Rome: The Globe Theatre (say what?)

Everyone knows where to go to see a good Elizabethian play… Rome.

Wait, what?

After visiting Villa Borghese I decided to walk through the Borghese Gardens toward Piazza del Popolo. It was a stunningly beautiful April morning, the sun was out but the air was crisp. There was a group of kids playing soccer on a field to my right while couples had spread blankets on the ground by a small lake nearby for an impromptu picnic. People were zooming by on their bikes, moms pushed strollers on the sidewalk – there was quite a bit of activity for a weekday morning (not to mention the creepy men with bracelets & roses).

Suddenly, through the trees on my right, I could see a large, white building, right in the middle of the park with nothing else around. It was round and in the Tudor style. Actually, it looked a bit like how The Globe Theatre – the famous venue where Shakespeare’s plays were originally performed – is portrayed in movies. But that’s silly, this is Italy!

Not so silly, it turns out. I always like to take pictures of signs, particularly when they have a good bit of historical information on them – that way I have them for reference when I get home, instead of saying “oh yeah, this was something interesting, but I don’t remember quite what…”

As you can see, THIS Globe Theatre was built in 2003 by the Silvano Toti Foundation, a non-profit organization whose goal is the preservation and promotion of the art and heritage of all cultures, as a replica of its British counterpart. If you’re in Rome from June – September and want something a bit different to fill an evening, check out a play (here’s the schedule). As if Shakespeare wasn’t hard enough to understand, most of the plays here are translated into Italian to make them more accesible to Romans.