Looking Up

After two relatively difficult days of being perpetually lost and struggling to figure out How Things Work in Italy, today was a dream.  The highlights?

A group trip to the Colosseum.  A colleague's fun and fascinating lecture on what a day of ancient Roman entertainment must have been like.  Overhearing a guy in a gladiator costume singing "No Woman, No Cry" to a dude in dreadlocks.

Wandering off on my own, and feeling (for once) more found than lost!

Seeking and finding the market in Testaccio:

Then swinging by one of my favorite spots in Rome, the cool, green, and oddly beautiful Protestant Cemetary:

Where I made a pilgrimage to the grave of John Keats:

He died so young, thinking nobody would remember him--but do we ever.

Even the graves of people I've never heard of break my heart a little.

As did this random bit of street art I stumbled upon as I wandered toward the Metro:

And (almost) best of all: hopping on the tram, and finding my way home without incident!