la gente della via

The people that can be found on the streets of Rome come in very different shapes and sizes. There are the locals, the tourists, the gypsies/people of the street, and the vendors-- to name a few. In the picture to the right we have an example of one of the people of the street. "Gypsy" is the term most commonly used to refer to these beggars and derives from the word Egyptian, as was discussed in class. Most of the gypsies are of Middle Eastern decent and have difficulty getting jobs in Europe due to extreme discrimination.

There is a wide array of opinions on the gypsies. Some deny their existence, others strongly disapprove of these "scam artists", while others feel sympathy towards them. I have mixed feelings about the group, and depending on the type of gypsy I see I interact in all three ways towards them. It is hard because you cannot tell which ones are the scam artists, or which ones are gypsies and legitimately need the help. For example, I do not see the significance of the beggar dressing up as a mummy, does that have some deeper kind of meaning? Is the person under this costume actually a gypsy, or is it an American or an Asian person looking to get some money? I would never know because the mask conceals the true identity.



More Info on Gypsies
Warnings about beggars
Day in the life of a beggar

Benvenuto a Roma!

Rome: The Eternal City.

On Sunday morning I arrived at the airport outside of Rome. This just wasn't my first time traveling on a plane, but it was also my first time in another country and my first time in Europe. After eleven hours in the airports between JFK International in New York City, Dublin Airport in Ireland, and Fiumicino in Rome I could not stop myself from exploring the city despite my exhaustion.

For the next seven weeks I will be exploring and experiencing life in Rome, the city that has drastically altered history across several continents for thousands of years. There will be two separate themes to my blog: a theme and a location. Throughout my travels in Rome I will be examining the culture and rhetoric of life here through the city streets and the people who walk them, which is my theme for the term. Because Rome is an epicenter of culture and a huge tourist attraction it will be easy to identify rhetoric through the layout of the streets and what goes on in different areas of the city, as well as through the dozens of types of people who walk these streets every day. Specifically I will focus on Via Del Corso, as it is a central and historical location in Rome. It will be an adventure living for the moment and as Roman poet Horace's infamous words say I must carpe diem.