Unpublished photo of Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano with the complex called the “Pontifical Sanctuary of the Scala Santa ” in the background. The scene perhaps taken in the morning shows us parents accompanying their children to school. Tram n.(4?) arriving from Porta San Giovanni is arriving on the left.
From the Facebook page
Tamara :” The 4 is today’s 360, the historic ATAC line that connects Piazza Zama (Appio Latino) to Piazza delle Muse (Parioli)”
Ermanno : “How beautiful! In my opinion they are returning from school, due to the light and the calm air of the situation”
Dario : “On the right a rudimentary SPA bus.”
The most famous and visited holy stairway, a pilgrimage destination for Catholics, is the one found in Rome, which is part of a complex called the “pontifical sanctuary of the Holy Staircase” in the immediate vicinity of the basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano.
The legend, of medieval origin, states that it would be the ladder itself climbed by Jesus, which would have been transported to Rome by Empress Saint Helena, mother of Constantine I, in 326.
I remember that in the 1950s I accompanied my mother to climb the Scala Santa on my knees, she said a prayer for each step, I who was five years old went up and down to pass the time. We came very close, living in via Sannio, where I was born in 1949.
Thank you Maurizio for sharing this memory ☺️
on the left, an electric bus belonging to Società Anonima Trasporti Ugolini - TU. His presence, and the number 4, shift the photo by at least a year because Ugolini managed the Roman bus network under contract from April 1923 to September 1927