trastevere.

Welcome to my home. I live in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome, known for its orange washed buildings, peeling facades and allegria (good cheer)! It's the SoHo equivalent of Rome, if SoHo housed frescoes by Raphael and centuries old buildings and piazzas. There are pubs, wine bars, and osterias (resaurants) scattered down every street and funky jewelry shops and vintage stores galore. The best thing about the neighborhood though, in my opinion, is the abundance of small niche book stores you can find. Yes most of the books are in Italian, but inside the stores are dusty, dimly lit, and smell like ancient libraries. It makes me feel like I'm stepping back in time every time I walk inside one of them.

Like all other places in Italy, there is graffiti everywhere in Trastevere, but here it seems to fit. I still don't like the idea of tagging buildings that have so much history to them, but I can't help but like some of the graffited walls that I walk past.

Trastevere quite literally means across the river, in this case the Tiber River. And that is pretty accurate considering that I am a quick five minute walk to the Tiber, with its multitude of bridges to take me into the heart of Rome. But many nights I'm quite content staying just where I am.