South of the centre, the Villa Roma quarter was laid out in the 1920s and 1930s as a residential suburb for the Italian middle class. The streets are quieter than the centre, with low-slung modernist villas hidden behind walls of bougainvillea and lemon trees. Many were designed by the same architects who built the cinemas and the mosque downtown.
It is the easiest neighbourhood in Asmara for an unstructured walk: take any of the streets running south off Mai Jah Jah and follow your nose. Few buildings are individually famous, but the cumulative effect is striking.