Now that was fun! (2/2)

But in Soviet Italy, protest finds you!!

I had no sooner stepped out of the hostel than I saw people marching and waving red flags in the Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore. I started following the stream backward, and it just kept going! The marchers went all the way back to the Piazza della Republica!

One thing I noticed in particular was that the vast majority of these protestors were seniors and parents with their children. But finally, almost at the Palazzo Margherita, I found the students. As I said they were all marching behind this large truck rigged with huge speakers, with a DJ and everything. I marched with them for most of the time, sometimes going ahead to search out shooting spots. I lost rack of where we went before we got back to the Colosseum, but it was a long way.

And the whole thing was indescribable, really made me realize how long it’s been since I went to the last protest in Washington, although I guess the Inauguration sort of counts, because there was the kind of same camaraderie in the crowd. But none of the DC protests had anything like the mobile music festival, complete with mobile mosh pits when the songs were right. I sang along with the choruses in the Italian songs, even though I had little idea what they meant beyond the whole ‘anti-fascisti’ thing. When they played “Get Up, Stand Up” I began singing at the top of my lungs, listening as only a few of the Italians did the same.

We finally ended at 11:15 at the Circus Maximus, where I finally got a sense of how big this thing actually was. Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people covered the grass. A stage had been erected at the front, and a singer was interspersing American songs with short speeches in Italian.

Shortly afterwards, people began to leave, and I took it that the protest was over. Were I back in Virginia, this is the point where I would go home and play two or three hours of Age of Empires to congratulate myself for being such a good citizen. But as it was, I started walking toward the Pantheon. I got a sandwich on the way and then some gelato. The Pantheon was absolutely packed with tourists, but as a building it was still amazing.

The Trevi Fountain was even more magnificent. I loved how the sculptures are framed by the uncut stone, and how the water flows apart from the main pools in channels that look like they formed independent of any human design.

Unfortunately after that, I had to come back to the hostel, because my camera was almost out of battery and my left foot felt like someone had tried to hack it in two. Had a nap, and since then I’ve been writing this blog entry.

I’ll try get up early beat the lines to the Vatican and the Villa Borghese tomorrow.

Pretty good weekend so far.