In the photographs by Fabio De Angelis, taken through the streets of Trastevere and Testaccio, the trades of a vanished Rome come back to life: shopkeepers, junk dealers, restorers, and a host of washwomen, ragmen, pork sellers, broccoli and artichoke vendors, grocers, coopers, chestnut roasters, drink vendors, and all sorts of street peddlers.

What were these lost trades? In past centuries, some of them even gave their names to many streets in the historic center of Rome:

Via dei Giubbonari is dedicated to those who sewed “giubboni” or “gipponi” (from Latin “jupponarii”), a type of bodice that later became jackets.

Via dei Chiavari recalls the key makers. On Via dei Pettinari worked the artisans who made combs for all sorts of uses.

Instead, in Vicolo de’ Catinari there were craftsmen who made basins and copper bowls.

The streets named Baullari, Balestrari, Cappellari, and Funari owe their names respectively to the artisans who made trunks and suitcases, crossbows, hats, and ropes.

Via dei Coronari refers to the artisans also known as paternostrari who made rosaries.

The Arch of the Acetari was dedicated to the sellers who delivered water door to door from the spring of Acqua Acetosa.

Among the more unusual trades was the “mignattaro”, whose job was to collect leeches, also called "mignatte", and sell them to pharmacies.

A place dedicated to socializing where the lively spirit of the Roman people was expressed, the tavern is an integral part of Rome’s imagery. Different social classes would gather around the same table to eat, drink, play cards, dice, or morra cinese. The tavern is the essence of Roman tradition, combining typical dishes of popular cuisine with glasses of wine from the Castelli region. In the past, there were hundreds of taverns in Rome; today, only a few remain.

Speaking of wine, the units of measurement for wine containers still in use in Roman taverns were introduced in 1588 by Pope Sixtus V, strictly in glass to avoid fraud by tavern keepers. The Tubo (1 liter), the Foglietta (1/2 liter), the Quartino (1/4 liter), the Chirichetto (1/5 liter), and the Sospiro (1/10 liter) became the typical measurements for Roman taverns, and the quantity of wine to be respected in each container was indicated by a line etched in the glass, called a “capello”. This is where the typical Roman saying “Che stai a guardà er capello?” comes from.

There are no shortage of legends and stories about Roman tavern keepers. For example, Orazio Arzilli, who decided to run for parliament in 1883. He was not elected, in fact, he only collected 78 votes, but his program has gone down in history:

“Voters! If you want to be properly represented in Parliament, if you truly want your well-being, vote for Orazio Arzilli. His political views are: Tuesday, beans with pork skin; Thursday, gnocchi; Saturday, tripe! These firm beliefs of our candidate are always watered down with a fine Frascati wine. Voters! Orazio Arzilli owns a large and magnificent garden, where every day he awaits you to present his political program. Vote, vote, vote for the glasses in Orazio’s garden, and you will be satisfied.”

Aldo Fabrizi was one of the most beloved Roman actors of the twentieth century. Like Anna Magnani and Alberto Sordi, he was one of the best representatives of Romanità in cinema, playing both comedic and dramatic roles in many films, such as Campo de’ Fiori di Bonnard, Guardie e ladri with Totò, and C’eravamo tanti amati by Ettore Scola.

In many of his works, he embodied a kind, peaceful, and wise Romanità, bringing the Roman dialect with its idioms and sounds to the screen. He was also a dialect poet and passionate about the traditions and customs of Rome, especially in cuisine: his love for pastasciutta, the quintessential Italian way of preparing and eating pasta, remains legendary. This is reflected in the books dedicated to traditional Roman recipes, accompanied by verses in dialect and anecdotes, which were very popular in the 1970s.

The 1970s were a decade of strong break with the aesthetic norms of the past. Design became the manifesto of an era that celebrated individuality and expressive freedom, amidst visionary utopias and new perspectives. Organic forms, inspired by nature and artistic avant-gardes, were explored. The use of new materials such as plastic and polyurethane allowed for the creation of objects with sinuous and soft lines.

