It snowed in Rome today!! It was unbelieveable. I have lived here for 18 years and I have never seen anything like it. Once every few years there is a brief flurry of wet snowflakes, but they almost always melt immediately. Today it snowed from lunch-time until evening. I am from Boston, so I love the snow and decided to do a blog post with photos of Rome in the snow.
As soon as it started snowing today, APTN Cameraman Gianfranco Stara ran out to get shots of the Colosseum and the Vatican in the snow. Later in the day the Colosseum was closed so that tourists would not slip on the steep steps.
At the Vatican, Gianfranco just happened to catch a Bishop from Detroit snapping photos of St. Peter’s Basilica in the snow.
Romans are not used to snow and the ever-chaotic traffic soon became snarled. Before it did, Gianfranco managed to get this shot of a pink mini-car heading down the Via della Conciliazione headed towards St.Peter’s Square.
In anticipation of the snowstorm, the Mayor of Rome called a snow day and kids stayed at home but I still had to go to work. When it was time for me to go home the buses were no longer running. I had a long walk but I cut through Rome’s Villa Borghese and took this photo of one of my favorite fountains, the Turtle Fountain, in the snow.
Wonderful photos . I am curious how much accumulated on the ground. The fountain picture suggests there was the possibility of accumulation depending upon the ground temperature. Driving was bad. How was walking? Does anyone in Rome have a snow shovel?
John — thanks for your questions. Here are a few answers. The AP wire was reporting up to 8 inches (20 centimeters) accumulated. After I took that Turtle Fountain photo (around 5pm) the snow continued well into the night. Romans and the city of Rome are not prepared at all for snow. So there were few sand and salt trucks and most roads were just left as is (including mine). Romans do not have snow shovels and do not know how to drive in the snow, so most people left their cars where they were and walked home. The city of Rome put a ban on all cars without chains on their wheels from last night at midnight until noon today. People today were using all sorts of toys and utensils to cleans off their cars. My daughters joined lots of others walking to Villa Borghese and playing in the snow there. It was magical. The Mayor has also declared a school and office snow day for Monday….
Good thing I was planning on bringing my boots. On our way today!
Wow, that’s wonderful news! If you are on Via Della Gatta, stop by the AP office and say hello. I will treat you to a cappucino, or maybe a hot chocolate if this weather keeps up!
Rome certaijnly looks different in the snow. Nobbody on X-C skiis? I understand a deep freeze has hit E Europe. Guess you can be grateful to be spared that! Boston has seen little snow this year.
L/D.
Rome is spectacular in the snow. Today the girls and I went sledding in Villa Borghese (8 inches on the ground) and there were a few cross country skiers. I was wishing I could join them.
. . frosty Coliseum, comatose tortoises and police and clergy frozen out – delicious!
What amazing footage and images of the snow in Rome, loved the one with the pink mini car. Stay warm x
ciao lisa
I loved the pink minicar too. I think I would like to hop into a pink minicar and drive off into the sunset and leave all my working mamma duties and worries behind me…an Italian style Thelma and Louise in a pink mincar.
In Rome it snows more than you believe, we are not only the country of the sun! The last time it snowed in 2 times in 2010. 26 who were not snowing so hard! In some suburban areas we arrived at 50 cm. The problem is that we were not able to handle the snowfall of December 17, 2010 with only 5 cm imagine a snowfall of 50 cm!
Yes, Roberto, you are right. Italy is not all sunshine. There are usually a couple of fairly cold months in Rome (January, February) but both the spring and fall are so lovely in the city. One of my favorite things to do in the spring is to go to the beach at Fregene and eat pasta alla pescatore (or alle vongole) sitting outdoors at a restaurant along the beach while enjoying a nice, cold glass of white wine.
I grew up a Roma and lived there from childhood through my teens and into my twenties. I remember it snowed one year when I was a little girl, don’t remeeber exactly what year, maybe ’89 or ’91. Anyway the accumulation was maybe 1/2 an inch and it shut the whole city down!
We were in stand-still traffic in the schoolbus on the Raccordo for 6 HOURS, some of the boys had to get out and go pee on the side of the highway!
By the time we got to school on Via Cassia it was around 2pm, the school day almost over, and the Principal, Dr. Silvetz told everyone to go home because none of the teachers had shown up – that was not a first in the land of the perpetual sciopero!
Anyway, many people ended up in hospital with broken bones because silly shop-keepers poured water on the sidewalks in centro trying to clear the snow, which froze instead of course!
Now I am based in NYC where we normally get several feet of snow in long, drawn out dreadful winters, but this has been the warmest I have seen since I moved here from Roma in late 2000. I think it has snowed twice without much accumulation, we’ve had plenty of 50 and 60 degree days. I’m not complaining, I hate snow and cold weather, but climate change is very real, anyone who denies it is mad – the world has gone upside down!
Naomi — lucky you growing up in Rome! What a hilarious story about the bus getting to school in the snow. Actually it probably wasn’t very funny at the time. Last Friday one of our cameraman and I left the office at the same time, at 3pm to try to get home. It took me two hours to walk home (none of the buses were working) and Gianfranco didn’t get home until 10pm (he lives just outside the Grande Raccordo Annulare and everything was completely blocked). They canceled school here on Friday and again on Monday and now they have canceled it again for tomorrow and there is hardly any snow left — my kids are climbing the walls at home!!
And lucky you living in New York now. I lived in NYC for a total of 4 years at different points in time and always loved it.
Lovely photos! I was just backpacking around Italy for 3 weeks a month ago. And, people were talking about the warmest winter ever. How fast things have changed!
Jasmine, thank you for your comment. I know…it was one of the warmest falls I have ever experienced here. Crazy weather. But the snow is beautiful.
Snomaggedon Roma! I’d love to see a post on how your hybrid kids react to snow in Rome – and in the U.S. – remember when Cate and Chiara thought those deer in the backyard @ Lincoln were Santa’s reindeer? I want more red thread around how the mozzarella mamma supports her kids around their hybrid identity – or whether that is not an issue for them, etc. The snow made me think of that – you tromping through the snow on the way home with closed bus as a true Yankee.