina and Orvieto. An InterCity train stopping in Latina left 30 minutes sooner than anything to Orvieto (and I think that was a Regionale and hence criminally slow when you're taking a mental health day and paying less than €10) so there I went!
I had driven past (or maybe even through?) Latina a couple of times when my sister and family lived in Gaeta - the via Appia runs past - but I had never been there.
Latina was founded in 1932 by Mussolini as Littoria, capital of the newly-drained Pontine Marshes. The Agro Pontino is an enormous area of Central Italy that was swampy and malarial since time out of mind. So Latina is thoroughly planned. Click here for the Italian Wikipedia article - look for the plans. Latina is one of the great examples of Rationalist (i.e., dirigiste Moderne, i.e., Fascist) architecture. There's a street named after Corbusier for a reason.
Once he drained the Pontine Marshes, Mussolini moved a bunch of peasants from Friuli and the Veneto (North east italy) to the new agricultural territory. They were not particularly grateful, from what I've read. But Mussolini was dead set on Italy becoming self-sufficient agriculturally - hence the Wheat-fountain.
I wandered around and took lots of photos - here are some of them on Flickr.
The city is a little much in its type, but it looks pretty liveble. It has the second largest population in the region of Lazio (after Rome), which may or may not tell us anything. It was certainly an antidote to the burden of the past - I came back feeling much better, ready to dive back into the 9th century.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at April 18, 2009 6:36 PM
Comments
Festering Latina?
Posted by: ttbdan at April 18, 2009 10:51 PM
*is having a giggle at this*
You realise, don't you, that to most people, Mussolini = history?
Silly medievalist! I bet you think anything less than 200 years old is ... journalism.
Oh, wait -- it is!
Still, the architecture looks pretty cool.
Posted by: Another Damned Medievalist 
at April 19, 2009 4:48 AM