Summer in Rome, open-air cinemas and street theater

Rome, Jul 5 (EFE).- During summer evenings, when the sun comes down and a light breeze revives the city, Rome turns into a giant outdoor cinema.

From historic monuments in the heart of the city to the peripheries, large screens are peppered across the Italian capital to invite Romans to enjoy their city, and a movie, under the stars.

This year’s top attraction is the open-air cinema at the Temple of Venus, a huge esplanade overlooking the Colosseum thought to have been the largest temple in Ancient Rome.

Until July 10, the Quo Vadis program, launched by the archaeological site and the Italian National Film Library, will screen 10 films that delve into Roman history.

“The film, seen here, is even more evocative,” says Valerio, a local resident who has come to see The First King (Il primo re), a 2019 film that narrates the founding of Rome in “reconstructed” archaic Latin.

Movie screenings organized by Italy’s Cinema America collective have also returned this year.

The collective — a group that rose to fame in 2012 after occupying the Cinema America movie theater in Rome’s Trastevere to save it from being turned into a parking lot and apartment complex — have set up an open-air cinema in Trastevere that will host all kinds of screenings and talks with international actors.

They have also set up open-air cinemas on the outskirts of the city and Monte Ciocci park, behind the Vatican, where works by filmmakers such as Pawel Pawlowski and Mel Brooks will be screened in July.

The Isola del Cinema festival, a classic summer event on the Tiber island in Rome, will also return this year.

The city of Rome, known in the 1950s and 60s as the Hollywood of the Tiber when it emerged as a major international filmmaking location, will also host theater evenings.

Each year, the Nasoni organization picks a different neighborhood and tells its story through theater.

This year, the streets of Quadraro, a neighborhood well known for its street art, will be filled with music and theater.

“Every evening there is a party, there is such good energy and I am proud to participate in this event,” Nasoni’s director, Ariele Vincenti, tells Efe.

“The idea was born from the desire to leave the theatrical space and bring it to the people,” founder of the project, Fabio Morgan, says. EFE

gsm/mp/ch