Piazza di Santa Maria Liberatrice

The nearest piazza to our apartment on Via Ginori in Testaccio is Piazza di Santa Maria Liberatrice. Compared to the piazzas downtown, which tend to be more open spaces (aside from the Piazza del Collegio Romano near the Sede, which is basically a parking lot) that have the ability to morph into different types places throughout the day, this piazza has a small, permanent park in the middle. I have chosen this park as the place I will observe and comment upon for our Street and Studio course. Much like the piazzas where there might be a market in the morning, socializing by afternoon/evening, and busy restaurants at night, the park in the Piazza di Santa Maria Liberatrice attracts different populations at different times of day and different days of the week. The movement of patrons between the businesses that surround the park and the park itself also demonstrate the permeability of boundaries between shop entrance, sidewalk, street, and park. Something about the position of the park, away from the bustling city center, makes for a different feel than the larger, more crowded piazzas like Navona or Campo di Fiori.