Flowers in the Campo
Carabinieri, one of the local branches of police. It is very entertaining to watch these guys in their skin-tight uniforms and ray-bans. You can just feel the attitude rolling off...
At the Vatican
Media protest in Piazza Navona
"Fisher of Men" symbol on Santa Maria de Trastevere Church
The floor of Santa Maria de Trastevere--just imagine how long it would take to cut these slices of granite from the columns in order to create this pattern!
Pastries from the forno
Trevi Fountain
Legend has it that tossing 3 coins from your right hand over your left shoulder into the Trevi Fountain ensures a return trip to Rome--2 coins for a divorce, and 1 for marriage. Needless to say, I tossed in 3!
Private Gardens at Palazzo Barberini
Coffee for 25 at La Tasa d'Oro, one of the oldest Roman coffeehouses
We take pictures in the antique mirrors
This woman's life purpose is to feed Rome's pigeons. She rides around the city on her bike with bags full of birdseed, followed by a dark cloud of filthy birds. Very disgusting.
At Cartoleria, a shop near the Pantheon that recently celebrated its 100 year anniversary. They sell a plethora of leather bound journals and exotic writing materials.
By law shops in Rome are only allowed to offer sales and discounts during two periods of the year. I was fortunate enough to be in Rome for the two week long July sale, in which shops have discounts ranging from 20-70% off. The streets have been filled with driven shoppers. Personally, I prefer to shop at local markets, family-owned stores, and second hand shops, so I avoided most of the commercial mayhem, but it has been fascinating to watch the action.
The above street vendor is Nestor. He collects coins and fashions them into exquisite necklaces. He came to Campo de Fiori so that a group of us could see his wares. However, after he set his cardboard stand up in the street, a nearby shop called the Carabinieri, who showed up demanding to see Nestor's permits for street vending. Nestor does not have a permit for the Campo because he usually stays in Trastevere, so he was likely to get fined or worse for setting up in the Campo. Luckily, my fast talking art professor, Lisa, was able to extricate Nestor from the situation, and Nestor moved his station to the UW Rome Center's hallway.
My Ponte Sisto
I took a train to Ponte Galeria, on the outskirts of Rome where I tried to find a detention center for illegal migrants. I walked around for a couple of hours, but was not able to find it.
I found graffiti, though! One piece of graffiti associated the detention center with a state-run concentration camp, which I thought was particularly powerful.
Graffiti marks my way home. Much better than roadsigns, which I tend to forget.
Last visit to Porto Portese market
Marlon Brando spotted!
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