Passagiata in Rome

Later on Sunday we decided to go to a movie. There is a theater near Piazza del Popolo, the Metropolitan, that shows original language movie with Italian subtitles. Most of the films are American and our choices were The Town, Inception or Eat Pray Love. We chose to see The Town and it was excellent.


Afterwards we joined the evening passagiata. There were throngs of people coming and going on Via del Corso that runs from Piazza del Popolo to Piazza Venezia. This is the heart of the Centro Storico. We tend to think of this as the tourist area but a lot of the people were Romans enjoying their city. On Sundays Via del Corso is traffic free and there is lots of performance art—break dancing, musicians and these guys doing their thing with a soccer ball.

We wandered around for about an hour and then sat down at a café on the edge of Piazza del Popolo. It was a great people watching venue and the food wasn’t bad either.
 People watching is one of the things we are enjoying most about Rome. Whether it is the tourists, the children, the students or just locals living their every day lives, there is always something interesting happening. While sitting in the café we watched street vendors demonstrating their glowing rainbow spinners that they fling up in the air and then catch on a stick. One of them managed to land one on the top of the portico of one of these churches, not on purpose. We realized we were across from a taxi stand and it was interesting watching people waiting and getting into the vehicles. Some were locals and some were tourists with luggage. A brightly dressed woman hauled a brightly colored suitcase across to the taxi stand all the while trying not to lose the long, magenta raincoat that kept sliding off her sholders.

Piazza del Popolo

I find the kids endlessly fascinating. Yesterday as we breakfasted on cappuccino and pastry a youngster in a stroller was totally enamored with the huge Finding Nemo helium balloon he had tied to his wrist. He would haul the balloon down and then let it float away. Today I watched a girl of about six in a bright pink jacket and a paler pink hat walk by. The hat was pulled so far down over her eyes that she had to tilt her head way back to see where she was going. Her mother held her hand so half the time the little girl just blinding trotted along beside her.

After dinner getting home was a simple matter of crossing Piazza del Popolo, hopping on the tram, walking across Ponte Milvio. After a cup of gelato we were back in our snug little nest.