Saturday, February 19, 2005

PEACE PARADE

So as I walked out the door this morning to meet Alejandro something weird was going on…. The street (via Cavor) was empty and weird, cop cars at all the adjoining streets, and people just kinda milling around. “Accident?” I thought…. But then It became obvious. Better. Parade. Awesome. Now, when you don’t speak the language it takes a little while to sort out what the fuck is going on at certain times… but (once Alejandro got there it helped a lot too) this is what I figured out. There is an Italian female reporter being held hostage in Iraq… and this was a march for her release…. 500 thousand Romans showed up… all wearing their rainbow flags (the rainbow means peace here, NOT gay pride. But it still makes me smirk when I see and OBVIOUSLY straight guy franticly waving a rainbow flag… can’t help it really).

So I decided to join in- and we walked (for those of you that know Rome) from Piazza Republica, down Via Cavor to Fori Impiriali, up to Piazza Venietzia, past Theatro Marcello, and then down thru Circo Maximo, and met finally at a stage at the Coliseum.

It was, if nothing else, an excellent walk. We walked for about two hours, hundreds of thousands of us, singing, clapping, admiring. Marching. Fucking peace march. Sweet. Check out the pics here

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