Have a guess. What is this?
Clean, organized and modern. This is certainly not Rome-like (even though it is taken around Rome). Having been photographically documenting on what Rome is, I thought I might spend a moment on contemplating on what Rome is not. Rome is not clean: cigarette butts and confetti litters clog up the creases its cobblestone roads, and ghastly graffiti scribbles wreck every available space of wall that is not peeling off already. Rome is not organized: the roads are not perpendicular and seem to be whimsically drawn up from the eras when map was not invented yet; Pedestrian crossing is like game of dare, and there is a beggar at every corner (they beg for pennies, even though they have such cute little pooch dog?!). Rome is not modern either. Dubbed as 'The Eternal City,' Roman civic spaces and buildings are old and contain layers and layers of history. Most of the buildings at the ancient heart of Rome where we live at goes back to more than three hundred years with its paints peeling off from decades of renovation neglect. Beautiful as they are, they're not your shiny white Calatrava masterpieces. For those of you who have not been in Rome... does this revelation come at a surprise?
Now... this is more like contemporary Rome:
Funky, eh? Transcient. Colorful. Third-worldly. (and not high-quality either). Anyhow. This chain of thought came to me after dinner, upon hearing how some of my American colleagues complaining over how dirty and disorganized the city is. Ah. I guess its one of those moments of disenchantment with the postcard Rome ;-)
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