Dear Prof. Meadows,
The following is an e-mail reply below I sent to a student in University student in Rome, regarding brief questions pertaining to the historical planning of the Imperial Fora Project & the Metro C Project in Rome during the Fascist Period of the 1930s, etc, and the 1990s to present…!
Thank you
Martin G. Conde Washington DC, USA


Re: etc, "...FYI – The Overall design / planning Metro C project (station Piazza Venezia, etc) in Rome is not a new proposal of either administrations former Mayor of Rome Veltroni or that of Mayor then / now Italian Cultural Minister Rutelli, it is rather the completion of the Metro C Project first envisioned by Mussolini architect’s in the early 1930s, who designed the project but because of the later political events of in the 1930s & the Second World War, they could not have completed it…! This is based upon research I have done, which is even rather well documented (planning the Metro Line’s in Rome of the early 1930s) based upon news reports from the period in the NEW YORK TIMES / THE TIMES OF LONDON & Italian architectural period articles, etc. Thus the Via dell’ Impero / later Via dei Fori Imperiali [thats why the area of the Piazza Venezia was cleared in the late 1920s early 1930s and created as a large-square, it was to be then a Metro stop…] & other thoroughfares built in Rome in the 1930s was only the first stage Mussolini’s systemization of Rome, the Metro Line (four of them) was the later stage, but never completed…!"


Copy of my e-mail reply:
“…During his twenty-eight years as archeological superintendent, which ended in January 2005, La Regina was probably the most influential city planner in Rome, although his influence can be measured mainly in absences--buildings not built, roads removed, acreage excavated. When I visited him in his office, in the Roman Forum, the greatest excavation site in the world, he looked ready for his approaching retirement. He seemed worn out by long years of defending Vanishing Rome from the forces of modernity. Raising his glasses and peering closely at a map of the Roman Forum and the Imperial Forums from 1981, he pointed with pride to the parks in the Imperial Forums that he had turned into excavations and to another spot, just below the Capitoline Hill, where a modern road used to run.


"You know in the film 'Roman Holiday,' when Gregory Peck takes the road on his scooter?" he asked. "We removed it."
It was the only time during our interview that I saw him smile. When I asked whether he thought he had been too aggressive in protecting Rome's archeological past, citing the frequently heard complaint that Rome has become a museum of the once great city it was, La Regina disagreed.
"As proof, you only have to look at all the tourists who come to Rome to see that past," he said. The problem, he went on, is with politicians like Rutelli. Politicians need new roads and construction projects, because such projects employ potential voters and spread money around.
"It is our duty to say no, when there is a danger to archeological monuments, but it becomes very difficult when you deal with politicians. Because while tourists bring a lot of money to the city, they don't vote--so there will almost always be a conflict there."

~ Interview with Prof. Adriano La Regina, c.f. John Seabrook, ROMAN RENOVATION. THE NEW YORKER, May.2.2005.
''…[The Via dei Fori Imperiali] from a scenic highway through the ruins to a kind of balcony on the most extensive archeological area[s] in the world…''

~ Mayor Francesco Rutelli, New York Times (Apr.22.1999). Archive Online Edition.
“…It might be amiss to mention that the Via dell Impero [Via dei Fori Imperiali] has not been made for purely archaeological & aesthetic reasons, but also for practical one.” […] “The new street, therefore, is above all a street necessitated by the traffic requirement of the modern city.” […] “yet, to excavate that vast zone now occupied by the new street, to decide its plan on the basis of what might have been found there of archaeological interest, and to make the new street pass over the ruins like a suspension bridge, would have been exceedingly costly and difficult undertaking, and would have required in addition many years of work.”

~ Prof. Guido Calza, The Via Dell’ Impero & the Imperial Fora. JIRBA (March 1934, pg. 502-503).
Question 1 - Perhaps I didn't understand but you say fascist plans considered somehow a metro line (which now we call line C under via dei fori imperiali?

