Ponte Milvio
The Ponte Milvio used to carry both the Via Flaminia
and the Via Cassia across the Tiber and it was reputed
to be the scene of the great battle when Constantine,
after receiving a vision near this spot, took control
of Rome and converted the city to Christianity. In the
late 1930s a new bridge was begun to carry the Via Flaminia
away from the city in Fascist trumphal style but it
wasn’t opened to traffic until 1951.
Siena priests
This procession of men of the cloth gives little indication
of the crisis that is regularly reported to exist within
the Catholic Church. Racked by unsavoury scandals and
neglected by an increasingly secular age, the priesthood
is no longer a popular choice of career and there is
now a huge shortage of priests in Italy, which is being
partly met by attracting novices from Africa, the Philippines
and other far-flung dioceses.
San Gimignano ghosts
The town of San Gimignano was supposedly settled by
the followers of the Silvio group, following the Catalan
conspiracy in Rome, but its buildings now give little
away about the intervening years and at night the streets
could belong to any period in Tuscan history. Here,
a group of nuns hurrying home seems to vanish into the
glare of modern sodium lighting.
Oltrarno street scene
Oltrarno – literally, the other bank of the River
Arno – feels very different feel from the city
centre on the opposite side of the river. This scene
typifies how everyday encounters are constantly being
enacted, regardless of the surroundings, so that sometimes
Italy seems like a great theatrical set, providing a
magical backdrop to the current generations of players
that stalk its stage.
