A Confusion of Continents

Right: Seen in Trastevere

Tonight, the photos from Vatican City were underexposed and blurry when they weren't. I'll try again tomorrow or the next day, a little earlier in the evening when the sky is still a shade of violet. This may be my last chance before the canonization of Blessed Mary MacKillop on Sunday. The streets will be overflowing with priests, nuns, and Aussies. I Carabinieri will become ever more present, suddenly emerging like umbrella vendors with the first drop of rain, preparing for crowd control while I prepare my camera.

This is not tonight.

Tonight, a circle of teenagers sit cross-legged in St. Peter's Square. They drink beer beneath 140 Saints, on the same grounds once home to the Circus of Nero. An ancient Catholic woman crawls by, cracked fingernails clawing for fissures in the broken stones. She frowns disapprovingly, then floats away in the smoke of a discarded cigarette.