Reply: M.G.C. –

1.1). Rome. Construction of the Metro B Station (Piazza della Repubblica). Fonti /source: THE NEW YORK TIMES (23.01.1973, pg. 2). According to the article, during the construction of the station Pz. Della Repubblica, the site of the station had to shifts because of the discovery of a large residential building and a vast garden from the Imperial age (…). Citing the article: “Most of the tunnels of the projected Roman subway network – beyond Line A looms Line B and Line C, possibly to be built in the 1980s – will be dug deep 50 to 60 feet below street level. The intention is to avoid time-consuming encounters with archaeology that normally occur about 15 feet underground.”

1.2). The Fascist Planning of the “Rete Ferrovaria.” [Metro Subway Lines in Rome]. cf. Fondo Piacentini. Relazione - programma a S. E. il Capo del Governo sul progetto del Piano Regolatore di Roma, Roma 1930. (Con F. Boncompagni Ludovisi, presidente; C. Bazzani, A. Brasini, A. Calza Bini, E. Del Bufalo, G. Giovannoni, A. Muñoz, C. Palazzo, R. Paribeni, P. Salatino).

Fonti / source: http://w3.uniroma1.it/bibarc/fondi/files/piacentini.html

[Text] = Roma e Rete ferroviaria: “La nostra Commissione ha creduto indispensabile di affrontare quale problema pregiudiziale nei riguardi del Piano Regolatore la sistemazione della grande rete delle ferrovie, in relazione ai bisogni ognor crescenti del traffico viaggiatori e merci, e di depositi, comporta un notevole impegno di aree e impone convenienti coordinazioni della rete stradale e dello sviluppo edilizio, era indispensabile che tale studio precedesse lo studio stesso del Piano Regolatore, soprattutto per la parte relativa all'espansione dell'aggregato urbano nelle zone di ampliamento. (...)

Linea A. — Di più immediata attuazione, parte dalla Stazione di Ostia e per il Trastevere, Piazza Venezia, Via Nazionale, Termini raggiunge Porta Pia, biforcandosi quindi presso Piazza Verbano e la Salaria da un lato, e lungo la Nomentana fino a Santa Agnese, e il nuovo Quartiere di Pietralata.

Linea B. — Con direzione Nord-Sud, parte dal Piazzale Ostiense e, per Piazza Venezia e Piazza del Popolo, raggiunge la nuova Stazione Flaminia.

Linea C. — Con direzione Nord-Est, Sud-Ovest, collega il Quartiere Trionfale e San Pietro con il centro e la Stazione e questa con S. Giovanni. Essa avrà all'estremità settentrionale due branche per raggiungere il Foro Mussolini dell'O.N.B. e la Stazione Flaminia, e al Sud si spingerà fino alla Stazione Casilina e al nuovo Quartiere Prenestino.

Linea D. — Riunirà il quartiere Trionfale a Piazza del Popolo e di qui per Piazza di Spagna risalendo Via Boncompagni e Quintino Sella raggiungerà la Stazione di Termini nella sua nuova ubicazione, per spingersi quindi nelle importanti zone di ampliamento previste ad oriente della Città.”

1.3). [Rome]. City Plan For Rome Goes to Mussolini – Committee of Experts Submit 15 Year Program to Allow for New Growth (…) Construction of Four Subway Lines Planned. Fonti / source: THE NEW YORK TIMES (01.02.1931, pag. 56). The article cited the construction of four new subway lines in Rome, but did not mention the specific names of the Metro lines, or where they would be constructed.

1.4). “Rome. The first real step toward the modernization of, the construction of a subway system (…). In cutting the three underground lines, with a total length of 24 kilometers (nearly 15 miles) through the subsoil of the Eternal City (…). Particularly in that part of the city where modern traffic requires call for a central junction of the three subway lines between the Roman Forum and the Trajan Forum [possibly the Piazza Venezia?] not far from the Coliseum, the excavations are expected to reveal dozens of ancient artifacts.” Fonti / source: ROME SUBWAY TO BARE ANCEINT STRUCTURES. THE NEW YORK TIMES (12.06.1927, pag. 26).

