Rome-Antics

 After a night flight out of The Gambia, and a day at a Paris airport hotel recuperating, we headed out to Rome, where Rani had a teaching conference (she is now a graduate of the Teacher Leaders Institute! Go Rani!).

Roma and I have a troubled past. When I went during my college years, I had a less-than stellar visit involving having my pocket picked, and just wasn't very impressed with the city overall. On this visit, I had some more time on my own as Rani was in her sessions to get out and explore, and the hotel was bullshit: they were in the middle of a heat wave, and Rome has instituted laws limiting the use of air-conditioning, so the room was hot, and I wasn't going to hang around there. Rome rearing it's ugly head again? Let's see if we can come to a better place in our relationship.

The thought of visiting "the sights" really didn't appeal to me, so I started browsing with searches like "off the beaten path in Rome" and "weird things to do in Rome", and came across a few articles about street art in Rome. Eventually, I found a Google map with many of the murals marked, and decided to make a sort of a scavenger hunt of it.

Our bullshit hotel was in the southern outskirts of Rome, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that a nearby housing complex, Tor Marancia, had been turned into an open-air museum!

What a great thing to do with a bunch of ugly apartment buildings! There are a few in here from the surrounding area as well, but this whole complex had entire buildings painted every corner you turned. 

I spent the entire next day on a mad dash down the south-west bank of the Tiber, then out into the suburbs.

This crazy mural struck my fancy. Right after this was a scary bridge that smelled like pee, so I didn't spend too much time here.

 

These were from the area around Ponte dell'Industria o di Ferro, a weird industrial area around this big iron bridge.

Some hidden gems in Garbatella.

CSOA La Strada is a market turned squatter haven/community center, and it is covered in political art.

This was all around a spooky neighborhood in a bend of the Tiber, near an old greyhound racetrack and a university.

I was really hot and tired by this point, but I decided to make one last stop in the Trullo neighborhood, and I'm glad I did.

This was one of the more interesting installations, taking up two buildings (look at the birds!).

Day 3 was a bit of a dud, as I tried the Trastavere neighborhood, where it's more about posters, and they get ripped down pretty quickly. Found a few interesting pieces. 

This was a really fun way to spend my time here, and get to see the city in a different way. Rani and I also did an awesome food tour (highlight was the porcetta), a nice night out with some of the other teachers at her conference (a couple of whom work with Julie and Ross), and a tour of the Vatican museum.

All in all, Rome and I are on the mend. I'll leave you with one of my favorite finds: