Foro Italico & Stadio Olimpico

Foro Italico & Stadio Olimpico review

A marble obelisk, 36m (120ft) high, with the words 'Mussolini Dux' carved on it, greets visitors to the Foro Italico, a sports complex conceived in the late 1920s by architect Enrico Del Debbio. The avenue leading west of the obelisk is paved with black-and-white mosaics of good Fascists doing Fascist things - flying warplanes, saluting il Duce and engaging in physical jerks. It's a wonderfully camp sight today, and amazingly well preserved considering the thousands of feet that trample the tiles every weekend on their way to the Stadio Olimpico beyond (built in the 1950s but modified for the 1990 World Cup), where AS Roma and SS Lazio both play. Surrounding the Stadio dei Marmi track to the north - also by Del Debbio - are 60 marble statues of naked athletes, each with some kind of sports apparatus, from crossbows to bocce (bowling) balls. Other facilities at the Foro Italico include tennis courts, where the Italian Open is held each May, and two swimming pools.