So, if I am reading what I have cited correctly the City planners / architects during the Fascist era where first to plan the Metro Subway Project with a line a traversing beneath the Via dei Fori Imperiali (i.e.) the Metro C subway line beneath the Via dei Fori, unfortunately the history of the construction Metro Subway lines (Fascist Era early 1930s to the late 1970s) has not been a subject of important scholarly studies by non-Italian scholars. I still have to do more research.

For the contemporary planning of the Metro C Project – ‘Area Fori’ (2005 onwards), only a few journal articles have been published on the general planning. While the primary sources information I utilize is derived from the Italian Government, the Italian media and whatever I can find online:

1.5). METRO C: LA SITUAZIONE DEI CANTIERI ARCHEOLOGICI / Comune di Roma. Roma 27 ottobre 2006. [Time tables of archaeological surveys]=
http://www.comune.roma.it/repository/ContentManagement/information/N1975525880/Metro%20C%20cantieri%20archeologici.pdf

Question 2 - You said La Regina was removed by Rutelli, perhaps because he was too conservative for the political deadlines. But some weeks ago La Regina’s wrote an article on "Repubblica" against sovrintendenza's report (in which was written Line C is going to destroy many of the archaeological remains, etc.,) opposing that it'd be possible to build station protecting or valorizing our archeological treasures. How do you interpret this thing?

Reply: M.G.C. – Prof. La Regina during his tenure as Rome’s Sopr.Archeo.Roma (1996-2005), beside the late Prof. Antonio Cederna has been one of the must out spoken critics of the politicians desire of modernizing Rome (i.e.) the over-commercialization of Rome Archaeological & Cultural Heritage: the construction of new parking area(s) & the keeping open of the Via dei Fori Imperiali, etc, in Rome for the now endless stream of tourist bus’s (operated by the Vatican, the City of Rome & the area Appia Antica) that now travel on the congested roadways from the Vatican – the Piazza Venezia – leading to either the National Museum of Rome or the Colosseum then on into the Via Appia. Not to mention the ugly advertising panels the cover the façade of numerous churches & obelisks in Rome (in which these panels are justified by the business that put up these panels saying the sponorizzione provides much needed funds to repair Rome archaeological / Cultural heritage), and the opening of the new ARA PACIS monument, etc.

2.1). The Via dei Fori Imperiali – Prof. La Regina and a number of scholars in the 1980s had hoped to close and eventually remove the Via dei Fori Imperiali, excavate the site and eventually re-integrate the Fori area with the adjacent central archaeological Park in Rome (Roman Forum, Colosseum valley & the Palatine Hill). Urban planners & architects in Rome cited that if the Via dei Fori is closed and removed without providing Rome alternative feasible plans for a new traffic infrastructure in Rome (more public transportation, etc) or to overcome the new traffic congestion, this idea of closing / removing the Via dei Fori would be impossible. A compromise was made, the Via dei Fori would remain, but it would be converted into a new type of elevated balcony over looking the recently excavated ruins of the Fori.

- Idea of a suspension bridge – Via dell Impero / Via dei Fori Imperiali see: “It might be amiss to mention that the Via dell Impero has not been made for purely archaeological & aesthetic reasons, but also for practical one.” […] “The new street, therefore, is above all a street necessitated by the traffic requirement of the modern city.” […] “yet, to excavate that vast zone now occupied by the new street, to decide its plan on the basis of what might have been found there of archaeological interest, and to make the new street pass over the ruins like a suspension bridge, would have been exceedingly costly and difficult undertaking, and would have required in addition many years of work.”

~c.f. Prof. Guido Calza, The Via Dell’ Impero & the Imperial Fora. JIRBA (March 1934, pg. 502-503).

