‘Roots of water’, the Tiber by Aurelio Sabatino

Beyond 400 kilometers, four regionsbridges and cities to cross, gorges, dams, confluences, archeologynature and lots of history. Here are the premises of a trip made in bikes In the 2019 and repeated in 2022from which the two volumes of the book arise ‘Water Roots’ Of Aurelio Sabatino (AE editions).

The result is not a tourist guide, but a story that takes on many styles and above all is as liquid as the main protagonist: the Tiber. So in the current the river it drags and transports memories, myths and stories of ancient and modern populations.

The relationship between man and river

Root of a vast territory over time the names have changed like the people they have nurtured. There technology it transformed the relationship between the river and the humans who sought to master its rush and capture its energy. The results, not always happy, of this relationship have produced pollution, exploitation and above all forgetfulness. Abandoned on the margins, today the river claims its place, the throne it deserves.

The book is divided into two volumes. The first part tells the journey between the source and the doors of Roma; the second volume the crossing of eternal city and Seven bathrooms ad Ostiathe mouth. The work is not a guide in the strict sense: it is travel literature with essay inserts of a historical, mythological, scientific, anthropological, philosophical and spiritual nature.

The last stretch towards the sea

On the last stretch of the Tiber Sabatino writes: “The Scafa bridgewhich connects Sacred Island a Ostiais the last bridge of Roma. It was made in 1950. Once upon a time, on this stretch of the river a low boat called a ‘scafa’ ferried people from one bank to the other, attached to a cable stretched between the two banks. The term ‘scafato’, which in Roman dialect indicates a crafty person, ‘sailed’, comes from the Latin ‘scapha’, the small boat which metaphorically referred to a pod”.

Less and less clever in today’s society, and more and more cowardly, like Pasolini he had predicted. “If ‘foce’ derives from ‘fauci’ – he continues Sabatino – that is, the oral cavity and therefore ‘opening’, the earth opens its mouth to swallow the water. Ostiathe nymph, the mouth, the mouth, the door, dates back to Also Marzio. From his salinethrough the via Ostienseil sale came to Roma“.

History and transformation of Ostia

The urban fabric of the ancient city is visible in thearchaeological area. He pontificated on the city Volcanoeven before the Roman capture of the coast. It is betweenCitythe mouth and the beach that the new city was planned at the beginning Twentieth century with the name of New Ostiaand built during twenty years of fascism with the name of Great HostIn the end Lido of Rome. Today it simply is Ostia Lido.

The reclamationdriven at the end of theNineteenth century by the engineer from Livorno Paolo Orlandoand created by laborers from Ravennahas given way to the building frenzy designed by architects who have indulged themselves in different styles here: from classico al baroqueuntil neomedieval et al rationalism. Il seafront today shows the railwayl’seaplane base where he was killed Pasolini and a network of miserable businesses.

The mouth and Dante’s Purgatory

The last stretch of the river, between rubbish and those who fish there, seems condemned without the possibility of redemption. The decay takes away the last relics, every waste, crumbles the words. Here, ‘where the water of Tiber cheat, Dante placed the beach on which thehelmsman angel gathered all the souls destined not to the damnation ofInfernobut to the regeneration of Purgatory. The big water welcomes the small one, embraces that river that has gone through so much life.