The color palette was enriched with vibrant, bold tones inspired by pop culture and the natural world, combined in optical patterns or played out in neutral colors. A new way of living domestic spaces, more informal and relaxed, led to the birth of modular and transformable sofas with welcoming forms that created islands of relaxation dedicated to sharing. As Mario Bellini, the author of the sofa on display, explains:

"At the threshold of the 1970s, upholstered domestic furniture was still mostly stagnating between tired variants of historical typologies and elitist radical-provocative leaps forward, which – although stimulating – were hardly able to challenge the relationship between the evolution of new behaviors in domestic space and the types of furniture available on the market".

The home is colored, filled with appliances and accessories, becoming more welcoming and informal.

The Roman children are among the main protagonists of De Angelis' photographs. He captures groups of kids who, in the Seventies, live the city with naturalness and a sense of symbiotic belonging. Children who run, roam, climb, or treat the urban environment as if it were their own home.

The impression conveyed by the photographic documents is that of a childhood free from constraints and educational conformities, made of public socializing and continuous urban adventures. Not long after, the worsening of armed struggle and the spread of mass and easily accessible drugs, along with the isolation of families within their own homes, will erase forever this childhood that was open to the city and its lively rhythm.

"What are you playing, buzzico rampichino?" This is a common phrase used by Romans when someone is not taking a situation seriously. This expression comes from a Roman variant of the world's most famous game: tag.

In buzzico rampichino, all players who are running away can no longer be caught once they find a raised surface, such as a fountain or an ancient monument, and climb onto it. The player who is caught before reaching the raised surface takes the place of the one who is "it," and the game continues until the players are exhausted.

"Ah, guys, kick that ball into the hole!" The improvised street football game, played between monuments and even in St. Peter’s Square, is the queen of street games for Roman children. They lived on the streets, playing with glass marbles, bottle caps, and football player figurines, which were used in various games like "battimano": one player would place a figurine on the sidewalk, and the other would place theirs next to it, then slap the edge with their hand, trying to make their figurine jump and land on top of the first one to cover it. In the urban space, the little Romans invented and built tracks for racing bottle caps and marbles by "schicchera," a gesture of hitting the cap or marble with the middle finger while pressing the thumb.

And then there were the battles with slingshots, with everything that could spark the imagination of children. A spontaneous, naive, and happy world in the simplicity of being together.

In the Seventies, memorizing poems was still a fundamental educational practice, starting from kindergarten. Among the most beloved and widespread poems of the time was *Testamento di un albero* (The Testament of a Tree) by Trilussa: an elegy in Romanesco that intertwines sorrowful reflections on the fleeting cycle of life and the anxiety of an ecological thought that helps humans rediscover a balance with the cosmos.

Un Arbero d’un bosco
chiamò l’ucelli e fece testamento:
Lascio li fiori ar mare,
lascio le foje ar vento,
li frutti ar sole e poi
tutti li semi a voi.
A voi, poveri ucelli,
perché me cantavate le canzone
ne la bella staggione.
E vojo che li stecchi,
quanno saranno secchi,
fàccino er foco pe’ li poverelli.
Però v’avviso che sur tronco mio
c’è un ramo che dev’esse ricordato
a la bontà dell’ommini e de Dio.
Perché quer ramo, semprice e modesto,
fu forte e generoso: e lo provò
er giorno che sostenne un omo onesto
quanno ce s’impiccò

"In a corner of the Gianicolo square, at six in the afternoon, the first show is announced: beneath the stage, the children are excited, the parents offer a smile that carries a sense of nostalgia, and it seems that even the busts of the Garibaldian heroes scattered under the trees turn their gaze toward the puppet theater, to pass the long time of glory and boredom."

