When in Rome...

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Neat Places

Agostinelli Museum

Domenico Agostinelli's collection put on display for free. He has some things like Al Capone's car or a dinosaur egg, but the main attraction is... stuff. Lots and lots and lots and lots of stuff. Buttons, umbrellas, vases, busts, paintings, dolls, fake hands, helmets, globes... Old stuff everywhere, even on the ceilings! (there are some drawers with old newspapers and magazines too, I'm not sure if you're allowed to touch them however) The museum is quite small, so it's a crowded mess, in a good way. The only downside of this place is that it's in Dragona, which is not close to the center.
Here's something Agostinelli said in an interview in I-forgot-which-magazine (cutted out the article :P), bad translation from Italian by me:

Now it's a mission for me, saving as many objects as possible from destruction. You can't notice it because you're young but there has been a fracture with the pre-50's civilization, in these last 70 years peasant and artisan civilization have been wiped out. Considering that 90% of people in Italy were peasants or artisians, it's as if a hurricane had passed and erased millennia of history.

Capuchin Crypt

Real human bones used to decorate the crypt!! Chock full of skulls!! There's also a couple of monks that look more like mummies than skeletons. Looks much bigger in photos, still really cool place.
My only complaint is that they told us not to take pictures to respect the dead but they sold souvenirs with photos on them.

Lake Ex SNIA/Bullicante, the lake who defeated concrete

The story in short: a company wants to build a mall. They're authorized to do so (later a process finds out that they falsified the documents and couldn't build there). Shortly after starting the construction site, they dig a hole and water comes out nonstop. They pour the water in the sewers to hide the mistake but it fucking breaks the tubatures. They hitted an aquifer and gave birth to the lake!
The site is closed. People fight to keep the lake, there are other attempts to build something else (even if it's not really allowed, it's supposed to be public green land) and the citizens barely make it in 2014!
Ex Snia is now a Natural Monument, it's an oasis for many species of birds, and you can pic-nic near it :)

The website has the complete story, in italian.

I'm surprised I found out about it so late!

Assalti frontali & Il Muro del Canto dedicated a song to it called "IL LAGO CHE COMBATTE" (the lake who fights) youtube link

Non-Catholic Cemetery in Rome

It's a pretty nice cemetery. It's a quiet place in the middle of the city with lots of trees, and a cat colony is free to roam everywhere :3
The oldest part is like a tiny park, the newest looks a bit crowded but it's still nice.
It’s often called “protestant” or “English” cemetery but it’s full of many other religions and nationalities (I’ve seen many Russian graves especially. Maybe they’re just easy to spot?).
Some famous people are buried here (Antonio Gramsci, Percy Bysshe Shelley), but the coolest grave is William Wetmore Story and Emelyn Story's, the OG Angel of Grief. William Wetmore sculpted it to commemorate his wife, and then it was copied all around the world lol

The cemetery's website and the cat colony's one for more info

Ostia Antica Archeological Park

I've heard people call it Rome's Pompeii. It's easy to reach (take Roma-Lido train at the Magliana metro station, Ostia Antica station, short walk. around 30 minutes in total) and just, so cool. Look up photos! You can freely walk in the city's ruins and get lost in them, it's big! There's so much to see I don't even know where to begin. And every time I've been there it was never crowded. There's even an anphitheater that is still used sometimes.
My words don't do it justice. I really don't understand why this place isn't more famous.

St. Mary of the Angels and of the Martyrs's Meridial Line

Kinda like a sundail but straight line on the floor, Wikipedia describes it better. Pretty neat!

Villa del Priorato di Malta's Keyhole

Literally a keyhole through which Saint Peter's Basilica can be viewed. Doesn't seem like much but it has its effect, it's worth the time spent in the queue. If you don't want to wait too much, there's less people when it's dark (the Basilica is artificially illuminated)