Streets of Rome

I like to adventure and explore places.  I've found countless piazzas, fountains, buildings, statues, and streets.  The photos below are only a small sample of what I found walking around the city today.  I chose to show a variety of the people I've seen here.

I walk long distances when in Philly.  Rome is even more of a walk-able city than Philly.  In Rome, walking doesn't just involve tracing through a grid pattern.  Rome has hills, cobblestone streets, and small unique shops and restaurants everywhere.  The city is dotted with piazzas and monuments.  Walking in Rome involves not only moving from one landmark to the next, but also exploring the network of streets in between.  Because I've never been here before, everything is fresh and exciting.

What surprised me is how clean every inch of the city is.  It's nothing like Philadelphia.  And not only is everything clean, I haven't seen a single abandoned building or storefront here.  Everything is active and maintained.  There is graffiti everywhere, but it's different than graffiti in America.  As Gianni said "Graffiti is an ancient Roman tradition.  You can go to the Coliseum and see ancient Roman graffiti".  The spray painted slogans, names, and love notes are everywhere, and seem to generally be left alone.  The graffiti never decimates anything of historical significance, but it covers the outside walls of apartment buildings and metro cars.

There are fewer ads in Rome than I've seen in America.  There are no real large bill boards, and advertisements don't light up the streets.  I'm amazed at the number of tourists here though.  There are tourists from all over the world, and from Italy itself.  The constant stream of tourists also attracts pick-pockets.  One of my friends had his wallet stolen from his side pocket when getting on the metro.  The pick-pockets work in teams; some of them distract you while others take the goods and pass them to others who run away with it.  Most of these pick-pockets aren't from Italy.  They are from all over the world, but converge on Rome because of the gigantic mass of tourists that fill the streets.

The people begging on the street all seem to have physical deformities that make them unable to walk properly, or they are very frail and elderly.  Everyone else on the side of the  street asking for your money is trying to sell you something, whether it be a flower, scarf, or fake designer handbag.

Rome is also completely different at night than during the day.  At night, the fountains and monuments are lit up, and the worn smooth stone streets reflect the lights as if it had just rained.  It's a perfect city to explore walking with friends.  There is so much more I have to explore here.  I don't think I could finish exploring everything if I spent a year here.