HUM 325 Week 4

Rome is full of history, churches, and beauty. But it is also full of life; life that the Romans live. Life that takes place on all corners of the city; life that takes place in the piazzas. Piazzas are a place for Romans to go and socialize; a place for them to mingle. Piazzas serve the purpose for people to grab un caffe, or a bit to eat. Maybe do a little shopping in a market. The serve the purpose for people to be surrounded by friends and family, and just seize the beautiful day that lays before them.

Some piazzas also obtain the use of religion, seeing as many are surrounded by gorgeous churches that one cannot not wander into. Muriel Spark tells us that on summer evenings in the Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere, “ the golden frieze of the twelfth-century church gleamed in its floodlight.” Churches in piazzas, actually in Rome in general, serve the people the magnificence of what early Romans have to offer us. The serve us with the extended knowledge of what greatness came before us, and the knowledge that God is on our side.

Muriel Spark also explains that another piazza, Piazza Farnese, has a “colorful flower and fruit market.” Many other piazzas have several types of markets as well, that provide people with quite a few options of food, nuts, liquors, wines, shoes, and so on. People often come to piazzas for the markets that supply them authentic Italian traditions that are frequently less expensive than going into shops.

I would say that one of my favorite parts of going into any piazza though is the Italians that are there. Watching children play soccer, teenagers gossiping about things that I cannot understand seeing as they are talking in Italian, parents chatting away as they are somewhat watching their children, and the elderly couples strolling along as the hold hands in silence and just watch everything that is going on.