I Don’t know why every time I see this Tram in Rome, the tram 19, I find it so fascinating. The reason is not clear to me at all. They are old (this Model of Tram called “Stanga”, started to work in 1947), slow – sometimes with my bike I’m faster – and definitely not frequent. So I would say not the most efficient mean of public transportation in Rome. Nevertheless I find them intriguing and every time I see it I think that I should have a camera with me to take a picture of it. Maybe because they pass just in front of our bed and breakfast, maybe because being so old somehow the carry the stories of the millions of people the have been bringing from one side to the other of the city, or maybe because being so slow and non time-effective they are like heroes of the easy living in a busy and stressful city. They are obliged in their rails, and their sound somehow is a link, an unconscious link, to something we perceive since our childhood.
The “Stanga” tram is like a working (a still working) monument. And taking advantage of being carried around by the Tram 19 costs only 1,50 EUR! An experience everybody visiting Rome should do at least once!!
From Piazza Risorgimento to Piazza dei Gerani (in the very popular neighborhood called Centocelle), the tram 19 touches many nice and interesting places, out of the ordinary touristy routes in Rome.
You can use it to reach Valle Giulia, with the Modern Art Museum and the Etruscan Museum, the Zoo, the Borghese Gallery, the snobbish Parioli district, Villa Torlonia, the Coppedé neighborhood, the University City of La Sapienza, the San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura Neighborhood, the Verano Monumental Cemetery, Porta Maggiore …
So the Tram 19 could be an interesting One Day Trip idea, used as hop on hop off transportation for a Rome to discover, using an old fashioned, inefficient and slow – and absolutely eco friendly and cheap – mean of transportation