This is how the writer Marco Lodoli describes the puppet theater of the Gianicolo in his book *Isole. Guida vagabonda di Roma* (Islands. A Wandering Guide to Rome), published in 2010. A story that has the flavor of craftsmanship from another time, with the Piantadosi family being the longest-standing tradition of puppeteers in Rome. Since the early 20th century, the figures of Pulcinella and Colombina, along with many other characters, have attracted the attention of children on a moving route that shifts from square to square. In the 1960s, the puppet theater, one of the last expressions of commedia dell'arte, permanently settled in Gianicolo.

Two football teams, two hearts, one city: Roma and Lazio. Football fandom is one of the most emblematic expressions of the social and, in some ways, political contrasts historically present in Rome. It almost represents a faith. The motto of the Roma fans at the stadium, "La Roma non si discute si ama" (Roma is not debated, it is loved), contrasts with that of the Lazio fans, "Essere laziali non si sceglie, si nasce" (Being Lazio fans is not a choice, it’s a birthright). In the 1970s, the soul of the Roman fans was in the working-class neighborhoods of the city center and historical suburbs, especially in Testaccio, while Lazio's fan base was centered in the bourgeois neighborhoods (mainly to the north), representing a social and, in some way, political opposition that also manifested itself in the football sphere. 1975 was a significant year, particularly for Roma. That year, Antonello Venditti wrote and sang the team's anthem, "Roma Roma Roma," which, fifty years later, is still sung by the fans at the Olimpico. The anthem begins with these lines, testifying to the fans’ love for their football team: "Roma core de ‘sta città, unico grande amore de tanta e tanta ggente che fai sospirà" (Rome, the heart of this city, the one great love of so many people who make you sigh). In that year, organized Roma fan groups spread across the city and were involved in violent clashes at the stadium with rival fan bases, especially during the derbies against Lazio.

Lazio was coming off its first scudetto, and its emblematic figure was Giorgio Chinaglia. In 1975, the club failed to repeat the previous year’s successes, and strong internal conflicts began, leading to Chinaglia’s transfer to a football club in the United States in 1976.

1975, a year in a "young" decade, fierce, mocking, unstoppable in its hunger for the future.

The 1970s changed the face of Italy, and Rome was the stage for the most significant events, as captured in photographs that immortalize the gestures and scenes of that year: the anti-American carnival at Valle Giulia, feminist marches, student demonstrations. 1975 was also a year of political tensions that led to tragedies, of opposing extremisms clashing in the streets.

In the city, there were long-haired youths, flower children, bell-bottom trousers, parkas and velvet, leather jackets, and "pariolini" (young bourgeois). Each movement had its own uniform, and each person made their political and social belonging recognizable. Countercultures, urban communities, and subcultures transferred their demands into the political scene, and society changed: the divorce referendum, the reform of the family law establishing parental equality, and the lowering of the voting age to 18 were all victories of those years.

“La fantasia distruggerà il potere ed una risata vi seppellirà!”

“El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido!”

“È ora, è ora, potere a chi lavora!”

“Contro i sensi vietati, le strade del possibile.”

“L’utero è mio è lo gestisco io!”

A decade of experimentation and innovation. Music changes alongside society. Music embraces the calls for change and makes them its own, conveying messages of protest and radical transformation. New music genres and youth subcultures emerge, inspired by these genres in both appearance and expression.

Rock becomes progressive, with bands destined to become milestones, such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Queen. Reggae breaks out of Jamaica's borders and conquers the youth world, Lou Reed and David Bowie become cultural icons, and Glam Rock changes the aesthetic of entire generations. In Italy, the cultural impact of the so-called singer-songwriters, such as Fabrizio De André, Francesco Guccini, and Francesco De Gregori, becomes more significant. The latter released the album Rimmel in 1975, featuring tracks that remain in the collective imagination, while progressive music finds its spokesmen in Il banco del mutuo soccorso and Premiata Forneria Marconi.

