From the moment I sat down, my view of the grand Piazza San Pietro was hindered by a larger adult man. His face was glued to his phone, oblivious to all surroundings-especially the uncomfortably close distance he maintained to me. He appeared to be alone and not apart of any tourist group, merely him and his phone. From the clean-cut and styled hair, leather jacket, tight jeans, and Puma shoes, I concluded that if not a local, he was European. I never heard him speak, but simply watched from my seat his confusion and even slight frustration with his mobile device. For the first time in what seemed like ten minutes, he came up for air and headed away from the basilica and toward the porticos. It was too sunny to see his screen and thus continued his habit under the shady marble. The man is trying to contact someone; perhaps a relative or maybe a girlfriend. Victory! He figures out how to set-up a facetime call with his girlfriend and heads back into the piazza to show her the sights. Perhaps he is on a work-related trip and enjoying his downtime in Rome by visiting the sights. Their relationship is recent and with that, it didn’t logically make sense for her to tag along. Or, as it could be a work trip, they didn’t have a lot of free-time to site see and also had work back at home. Either way, he is finally adventuring around the piazza, yet still only perceiving the visual stimuli through his darkened phone screen. The virtual tour was brief and he disappeared away into the bustling stream of people.
(Piazza San Pietro, 5/23/19)
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