A Pinay in Europe

What I saw in Rome

I have always nurtured a dream of visiting Rome and now that the big opportuniy came today, I promised myself to make that Roman memory last.

How? By photographing everything. Practically everything that moves and doesn’t move, not only the beautiful things but also the ugly ones. There is a lot of the latter but it doesn’t matter. This is Rome and this might be my first and last chance, who knows?

I love their old vintage car with its old-style plate number.

My first impression of Rome is that, it spells Chaos. Gee, these tv antennas contradict the word!

I’m impressed about how they use their historical past to work well with their modern life. A fitness ad seen near the Spanish Steps in Piazza Spagna

Modern day Roman centurions outside the Coliseum prepping up in their costumes before starting their “Pose with me” calls on tourists in return for some euros.

This is the timeless Coliseum! It is so huge and comprises a museum inside that a single day is not enough to see and understand it all. What more, it is so exhausting climbing up and down the steep stairs.

And hordes of tourists and tour groups coming from different directions bumping into each other

This is not a graffitied wall, this is a Metro car plying in Rome’s Metro underground.

A mobile convenience store, very convenient for the thirsty and hungry tourists.

Typically Rome, except that the old-style Piaggo has been replaced by the modern Japanese made bikes.

As the seat of Catholicism and the Vatican just inside it, you see nuns walking everywhere in the City.

It’s just amazing how this tiny square where the Trevi Fountain stands could accommodate such huge number of tourists every hour of the day, every day of the year!

The souvenir stores, the ice cream shops and restaurants around this square are truly making good business out of visitors coming from all over the world.

I saw this sign hanging on the building just opposite the Trevi fountain. I wonder if the apartment/building owner is also making good business out of this.

The kilometric queue infront of the St Peter’s Cathedral in the Vatican

..as well as in the Coliseum.

The heat and the harsh rays of the sun are just too much for the tourists, but pleasantly profitable for the entrepreneuring locals

A macabre sculpture of Death inside the church of Santa Maria del Popolo

Stealing a shot of Caravaggio’s Crucifixion of Saint Peter, 1600 (left) and Carracci’s Assumption of the Virgin, 1601 (right) at the same church, even if Photography is strictly prohibited…