Society evolves and changes, and different worlds coexist during the same period, with music as its testament: alongside committed music and singer-songwriter music, entirely new genres like Disco Music spread, and disruptive countercultures like punk, which closes the decade with the slogan No future.

1975 is a year to remember in the history of Italian literature: poet Eugenio Montale is awarded the Nobel Prize, the cultural scene is enriched with powerful novels such as La Storia by Elsa Morante, published the previous year. Italo Calvino opens the decade with Gli amori difficili, and Pier Paolo Pasolini dominates the intellectual debate until his tragic death on November 2, 1975. Experimentalism and neo-avant-garde movements weaken their impact on the cultural scene, making room for an evocative and lyrical poetics. A recovery of dialects, semantic research, and publishing phenomena that become part of mass culture history gain prominence. In 1975, two completely different novels, destined to become publishing phenomena, are published: Horcynus Orca, the only work of Sicilian Stefano D'Arrigo, compared to Joyce's Ulysses for its themes and language, and Padre Padrone, the autobiographical novel by Sardinian Gavino Ledda, considered a classic of progressive pedagogy. Among the publishing novelties is the novel Roma senza papa. Cronache romane di fine secolo ventesimo by Guido Morselli, published posthumously in July 1974, a year after the author's death. 1975 is also the year of the publishing phenomenon of Lettera a un bambino mai nato by Oriana Fallaci. The feminist issue strongly enters the editorial scene, thanks in part to Elena Gianini Belotti's essay Dalla parte delle bambine, which becomes a landmark in contemporary pedagogy and gives rise to a new genre, as evidenced by the illustrated books of the first feminist children's publishing house in Italy, Dalla parte delle bambine by Anela Turin.

The Seventies are also the years of the editorial success of fantasy and science fiction literature. Alongside the Urania series, the longest-running genre series in Italy, which translates the great classics like Asimov's works, the Cosmo series is born.

How did people live in the Seventies? By chasing freedom and building a new social model. The flower children were carriers and interpreters of this individual but especially collective search. Collective in every aspect of daily life, as a Seventies child tells us:

"I remember that as a child we traveled in a green Volkswagen van. We went everywhere, always together, with all the friends it could hold. We listened to Cat Stevens, Pink Floyd, the soundtrack of Nashville – my favorite – and Inti Illimani."

I asked my mother today why, where did this desire to always be together come from, even choosing that type of car to always move in such large groups. She told me that in the early 70s, that strong desire for freedom began to take shape, a desire that had already been present for some years, to break away from the rigid family structure, where experiences were lived in terms of the family group on one side and the rest of the world on the other. This desire for emancipation envisioned different life models, my mother tells me: sharing experiences with heterogeneous groups of people, new places to live, free love, the use of drugs – not for everyone – the desire to understand – this, yes – in the relationship with others, the true essence of oneself. The freedom was that of emancipation, fighting for individual rights and for finding a meaning; but I didn't understand this yet. I realize now that I spent a lot of time with "the grown-ups" and observed. The freedom was that of emancipation, fighting for individual rights and for finding a meaning; but I didn't understand this yet. I realize now that I spent a lot of time with "the grown-ups" and observed. Every now and then one of those girls would disappear, perhaps because she was too busy studying or writing in some editorial office, or perhaps because she was too caught up in chasing a dream that was still too difficult to achieve.

The 1970s were a period of intense spiritual and cultural exploration for the entire Western world: the decade saw a growing interest in Eastern religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism.

This interest influenced both artistic and philosophical productions, as well as mass culture in all its daily expressions. Knowledge of the East spread through travel and the movement of people and knowledge, as well as the widespread dissemination of texts, music, and cultural traditions from the East. During these years, practices like yoga and meditation became more and more popular. Eastern religiosity, focused on nature, spiritual harmony, and respect for life, influenced Western philosophies and lifestyles, prompting a deep reconsideration of social relations and humanity's relationship with the environment.

