4/18/2014 – Friday

Natalie Hostetter 

            Happy Friday! Today was a beautiful day in Rome, sunny with not a cloud in the sky! First thing in the morning we met up outside the Ministry of Education as a group to get started on our Street Art Tour. The first place we saw was a rather old neighborhood with a new identity. We stood in the middle of a city square with children playing volleyball, soccer, and other outdoor activities together. Our tour guide explained to us that this neighborhood used to be where a lot of less well off families live, but now few of these poor families remain in the city as more middle class families have now taken over this neighborhood. She also mentioned that the nightlife is better there than in Trastevere where we all live! On a less educational and more personal note, on our way to our next sight we walked passed a Texas Roadhouse grill with all you can eat ribs! I will definitely need to make my way back there soon!!

            One of the next places she took us was an old slaughterhouse. Pretty weird for all of us animal lovers to see but we actually got to go inside the little private community and actually were sitting on old troughs where animals would drink water. Below I have a shown a panorama photo of the slaughterhouse to give you some idea in to what it looked like! Inside also was a curd (uncertain of spelling) community from Turkey I believe who graciously invited us to sit around with them for a little and have some tea!

            Next we were on to see some actual street art around the city of Rome and the first one we saw was a gigantic wolf on the side of the building. I wasn’t able to get a picture but take my word for it, it was HUGE! It covered the entire side of a probably 8-9 story building and was done in only one day! The meaning behind the wolf is that apparently the wolf is the official animal representation of Rome. Pretty cool. Next we saw some black and white art of a woman and a man on the walls of a sidewalk. I do have a photo below of this one and I can’t remember exactly the name of the mural but it was something like “The beautiful woman”. This particular piece of art was even turned into a short film. Lastly, we made it to the absolute most beautiful street art I have ever seen. This one I cannot describe to even remotely do it justice but I have a picture below to give you some idea. This mural was on the front and side of an abandoned building and the detail was just remarkable. One of the faces the artist painted was completely out of bananas! The artist, Blu, is one of the most famous street artist’s ever. He has traveled and done work in many countries throughout Western and Eastern Europe as well as the United States.

            This was just the start to an incredible Easter weekend! Ciao!