Fascinating Vintage Snaps of Rome in 1956

These amazing snaps were captured by Allan Hailstone on a trip to Rome as a schoolboy with his father and a friend in August 1956. They had been inspired to go after seeing the 1954 movie Three Coins in the Fountain.

“Before the advent of cheap airfares and mass tourism, it was easy in 1956 to see all of the sights in Rome without any waiting time.” Hailstone told MailOnline Travel. “Things were much more leisurely than now when you will be among crowds of visitors.”

Take a look back at the Eternal City in 1956 through these 26 beautiful vintage black-and-white pictures. For more fascinating photographs, visit Hailstone's brilliant Flickr site.

Spanish Steps

Spanish Steps

Spanish Steps

St. Peter's, Vatican City

Via Veneto

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Stunning Vintage Black-and-White Photos of Edwin Smith

Edwin Smith (born Edwin George Herbert Smith) was an English photographer best known for his distinctive vignettes of English gardens, landscapes, and architecture. In 1935 he became a freelance photographer, working as a fashion photographer for Vogue for a short time. However, Smith concentrated his artistic efforts on subjects such as the mining community of Ashington in Northumberland, the docks of Newcastle, and circuses and fairgrounds around London. 

In 1954, Smith married artist and writer Olive Cook, whom he authored or contributed to numerous books during his lifetime. A tireless promoter of Smith’s work, Cook left her husband’s archive of 60,000 negatives to the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Robert Elwall Photographs Collection in 2002.

Take a look at Smith’s stunning photography through these 28 gorgeous black-and-white pictures below: 

Kentish Town station, London

Gateshead

Herring girls gutting fish on the quayside, North Shields

35 Hallam’s Lane, Chilwell near Nottingham

Church Farm Approved School, East Barnet, London

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Italian Defense Shoes With Spurs for Protection, 1955

In 1955 in Italy, defense shoes, complete with spurs on toes and heels to kick away sex pests, were designed by a Roman shoemaker to protect young girls from street. Police at the time referred to those harassing young women as “parrots” – because the girls said they repeated the same silly phrase all the time.

Reviews of the shoes suggested such a girl would be “publicly displaying her vanity ... that her own good looks would encourage pursuit” and that the wise boy would give the spur-shod girl a wide berth “because of the unmistakeable evidence of spurs on the heart and probably the tongue.”

Bone Church of Rome: Amazing Vintage Photos Show Inside Rome’s Capuchin Crypt From the Late 19th Century

Popularly known as the Capuchin Crypt, the ossuary displays the bones of over 3,700 Capuchin friars, who died between 1528 and 1870. It is ornately decorated with skulls and bones displayed in the Baroque and Rococo styles, with a skeleton dressed as ‘Death’ standing in a niche.

The Capuchin Crypt is a small space comprising several tiny chapels located beneath the church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini on the Via Veneto near Piazza Barberini in Rome, Italy. It contains the skeletal remains of 3,700 bodies believed to be Capuchin friars buried by their order. The Catholic order insists that the display is not meant to be macabre, but a silent reminder of the swift passage of life on Earth and our own mortality. The crypts opened to the public in 1851, but it wasn’t until the following year that women were also allowed in.

“This must be a revolting sight,” said I to my friend; “and what appears to me yet more disgusting is that these remains of the dead are only exposed in this manner for the sake of levying a tax on the imbecility of the living.” — J. D. de Chatelain, 1851

When the monks arrived at the church in 1631, moving from the old monastery, they brought 300 cartloads of deceased friars. Fr. Michael of Bergamo oversaw the arrangement of the bones in the burial crypt. The soil in the crypt was brought from Jerusalem, by order of Pope Urban VIII. As monks died during the lifetime of the crypt, the longest-buried monk was exhumed to make room for the newly deceased who was buried without a coffin, and the newly reclaimed bones were added to the decorative motifs. Bodies typically spent 30 years decomposing in the soil, before being exhumed.

40 Fascinating Photos Capture Street Scenes of Rome in 1954

Rome is the capital city and a special comune of Italy (named Comune di Roma Capitale), as well as the capital of the Lazio region. The city has been a major human settlement for almost three millennia.

Rome in 1954

Rome is also the country's most populated comune. It is the third most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the centre of the Metropolitan City of Rome and the most populous metropolitan city in Italy. Its metropolitan area is the third-most populous within Italy.

Rome is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio (Latium), along the shores of the Tiber. Vatican City (the smallest country in the world) is an independent country inside the city boundaries of Rome, the only existing example of a country within a city; for this reason Rome has sometimes been defined as the capital of two states.

These fascinating photos from dianp captured street scenes of Rome in 1954.

Appian Way - Roman Tombs

Appian Way - Roman Tombs

Aqueduct of Claudius

Arch of Janus

Basilica of Saint Peter’s, Vatican

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Stairway to Heaven, 1949

Steps to Santa Maria Aracoeli Church, Rome, Italy, 1949. Photographed by Herbert List.

