Midnight riders find action

There’s nothing quite like the 4 a.m. (sometimes inspired by jet-lag) scooter ride through Rome.

Last year, we took the “midnight ride” a couple times, and were entranced by a city that went from totally asleep (no one else, but the cops, at the Trevi, Spanish Steps, etc.) to starting to awake (the vendors opening up at Campo de’ Fiori, the coffee bars receiving their first customers).

Ah, but this year was different. We took our 4 a.m. ride on Sunday morning, May 2. But, as we instantly learned, from the many young people lining via Ostiense, hanging around cars in the parking lots there, etc., at 4 a.m. it was still the evening of May 1, the huge Italian holiday and a Saturday night.

Instead of seeing the city asleep and waking up, we were watching the city go to bed. There were cars on every street. There were a dozen people at Trevi and the Spanish Steps (photo at top). On the other hand, via Veneto was quiet (see second video below. And, unusually, Campo de’ Fiori was completely empty. Not only had the young people gone (perhaps to Ostiense), but of course no stalls were w\opening on a Sunday morning.

There were some unusual moments – dodging the street cleaning machine at Trevi, watching with the Trevi police - through the back window of their car - the tv shows they had on in their car (you can see both of these in the first video below). Dianne