The Streets of Rome and Florence

The streets of Rome are paved with little 3-inch blocks of basalt, a volcanic rock. They are set down in arcing patterns across the streets, or in diagonal rows. Where two streets meet, an artistic pattern develops as the bricks from one street meet the bricks of its cross-street. They are separated by about a half-inch of sand, and they are amazingly even to walk on. Even the Roman women in their heels are able to walk on the carpet of bricks that pave Rome. There must be millions of these little blocks paving the streets of old Rome.

One day I looked out of our window, and workmen had dug a hole in the street about 4 feet square and 3 or 4 feet deep. Although they had cordoned off their work area, I couldn’t tell what they were doing under the street. Electricity? Cable? Sewers? Who knows. A pile of black cubes sat to one side of the hole. At the end of the day, we happened to walk home past the worksite, and there was no evidence that anything had happened in that place. The hole had been filled in, and the bricks put back in their places. I commented to Donald that digging up an asphalt street is a major ordeal in the United States. It takes jackhammers or special machines to pull it up – the tearing up of our Roman street was a silent process – and then after the hole was filled in, how long to get the street repaired? And for years you would see that patch where the hole was. Here, in Rome, just another little task that they do. And don’t forget the 3-hour break in the middle of the day for lunch.

We immediately noticed that the streets in Florence are different. They are paved with large slabs of stone, some square, some rectangular. They are all different sizes, but the smallest are about one foot square. Most of them have regular gouges, as though lions used them for scratching posts. The surfaces themselves are uneven. Because of the uneven surfaces, walking in the street is even more dangerous than dodging cars and scooters. The slabs tend to be slippery when wet, and even when dry, footing can be difficult.