La Notte Bianca

Rome didn't sleep last night. In Piazza Venezia, traffic stopped as the music started for the thousands of people that had come from across Europe for La Notte Bianca. Bars, restaurants, stores, museums, monuments, and public transportation stayed open all night as we wandered through the city.

We began walking through Trastevere, an area around our house but soon hit Piazza Venezia, where the people swarmed around a concert stage and moved throughout the streets going in and out of gelaterias and museums. The Trevi Fountain glowed in the midst of the crowd, as hundreds of people broke its surface with coins, thus affirming their return to Rome (as the legend goes).

We had no real goals but to wander, and wander we did. We made it up and down Via Del Corso, sometimes being pushed, sometimes pushing, dodging our tipsy companions.

When we began our walk back, the crowd was thinning, but the party showed no signs of being over. The music still blared at a cannoli stand across from ruins of the forum, and the normally shadowed streets of Rome shone white.