La Notte Bianca

Rome's sun does not go down on the 17th of September. The city is awake past 6.00 in the morning as all doors are open to the public and all entrance fees are waived to promote a city-wide party that leaves the lamps of Rome without oil. I left to see the Palazzo Mettei, Casa S. Angelo, the Forum, the Pantheon, Capitoline Hill, Vittorio Emmanuello, the Trevi fountain and the Colisseum in a 8 hour tour of the city. It began raining the moment I stepped out of my flat and was still coming down at 5.30 when I slumped through the door. Rome benefits well from rain though, and it makes the city more mysterious and the buildings more ominous to see them drip with rain and shine under the spot lights. The city's artifacts are all lit as though they are ready to be photographed. Their light seems to come from nowhere and their mounts are hidden above the cornices of neighbouring buildings. Only the falling rain gives away their location as the drops are lit as they pass through. The oculus of the Pantheon allows the rain to pass through and onto the center of the floor, staging a circle of onlookers staring up into a black hole that is shouting out water. The area around Capitoline Hill is teeming with people, with music and with floods. People are split between those walking in the rain and those huddled under the sheltered ledges of buildings. Shane, Amanda and I are walking through the rain, spinning our newly purchased umbrellas and shifting through the thousands of people still hoping to see some of the city. We've since lost all the people we had with us, and have missed the ones we had intended to meet so the three of us are winding along the street singing softly in between the monuments. This was my first time seeing the colisseum and we stumbled through verses of 60s standards in three parts while we walked along its edge staring through the holes in its crumbled walls. Most of the sights that I have seen so far in Rome have been at night because it's the only time to avoid the tourists. As a result I've seen them empty and stark which is probably not the way they were intended to be, but their power is so much more inherent without tour groups that I could care less if I see them in sunlight. Notte Bianca seemed largely a national event rather than a tourist draw so although there were people everywhere it seemed more palettable and more like the way I would have imagined them to be in their time. Though it happens only once a year I saw more in 8 hours than perhaps I would have in 365 days of lazy tourism. Words will have to do until pictures can follow. much love, liam