(© Herbert List/Magnum Photos)

The Basilica of St. Mary of the Altar of Heaven (Italian: Basilica di Santa Maria in Ara coeli al Campidoglio) is a titular basilica in Rome, located on the highest summit of the Campidoglio. It is still the designated Church of the city council of Rome, which uses the ancient title of Senatus Populusque Romanus.

Originally the church was named Sancta Maria in Capitolio, since it was sited on the Capitoline Hill (Campidoglio, in Italian) of Ancient Rome; by the 14th century it had been renamed. A medieval legend included in the mid-12th-century guide to Rome, Mirabilia Urbis Romae, claimed that the church was built over an Augustan Ara primogeniti Dei, in the place where the Tiburtine Sibyl prophesied to Augustus the coming of the Christ. “For this reason the figures of Augustus and of the Tiburtine sibyl are painted on either side of the arch above the high altar” (Lanciani chapter 1). A later legend substituted an apparition of the Virgin Mary.

Anita Ekberg Facing Paparazzi With Bow and Arrows at Her Home in Rome on October 20, 1960

Anita Ekberg shot arrows at paparazzi who followed her home late at night on October 19, 1960 from a round of nightclubs.

The blonde Swedish actress was squired on a tour of night spots by Guido Giambartolomeo, Italian producer of a film in which Ekberg used a bow and arrow. They were followed from cub to club by four of the photographers who snap pictures of celebrities on Rome’s Via Veneto. The photographers followed the couple to Ekberg’s villa.

“We look pictures of them going in the house” said photographer Felice Quinto. “We were getting on our motorbikes to leave when Anita came running out with a bow and arrow in her hand.”

It was a chilly night. The actress wore a clinging black dress and had kicked off her shoes. Quinto said she shouted: “Give me those pictures.!” Then let fly with the arrows. One hit the photographer on the left forearm and two struck another photographer in the back.

Beautiful Photos of Sophia Loren at Her Grand Roman Villa in 1964

In the summer of 1964, Alfred Eisenstaedt paid a visit to Sophia Loren at her grand villa in Rome that she shared with her life-long husband, producer Carlo Ponti. This could be seen as the fulfilment of the promise that Ponti made to Loren when they got married in 1957, that he would give her “the most beautiful house in the world.” And indeed it was. The magnificent lovebirds bought the 16th-century Roman villa in 1954 and began renovating it in 1960. It includes a riding stable, an aqueduct, a tennis court, an orchard an a pool house, while the main villa has a total of 50 rooms and decorated with stunning frescoed walls.

Here are 31 photographs capture Sophia Loren at her grand villa in 1964, taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt for Life:

Sophia Loren swimming in the pool at her villa.

Sophia Loren swimming in the pool at her villa.

Sophia Loren in the pool with colorful beach balls.

Sophia Loren wearing a pink wrap and straw hat out by the pool at the villa.

Sophia Loren standing on balcony of her study talking to Carlo Ponti who is standing in the garden below.

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Life in Italy in 1948 Through Ivan Dmitri’s Beautiful Shots

Ivan Dmitri (1900-1968), or Levon West, was well-known for his portrayals in color photography, watercolors and etchings. Dmitri developed an interest in art, but he chose to major in business administration at his father’s insistence. It was the New York Times’ publication of his etching of The Spirit of St. Louis upon Charles Lindbergh’s arrival in Paris that boosted his career as an artist. As one of the first artists to work with color photography, his interest brought recognition in the new medium, and to keep his two artistic fields apart, West used the name Ivan Dmitri for his photographic work. An ardent advocate for photography, Dmitri assisted in establishing one of the first photography exhibits at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and founded Photography in the Fine Arts in 1959 to gain acceptance of photography as an art medium.

Let’s take a look at Italy in 1948 captured by Dmitri:

Couples walk at dusk in Florence, Italy, 1948.

A street view taken from a car in Florence, Italy, 1948.

A man riding a Vespa in Florence, Italy, 1948.

A couple on a Vespa in Florence, Italy, 1948.

People ride their bikes in Florence, Italy, 1948.

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30 Wonderful Black and White Photos of Rome in the Post-WWII

Rome developed greatly after the war as part of the "Italian economic miracle" of post-war reconstruction and modernisation in the 1950s. During this period, the years of la dolce vita ("the sweet life"), Rome became a fashionable city, with popular classic films such as Ben Hur, Quo Vadis, Roman Holiday and La Dolce Vita filmed in the city's iconic Cinecittà film studios.

This album from Ross Dunn is part of the Don Burns Collection that shows what Rome looked like in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

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40 Fascinating Photos That Capture Street Scenes of Rome in the Early 1960s

Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, creating masterpieces throughout the city.

In 1871, Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, which in 1946 became the Italian Republic. It is a special comune, and serves as the capital of the Lazio region, and the country's most populated comune.

Located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio (Latium), along the shores of the Tiber, Rome is the fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the centre of the Metropolitan City of Rome.

The Vatican City is an independent country inside the city boundaries of Rome, the only existing example of a country within a city: for this reason Rome has been often defined as capital of two states.

Rome has the status of a global city, and is also an important fashion and design centre thanks to renowned international brands centered in the city.

Turned back over 55 years ago to see what Rome looked like around 1960 and 1963 through these fascinating photographs.

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