Terraces are all the rage in Rome. If your apartment doesn't have at least a couple of terraces, you might as well pack up and head to the suburbs. Here's a terrace a Roman can be proud of.

And here's some laundry a Roman can be proud of.

Rome was founded in 753 B.C. (or so they claim). In the intervening 27-odd centuries, some people have invested in home improvements and others have not.

Occasionally, large castle-like walls just crop up at various points in the city. This is a fine example. There's one connecting the Vatican to a nearby castle which was purportedly used as an escape route for the Popes of years past when they would make especially unpopular Papal decrees.

The Roman skyline is fairly flat thanks to a law preventing any building from being closer to God than St. Peter's cathedral. (Which I managed not to see for the second time. But you can check out pictures of the Papal digs taken by a much better photographer than I.)

Somebody set up us the bomb! Around four one morning, I thought the neighbor was experimenting with large concentrations of natural gas. In actuality, someone about a block away was protesting something or other with explosives. Fortunately, that sturdy Roman architecture stood up to the blast with naught but a few broken edges. The windows of the store across the street didn't fare so well, however.

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©2002 michael bayne  <mdb@samskivert.com>