During these years, awareness grew regarding human rights, freedoms, and nature. Also, thanks to this cultural syncretism between the East and the West, youth movements adopted libertarian and pacifist worldviews. The objects on display illustrate how this interest in the East manifested in many homes with souvenirs from exotic travels and kitsch decorative items.

Fountains were amusement parks, squares were football fields, and scaffolding served as a privileged stage to observe the city. In Rome in 1975, the archaeological and historical-artistic heritage was perceived by Romans as a natural extension of their living space, admired by a tourism that was not yet fleeting.

The monuments still appeared to be covered with a centuries-old patina, to which, in recent times, the fine dust from exhaust pipes had been added with the intensification of mass motorization.

In a possible 20th-century history of the Roman monuments yet to be written, 1975 marks a turning point. With the establishment of the Ministry for Cultural and Environmental Heritage, a new era for cultural heritage officially begins, primarily focused on protection, restoration, and conservation.

The era of cultural heritage begins, understood as a collection of assets to be preserved almost religiously for future generations; but also as a resource to be enhanced for economic, social, and cultural development. Tourists are still few, mainly foreigners or strangers: it’s striking to see the Roman Forum almost deserted, captured in photos by a family of Orientals or scattered and attentive tourists/study enthusiasts of the ancient world; or the Borghese Gallery, with visitors enchanted by masterpieces that have not yet been shielded behind alarms or barriers, even sitting on the antique furniture of the museum.

Events flow along Via dei Fori Imperiali and end in Piazza del Colosseo, still fully accessible by car, with people gathered around all the surrounding monuments. A small group of long-haired youths plays guitar in front of the Theatre of Marcellus, under the Temple of Apollo Sosiano, still without iron bars.

Rome for the Romans is a mother, it is The Mother. An eternal, infinite, universal mother. A Roman is someone born in Rome, but also someone who, by choice, moves there and stays. With the monuments and memories of Rome, the Romans have a relationship of familiarity, habit, and normalcy, seasoned with irony. This spirit was already well captured by Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli, who mocked Pope Gregory XVI during his visit to the excavations of the Roman Forum...

“Bbene!,„ disceva er Papa in quer mascello De li du’ scavi de Campo-vaccino: “Bbèr bùscio! bbella fossa! bbèr grottino! Bbelli sti sérci! tutto quanto bbello! E gguardate un po’ llì cquer capitello Si mmejjo lo pò ffà uno scarpellino! E gguardate un po’ cqui sto peperino Si nun pare una pietra de fornello!„ E ttratanto ch’er Papa in mezzo a ccento Archidetti e antiquari de la corte Asternava er zu’ savio sintimento, La turba, mezzo piano e mmezzo forte, Disceva: “Ah! sto sant’omo ha un gran talento! Ah, un Papa de sto tajjo è una gran zorte!„

But this familiarity is never disrespectful. On the contrary, it is nourished by a deep love and admiration, which leads Romans to a process of identity recognition that translates into works of pop culture now part of the city's collective imagination. Like the song Roma Capoccia by Antonello Venditti, considered today the most well-known and heartfelt contemporary anthem by Romans and those who love the city.

In the 1970s, the first signs of what would later be called mass tourism began to emerge. Thanks to the construction of the new motorway network and improvements in rail and air connections, it became easier to travel within Italy, visiting its endless wonders made up of cities, towns, and landscapes.

Advances in labor rights ensured that more and more people had the right to vacation, which for most Italians meant taking a holiday: a period of rest in their hometown or in a fashionable mountain or seaside destination. Alongside holidays, trips were also made to explore different cultures and countries, organized according to economic means and interests. Among younger people, camping became popular, while bourgeois families and the political elite often opted for organized trips to discover art cities and foreign countries and cultures.

Travelers increasingly sought to capture images and memories of their experiences, and the industry provided tools for a growing public to create their own recollections. Portable cine-cameras, compact cameras, and recorders. Every traveler could now create their personal travel diary, to remember or share it with family and friends upon their return home.