Halfway
Piazza dei Fumetti (Comics square) is an example of both urban renewal and tribute of Rome to the splendid art of comics. Comics square, located in the Mezzocammino district, is just outside the Grande Raccordo Anulare that surrounds the capital. This dictrict is ideal for a short city trip. In Italian “Mezzo” means “half” and “Cammino” means “way”. Thus the neighbourhood is called “Mezzocammino” because the Tiber crosses it halfway between the center of Rome and the mouth of the river in Ostia.
At one time, men who were usually slaves pulled boats by using ropes to go upstream from Ostia to the river ports of Ripa grande or Ripetta. Until 19th century, the government build side streets along the river that allowed the heavy work to be done by the buffaloes. Since the journey lasted two days, those men stopped to rest and stay overnight in the middle of their road in Mezzocammino.
Urban Renewal
Piazza Andrea Pazienza, also known as Piazza dei Fumetti, has been the center of the neighborhood since 2009. The square is a roundabout located under a pedestrian crossing. In recent years, the IX Municipality of Rome has built a series of green areas equipped with games for children, little pine woods, bicycle paths and athletics field. From Architecture point of view, the sum of these areas forms the comic park. The parks are accessible from “doors” dedicated to the most important characters of Italian comics.
There are art murals that recall the best Italian comics around the rotunda that dedicated to Andrea Pazienza who is creator of the character Zanardi. Those murals are tributes from the city of Rome to splendid comic literature that is often unfairly underestimated by public debate.
Comics
Alongside the adventurer Corto Maltese, created by the magical pen of Hugo Pratt, you can see the mask of the criminal Diabolik. The latter represents the first example of Italian black comics. In 1962, Diabolik was born from the imagination of the Giussani sisters who were inspired by a murder committed in Turin. A film version recently came out in which he is played by actor Luca Marinelli.
The recent Winx fairies that are animated series from 2004 are next to Signor Bonaventura, a character with red jacket and hat in contrast with the white pants. Sergio Tofano created Signor Bonaventura in 1917 that is almost a century earlier than Winx. Signor Bonaventura has been published in the Corriere dei Piccoli until 1978 and written in rhyming couplet.
The comic always began with the phrase «Qui comincia la sventura del Signor Bonaventura…» (“Here begins the misfortune of Mr. Bonaventure …” ). The story continued with strange adventures and ended with the awarding to Signor Bonaventura of a reward of one million lire.
Written by Enrico, Translated by Hua and Photo from Hua
