FEATURE OF THE WEEK (08/02/12): snowy roma

ponte sisto

fountain, piazza della rotonda

lemon trees, palazzo doria pamphili

column of marcus aurelius, piazza colonna

bernini's fontana dei quattro fiumi, piazza navona

the danube, fontana dei quattro fiumi

the nile, fontana dei quattro fiumi

rio de la plata, fontana dei quattro fiumi

blue skies, beautiful monuments, a sprinkling of snow...rome couldn't be more perfect. DO NOT BE FOOLED. although the baltic conditions meant that i was able to take these wonderful photos, it also meant that i got through eight pairs of socks, two pairs of trainers and three pairs of jeans per day...

rome + snow = a disaster. if you take into consideration how bad the english are at dealing with snow having had piles of it every winter since forever, imagine how the italians (who treat any problem as though it has an expiry date in 2020) coped with the only week of snowfall since 1986. answer? they didn't. every single cobbled street resembled an ice rink and even the main streets of the city, such as via del corso, were just left for pedestrians to make their own tracks in the slush. after queueing for 20 minutes at a shoe shop before being told that the only shoes i could be given in a size 40 were those for uomini, i eventually purchased some serious boots just as the weather became sunny again. never in my life have i wished more for my gold sparkly moon boots that were sitting in england. who would expect to need those in rome??

putting up with shops, cinemas and bars being closed (or lacking any heating bar del fico) as well as no public transport, as one can see from the photos, the settled snow and the blue skies that came at the end of this 'natural disaster' were almost worth it. for me, it was gian lorenzo bernini's fontana dei quattro fiumi that was most dramatic. the nile, whose head is covered by a veil referring to the mystery location of its source, was suddenly mirrored by the other three rivers, snow now covering their faces to create a similar effect. the rio de la plata, falsely perceived to be shielding his face from la chiesa di sant'agnese in agone, designed by bernini's greatest rival francesco borromini, enforced the theme of this rumour further by being blinded from the building by snow.

despite the extreme chaos, sights like bernini's fountain made me happy that there had been 26 years of no snow in rome and here i was to witness its return...