Tell a story about an unusual aspect of urban life.

Rome. Perhaps the ur-urban life! The city can be lived on many levels, figuratively and literally.

This past summer I spent nine days in Rome, with my wife, two grown sons, and a grown daughter and her husband. Our hotel was a building at least 150 years old, family managed, with only a dozen rooms scattered over five floors. Its location made it easy to walk to many locations throughout the city, or hop on the transit for points further away (or just to rest our feet!).

While walking down Via del Tritone, I noticed stairs leading under an intersection. This was not designed as a safe shortcut across the busy street (but could be used as such) but it was the entrance to an underground bookseller. Here I found all sorts of mostly new, mostly Italian books. What I bought was a book on old Italian homes, and four volumes of a set on Roman coins. In each case, I was able to bargain the price down; but, the final prices weren’t any great bargains.