Rome: Vittorio Emanuele Monument
This is the National Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, built in the early 20th century to honour the first King of a unified Italy. (Unification was the political and social movement between 1815 and 1871 that consolidated the different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of the Kingdom of Italy.)
Made of white marble, the monument is a huge and garish construction that’s quite out of step and proportion with everything else in Rome. Most Romans apparently regard it as vulgar and dismissively call it the 'Typewriter' or the 'Wedding Cake', but it’s also the resting place of Italy’s Unknown Soldier, and host to the Eternal Flame.
In the foreground is a row of stone pines (Pinus pinea), one of my favourite street trees which are to be found all over Rome. And in front of them are a few Roman pillars - part of the Forum, no less.
Rome: Vittorio Emanuele Monument
This is the National Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, built in the early 20th century to honour the first King of a unified Italy. (Unification was the political and social movement between 1815 and 1871 that consolidated the different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of the Kingdom of Italy.)
Made of white marble, the monument is a huge and garish construction that’s quite out of step and proportion with everything else in Rome. Most Romans apparently regard it as vulgar and dismissively call it the 'Typewriter' or the 'Wedding Cake', but it’s also the resting place of Italy’s Unknown Soldier, and host to the Eternal Flame.
In the foreground is a row of stone pines (Pinus pinea), one of my favourite street trees which are to be found all over Rome. And in front of them are a few Roman pillars - part of the Forum, no less.