Pillar #2: Romans are never in a hurry

I don't know if it's my long legs, fast stride, or my frequent inability to be on time, but I have quickly found that if you are in a hurry to get somewhere, Romans will inadvertently do everything possible to slow you down. Many, many people walk in Rome because people live in such close proximity to the things they need to do, and consequently, the sidewalks (or roads in the central city where there are no sidewalks) are typically packed with groups of old women with shopping buggies, families strolling along with their children, people browsing at sidewalk tents and shop windows, etc. Also, there isn't really designated parking per se in most of central Rome, so people get very creative while parking their cars and mopeds. It's usually less like a casual walk and more like a daily obstacle course. Somehow, it all still works though despite the seeming lack of order.

In my urban design studio, we've been studying what my professor calls urban "armatures," or main arteries that link major buildings and public spaces together within a city. It's fascinating because central Rome is typical of most medieval cities in that it appears to be unplanned and simply grew as needed because of all the winding streets, strange jogs, and irregularly shaped piazzas. Once you really get into it though, you realize that many of these seemingly random roads were usually important processional routes or commercial streets, open spaces usually facilitated church going or markets of all kinds, and that the strange conglomeration of buildings were actually arranged in such a way to make it interesting to walk from place to place. Curving and well defined streets allow buildings to slowly reveal themselves as you approach them, and the view down streets are usually ended at least with a doorway or window bay or at best a church facade. Within all this, you can walk a mile and barely even realize how far you've gone.

An interesting comparison would be to a modern American subdivision, which usually has curving streets because straight streets are too "boring." (They certainly can be, yes.) So we have "exciting" streets, but if the subdivision is filled with the same kind of house, or the same 4 house plans flipped 50 different ways, are you really going to think it's interesting enough to walk through it everyday or even to slow down enough in a car to enjoy it? I think this above all else is why Romans tend to move at a slower pace--there is so much enjoyment to be found in just walking around.

Here are some pictures I took while walking and studying my selected neighborhood armature near the Campo de Fiori (meaning "field of flowers" in Italian), one of the early markets of Rome. (some of you probably remember this being used for different purposes during our last trip to Rome)