When In Rome
I had originally called this image Tchotchke View of St. Peter’s, but I think I should change the title to When In Rome. This tongue-in-cheek phrase (pun intended) seems to fit the mood of the photo a little better.
A lot of my feelings around this photo are captured in a previous post, “Holy Tchotchke!”. It’s funny how foreign yet how similar a place can be all at once. Even though I’ve dropped myself in a country where ancient ruins mingle with couture shops, and I can’t understand a word of the language (well, save ‘pizza’), this feels very American. A tourist attraction, every store within a 2 mile radius is full of tchotch. The closer you get to the attraction, the more street vendors you find hawking souvenirs.
So, I just had to laugh when I walked by this guy’s stand and saw, framed perfectly, this Catholic icon framed by butts. I’ll let you further the conversation on what meaning that has.
