It's said that Rome is Eternal, and that may be true in any number of ways too complex to get into. But having spent time in the city and taken thousands of photographs, often of features of the landscape we had photographed before, we can say with some authority that changes do occur.
The Garbatella Market is an example. When we first went by in 2009 (or that's when we took the first photos that we still have), the iconic market stairs were in disrepair--as was the rest of the facade-- and covered with political graffiti and an ode to Sancho Panza and Don Quixote.
Two years later, the market had been restored, the stairs repaired, the brick walls cleaned, and the graffiti removed--though a few tags had appeared. Progress!
In 2017, the stairs had been reborn as a political space--Garbatella is a leftist enclave, and the stairway's bricks, having become impossible to maintain, had been painted yellow. The 2010 message, about the necessity of struggling against injustice, had been replaced with something similar, but also different: "In every epoch and in every circumstance, there will always be many reasons to give up the struggle. But without struggle, one will never have liberty."
Inside the market has changed as well. It was once a regional city market; then (as late as 2010), it was an empty, derelict space. Now, on Saturdays, it is a fledgling farmers' and artisans' market.
Maybe Rome--even modern Rome--is, indeed, Eternal. Everything changes, everything stays the same.
Bill
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