- In Fall 2007, the Comune di Roma / the Italian Ministry of Culture proposed the final planning of completing the Central Archaeological Museum of Rome. But the proposal was not put in effect officially until after Mayor Veltroni resigned, see: Ministro Il On.le Francesco Rutelli e Il Vice Sindaco On.le Maria Pia GaravagliaCOMMISSIONE STATO-COMUNE PER LA SISTEMAZIONE DELL’AREA MONUMENTALE CENTRALE DI ROMA (Roma, 18.02.2008). = http://www.beniculturali.it/pdf/Roma_AreaArcheologicaCentrale.pdf

- For the are of the Via dei Fori Imperiali / Fori Imperiali, one of the new proposals is the plan to remove the roadway Via Alessandrina between the Markets of Trajan & the recent excavations in the Forum of Augustus & the Forum of Trajan, see: "Via Alessandrina, iniziano gli scavi." (LA REPUBBLICA 23.10.2007, pg. 1). =
http://www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/2055793986/in/set-72157603265500064/

[In] ROME - THE IMPERIAL FORA PROJECT: NEWS REPORTS OF THE NEW PLANNING PHASE FOR THE "PARCO DEI FORI". LATE 2007 ONWARDS. Archive of Italian news reports = http://www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/sets/72157603265500064/detail/

Thus if the City of Rome does eventually decide the remove the Via Alessandrina, what is surprising about this it will make the final completion urban planning phase of the Imperial Fora Progetto, and what is remarkable, with the removal of the Via Alessandrina is that the design concept is not based upon any recent planning initiatives of the City of Rome or the Italian Ministry of Culture, but like the Metro C progetto, this final layout of the Via dei Fori it is based upon the design concepts first conceived in the 1930s by the Fascist Architects, for an alternative design plan of the Via dell Impero, see:

Rome - “La Grande Roma,” Vincenzo Fasolo, "Studio per il tracciato di una nuova arteria tra via Cavour ed il Colosseo",[c. early 1930s] (Coll. F. Fasolo, in La Capitale a Roma, Città e arredo urbano, 1991, p.95). =
http://www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/244229647/in/set-72157600214892494/

Actually, the final layout of the area of the Imperial Fora / Via dei Fori if the Via Alessandrina is removed will very closely resemble the later design plan of which was endorsed by Prof. Antonio M. Colini in 1981 [one of the archaeologist who excavated the area of the Imperial Fora (1928-1933), preceding the construction of the Via dell Impero, who also served later as the City of Rome’s Director of Museums, etc in the 1960s].

See: Prof. Antonio M. Colini, Cosi nacque Via dei Fori Imperiali (Cronaca di Roma), IL TEMPO ROMA (30-01-1981, pag. 4 = the illustration [idea of what the Via dei Fori would look like with the Via Alessandrina removed following the excavations] is from the work by: Romeo, Pierluigi. Riunificazione del centro di Roma antica / con disegni di P. Romeo. Roma : (Studia archaeologica ; 29.) L'Erma di Bretschneider, 1979.

2.2). La Regina & the Metro C Progetto: I read the article you mentioned by La Regina recently, A. La Regina, Come fare la Metro C e salvare l’ archeologia (04-03-2008, pg. 9). Several days later Prof. Angelo Bottini (Sopr.Archeo.Roma), held a conference which outlined the recent archaeological findings from the Metro C archaeological surveys.

See: C.A. Bucci, Metro C, catalogo dei tesori nascoti – Tanti reperti avvistati nel corso dei cantieri. Quasi tutto viene ricoperte (08.03.2008, pg. 9). Another article in the Repubblica that day was an article written and signed by several staff members of the (Sopr. Archeo.Roma) in reply to La Regina’s earlier article, see: “Nessun colpo di spugna, tuteliamo Roma” I funzioni archeologi della Soprintendenza riplicano all’ articolo di La Regina: “I nostri scavi alla luce del sole.” La Republica (08.03.2008, pg. 9).