After the pouring rain during the day time, the night of Rome looked darker than the other nights that I had in here. After rain stopped and ate my dinner around 9:00pm, I went out to Rione Ponte and headed to the salad place where I often go and eat. When I walked into the restaurant, waiters were welcomed my presence as usual and one of them came towards to me. Fortunately by the time I got there, it was less crowded so I was able to ask several questions regarding on Rione Ponte and listen to their stories. His name is Mihir Kumar Mandor. He does not live in Rione Ponte but he works in that salad restaurant for 13 years. Also he added that before he lived in this neighborhood but later he has to move to other Rione because the price and rents are getting higher and higher which is very expensive that he cannot afford to live this region anymore. From what I heard from Mihir about Rione Ponte is that this area is very expensive to live because Rione Ponte is the central part of Rome where has lots of historic and famous places such as Piazza Navona, Pasquino which is a statue of liberty, and near Pantheon. Also while he was talking about Rione Ponte, he pointed out one place and said that the prime minister of Italy owns a house near the restaurant and he often comes to Rome even though his head house is in Milan. When I asked about the population of Rione Ponte, he replied me there are a lot of tourists, especially from America and both young and elder people are living and coming to visit the Rione Ponte. In addition, he said there is a lot of American students come to Italy to study for few weeks and/or months. He really liked this neighborhood although he no longer lives in this area. After a conversation with him, once again I have realized that Ponte is very tourist place where majority of population during the day and night are tourists.
After a joyful conversation with Mihir, I exited the restaurant and turned right and headed to Piazza Navona which is less than 3 minutes walk. Unlike the other day, Piazza was very quiet and I saw very few people walking around near the fountain and I saw lots of seats were emptied in restaurants along the Piazza Navona compares to the other ordinary nights and it is because of the soccer game. It was weird to look touristic place without groups of tourists or people but the beauty of Piazza Navona remains same and still shines itself. I stood in the middle of Piazza Navona and looked for a person who looks like a resident of Rione Ponte. There was a guy who had an eye contact with me, so I approached to him and introduced myself and started asking questions on Rione Ponte. The guy that I interviewed called Aderiano and has worked in one of Piazza Navona’s restaurants for 15 years. When I asked him whether he lives in this Rione or not, he answered directly with an astonished voice that only rich people can afford to live here because the rent is too expensive. In addition, majority of residence of Rione Ponte are rich people, Politian, and/or actresses. When I heard that for twice from Mihir and Aderiano, I looked around the neighborhood and suddenly it looked different from few minutes ago just before I talked to him. It is very interesting that how one’s point of view varies when he did not know about the fact and knows - the gaps of views and perspective are huge.
During interview, Aderiano told me one interesting fact that before, rich people used to live outside or far from the center of the Rome in huge villas whereas poor people compacted in central area, which is now Rione Ponte, but around 10 years ago, it became opposite so rich people started to move into central area and finally occupied it and therefore, poor people has to leave and move to other places since the prices are getting higher because of the rich people. When I asked why does that shift/movements had happened, he could not able to answer that. Just like Mihir, Aderiano said Rione Ponte is always fully packed with tourists during the day time and night time. Moreover, all generations can be easily seen in this area, especially in Piazza Navona. He added that he sees a lot of people near this area because of the richness of the history of Rome and few of its historic main tour sites are located in Rione Ponte. Lastly, he really likes the Rione. After interviewing him or getting new information on the Rione which I did not know, my viewpoint of my Rione was completely changed and people who live in Ponte look different to me.
It is easier to find a person who is a non-resident than looking for a resident. Interestingly every place that I went and talked to people who are working inside, they were all non-residence. During my entire process of interview, I found interesting things that are workers in restaurant, café, and bar are all non-residence but owners are the residence of Rione Ponte. Also majority of owners are not in their places. So here, I am wondering that “rich people” who owns restaurant, café, and/or bar, are they have a job other than running those businesses? If yes, what kinds of jobs they are having and in what Rione do they work? If not, what they are doing because it seems majority of them are not in their own businesses neither at day time nor at night. Finally, I found a person who is a resident of Ponte. Mauro is the owner of the bar near Piazza Navona. He has lived in Rione Ponte for 39 years. When I asked about his Rione, he said that Ponte is one of the best places in the city of Rome as well as very tourist place - Piazza Navona, Campo de’ Fiori, and close to trastavere and St. Peters. From him, I got new information on the Rione that I couldn’t hear from Mihir and Aderiano. It is that there are a lot of tourists, especially young people of both Italians and foreigners during the night time. From the month of March through August around 10pm to 2am, the streets are full of young people and they just walk with a glass or bottle of wine. In addition, he mentioned that Ponte is a nice place to meet people from different countries so some Italian guys come to the Rione and meet young American or English women. Again, there are lots of bars and pubs along the streets. He really likes his Rione and when I came back to my room and go over the notes that I took while I was interviewing 3 people, I found out that when I asked them to tell me about Rione Ponte, two people who are non-residence told me how expensive the price and rents in the Rione but Mauro did not mentioned it at all. Also from Mauro’s face, I can read that he has a pride of being a resident of Rione Ponte.
It seems to me that Rione Ponte has its own history and migration/movement of rich and poor people in this area and tourists itself and historic places and residence of Rione Ponte all together are making their own characteristics or color and build a community of their own Rione. Furthermore, make their area more distinctive than other Rioni. Also I feel like I gained a lot of information and understand better on Rione Ponte at the end of this assignment. Actually I walked into Rione Ponte everyday but more as a tourist who brings camera all the time and busy taking pictures of what I see and either overwhelmed or impressed by the statue of the monuments or the architectures, so actually I did not notice and do not care about the Rione and how expensive or what kinds of people live in this area – but now I do! In addition, I really enjoyed the beauty of night while I was doing my interview at near Piazza Navona. It was a good and interesting introduction for Rione Ponte and I am looking forward to explore more of this area and talk to people and listen to their story based on Rione’s history, background and more information.
Ciao,
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