EUR, Rome: the E42 palazzi, the lake park and the 1960 Olympic venues

EUR exists because of an exposition that did not take place. Law n. 2174 of 26 December 1936 created the Ente autonomo E42 to stage the Esposizione Universale di Roma in 1942, with senator Vittorio Cini as Commissario Generale. The parish of Santi Pietro e Paolo records that about 400 hectares of land belonging to the Trappist monks of the Abbazia delle Tre Fontane were expropriated to build it. Work began in 1937, slowed in the war and stopped in 1943 with much of the site unfinished, and the exposition never opened.

The buildings were completed in the 1950s, several of them for the agricultural exposition of 1953, and the quartiere took its present shape around the 1960 Olympic Games, for which the Palazzo dello Sport and the Piscina delle Rose were built. The parks were designed from 1937 and carried out after the war under Raffaele De Vico, whose name recurs on the lake gardens, the Giardino delle Cascate and the Giardino degli Ulivi. The administrative act came later still: Quartiere XXXII - E.U.R. was created by delibera n. 2453 of 13 September 1961, and renamed Quartiere XXXII - Europa by delibera n. 2509 of 5 May 1965, on the favourable opinion of the Commissione Consultiva di Toponomastica of 8 April 1965. Roma Capitale's toponymic code for the quartiere is 232.

The delibere describe the edges: the Magliana viaduct and viale di Val Fiorita, then via delle Tre Fontane and via Laurentina, to the north and east; viale dell'Umanesimo and viale dell'Oceano Pacifico to the south; and the Tiber to the west. Via Cristoforo Colombo, the former via Imperiale, runs the length of the quartiere and far beyond it in both directions, and belongs to no single zone; the Magliana viaduct is itself the northern line. The Abbazia delle Tre Fontane, whose monks planted the eucalyptus wood that is now the Parco degli Eucalipti, stands east of via Laurentina and outside this quartiere. The name Tre Fontane survives here in a street, in a funfair's address and in a park's history, and in nothing more.

EUR is a quartiere rather than a rione, which means it is large enough that the name alone locates nothing. Steer by addresses.

Two institutions publish their own directions. The Archivio Centrale dello Stato, at Piazzale degli Archivi 27, gives Metro B to EUR Fermi, or bus 714 to Colombo/Marconi. The Museo storico della comunicazione gives its visitor entrance as Viale Europa at the corner of Via Cristoforo Colombo, by the Metro B station EUR Palasport.

The rest of the quartiere is addressed off a handful of names that recur below. Piazza Guglielmo Marconi carries the two palazzi of the Museo delle Civilta, at nos. 14 and 8, with Arturo Dazzi's obelisk at the centre of its elliptical lawn. Piazzale Konrad Adenauer carries the Palazzo degli Uffici, the Salone delle Fontane and the caffe Palombini at no. 12. Piazza Giovanni Agnelli 10 is one address for two things, the planetarium and the closed Museo della Civilta Romana. The Palazzo dei Congressi is at Piazza John Kennedy 10, La Nuvola at Viale Asia 40, the basilica at Piazzale dei Santi Pietro e Paolo 8, and the water tower with its restaurant at Piazza Pakistan. The Palazzo della Civilta Italiana stands in the Quadrato della Concordia, which is the address Roma Capitale's tourism service gives for it.

Five places here publish hours a traveller can act on. The Museo delle Civilta opens Tuesday to Sunday 8.00 to 19.00, last entry 18.30, closed Monday; admission is 10,00 euro full, 2,00 euro reduced and 5,00 euro on its Amico ticket, with free entry on the first Sunday of every month and on Saturday 25 April. Its Sala Grotta Guattari is temporarily closed for maintenance. The Planetario di Roma opens Tuesday to Sunday 9.30 to 21.30, with shows at 18.00, 19.00 and 21.30, last entry an hour before closing, 10.00 to 14.00 on 24 and 31 December, and closed on Mondays, 1 January, 1 May and 25 December; its ticket office and bookshop keep winter hours of 9.30 to 18.00, and Roma Capitale's call centre is 060608, daily 9.00 to 19.00. Lo scrigno della memoria, inside the Archivio Centrale dello Stato, is free, and opens Wednesday and Thursday 10.00 to 12.00 and 15.30 to 17.00; guided visits are by compulsory booking, on Thursdays, in groups of no more than thirty, and last an hour. The basilica of Santi Pietro e Paolo opens 7.00 to 12.00 and 16.00 to 19.00, with the parish office Monday to Saturday 10.00 to 12.00. The rooftop Ristorante Il Fungo is closed Sunday and Monday and serves dinner 19.30 to 23.00 from Tuesday to Saturday.

Three things are shut, and each is shut on its own operator's word. The Museo della Civilta Romana at Piazza Giovanni Agnelli 10 is closed for refurbishment and safety works, with no reopening date stated; the planetarium in the same building is open. The Museo storico della comunicazione on Viale Europa is temporarily closed. The Torri Ligini have stood disused since the late 1990s and are under refurbishment.

No source publishes hours for several of the rest: the Palazzo della Civilta Italiana, which is Fendi's headquarters and states nothing about visitor access; the Palazzo degli Uffici; Luneur Park; the Piscina delle Rose; and the sanctuary on via Laurentina. The Palazzo dei Congressi and La Nuvola are working congress buildings whose owner publishes an events calendar rather than opening times.