When John and I first arrived in Italy, we were shocked - and frankly afraid for our lives - because there was graffiti everywhere we looked. In the United States, there seems to be a positive correlation between the amount of graffiti in any given location and the frequency of crime and violence, so our immediate instinct was to get somewhere safe, and quick! This feeling was even more exaggerated by the many warnings we had received about pickpockets in Rome. I did not sit or stand at ease for a moment a midst the dense crowds (or should I call them swarms of potential thieves?) until after peak tourist season subsided, and we had settled in enough to get comfortable and learn a little bit from the locals. It turns out that in Italy, graffiti is not so much an indicator of gang violence in an area, but rather a longstanding tradition of human expression, dating back to the politicians who scrawled their political opinions on the walls of buildings in the Roman forum during the peak of the Roman empire. Ironically enough, we noticed a stark contrast: the ancient historical monuments were preserved and highly guarded, while the constructions of contemporary urban life were left to ruin. Here are a few glimpses of what we saw.
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