This was never intended to be a published shot. Sometimes I take a photograph purely as a reminder of where I was at the time, which is the case with this one.

However when I was looking at it I realised that it summarised many aspects of our stay in Roma.

First, the architecture. You will not see any steel and glass towers in Roma. In Milano, yes. But not in Roma. There is a limit on how high buildings can be. Certainly, you will see the occasional new building but most hark back to the architecture of the pre-20th century. This was particularly true of the area that we stayed in.

The second was the traffic. Note the small car, essential if you live in central Roma. The number of Smart cars has to be seen to be believed. You will note that there is a sign above this parked car. It reads "Passo Carrabile", which translates as "tow away zone" which gives you some indication of how well the road rules are observed there. (Though, it must be said, they are much better observed in Roma than in Napoli.)

(Slight correction; technically it means "vehicle entrance" (passo in the sense of passable, carrabile in the sense of being vehicle accessible), which may or may not get you towed away. HOWEVER, looking at the image more closely that COULD be a reference to the section of road behind the chain on the right; and the Smart car's butt is so small that it does not in fact appear to be blocking that path.)

The red light was also a reminder of some of our experiences. Just as parking signs are really just suggestions, so are red lights. On the first afternoon I managed to hail us a taxi in the centre of Roma to return to our hotel. I sat in the front seat (since I was the only one who could speak the language) while the other three sat in the back. At one point the driver and I could hear laughter coming from the back. It was because of the way he was blowing the horn at even the slightest delay and zooming through red lights as if they weren't there. I explained away the laughter as "troppo caldo e sole". (Too much heat and sun.)

This is Roma. This is how we roll.