Vittorio De Sica is the greatest. I’ll write the same about Roberto Rossellini, or Federico Fellini…well, Italy has had a lot of greatest film directors.
Born in 1902, he started his acting career playing often the role of a charming dongiovanni. In 1943 he met the never-praised-enough Cesare Zavattini who introduced him to directing and to neorealist approach to filmmaking.

Masterpieces such as Sciuscià (1946) and Ladri di Biciclette (Bycicle Thieves, 1948) followed. American Academy Awards had to introduce a special Oscar to award De Sica’s Ladri di Biciclette because at that time there wasn’t any “best foreign movie” category. De Sica continued to act in order to finance his works as director, mainly in light comedies such as “Pane, Amore e fantasia (Bread, Love and Dreams)” together with partners like Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida. (When I talk about Sophia I don’t mean that genetically modified mummy we have seen in Sydney last year, I’m talking about this)

De Sica was born in Frosinone, which is the epithome of redneckness for the Romans, that’s why he has always said he was Neapolitan like his mother. Anyway, he lived and worked mainly in the Eternal City where Bycicle Thieves was shot.

Here

you can watch a clip taken from the movie, shot in the magic neighborhood of Trastevere where Antonio and his son Bruno look for the stolen bike. Trastevere (beyond Tevere river) is in a way the heart of Rome and romanity and it is also the place of the XXI century Roman movida. There are trendy places where you can enjoy aperitivo, very good gelaterie and great restaurants. Checco er carrettiere, just beyond Piazza Trilussa is widely recommended and if you are looking for some extreme folklore you can head to La Parolaccia (The Swearword), where you can expect -and pay for!- the rudest service. It is part of the game but you better go there with some locals so they can translate for you the very colorful profanities. After dinner you can stroll around and go for pubs and clubs crawling until next morning.

Anyway, Trastevere is not just noise, there are amazing spots and corners you’d just seat and contemplate for hours. Here we have one of my favourites, Piazza Sant’Egidio. Just around the corner you can start climbing up to the Gianicolo hill where you can enjoy a great view of Rome.
We’ll talk about that another time

Soundtrack for this post: La Storia siamo noi by Francesco de Gregori