Watching the Tourists: I

Tourist Ballet, Piazza Venezia
 

If you're visiting Rome in the high season, the tourists can be irritating.  They clog the sidewalks and the top attractions and by their very presence define the restaurants you don't want to go into because they're "tourist traps."  The other side of this is that tourists can be entertaining, part of a rich tourist experience if you will. 

Here's an example.  These girls on the scooter may be Romans, but they're not sure where they are or where they're going. They're sitting at a light at via Ostiense, looking west up via del Porto Fluviale. They're got about 30 seconds to make up their minds.  If they tip over there'll be some serious skin loss.

Some things are just irresistible, especially for young men.  This scene was enacted in a small park off Piazza Venezia.

Rome tourists like to be photographed with gladiators, even at the Trevi Fountain, which was constructed about 1500 years after the last gladiator.

Some things are irresistible, especially for older men.  I liked this pose in front of the Altare della Patria (the enormous monument to Italian unification) in Piazza Venezia.

Bill