Tuesday, June 12, 2007

People Watching...

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So sitting in one spot for 2 hours made me really aware of my surroundings…
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Since I’ve arrived to Rome I have been to Trastevere about 3 times and this time around I defiantly noticed things that weren’t very visible before.

My roommates and I decided to take a cab ride to Trestevere and all split up. We didn’t even tell the driver a specific location. All we had to say was “Trestevere” and he knew to drop us off at the most popular spot. As we walked down the small streets we arrived at Piazza de Maria in Trestevere and right away I knew that this was the spot I wanted to spend my 2 hours in. There was so much going on, people there were so caught up with getting to where they needed to be and I thought that it was a good spot to people watch.

I sat down at a local café, ordered some wine and just sat. I noticed that this Piazza was kinda like a walk- through for the Romans and a nice tourist attraction for visitor. I saw and heard people for all over the world. I knew they were foreign because of their accents and languages. As I watched everyone pass by I couldn’t help but wonder where they were all going and why. I tried very hard to look into it so I stared to notice that lots of locals were walking by with grocery bags. I figured that there must be some kind of grocery store around where I was.
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It was funny that I could differentiate the locals from the non-locals right away, even if they didn’t say a word. All the tourists looked lost or had a map, or had some other way of giving away the fact that they weren’t native Italians. I hope I don’t look like them to the locals.
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I also noticed a lot of dogs. Dogs were the main theme of my 2 hour sit. EVERYONE had a dog. And they all look so miserable. I feel like the owners just drag out the poor animals and they don’t really want to be out there. But they are sooo cute.
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The most interesting thing that I’ve seen during my stay was the “Shirtless guy”. He was just creepy. He was defiantly crazy. I don’t know whether he wanted money or what but he was harassing random people that were walking. What was shocking to me was that every time a little kid walked by he would touch them on the top of their head. All I thought to myself was that if a random, dirty man on the street touched my child I’d kill him. It made me really thankful that I was sitting at a café because I don’t think that he was allowed to go and harass me, but he kept giving me this crazy look which was pretty creepy.
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Also, there was a drunk guy who was sitting by the fountain in the middle of the piazza and even so often a new, empty bottle of booze would appear next to him.
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I thought it was really funny that the guy that dresses up as the Egyptian statue was getting dressed to make some money in the center of the piazza. It was kind of cool to see him out of character.
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It was also really interesting to see the piazza because I feel like I came at the perfect time. I watched everything transform from day to night and saw the different types of crowds drift by me.

As I was getting up from my 2 hour sit there was a show in the piazza. There were guys with bongos and African dancer. It was great to see the piazza turn into a festive place for both tourists and locals.

Even though this part was not during my stay there (it was still in Trestevere after my dinner) I saw a homeless guy with a dog and her puppies. It was the most precious thing that I’ve ever seen. I think we played with those puppies for about 30 minutes and must have given him 10 euro. If it were up to me I would have stayed there all night with that bum and his puppies because I Love dogs more than anything. I have a dog at home and I miss him so much 
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