And Then There Were Cats (Rome, Italy)

Welcome to our view pretty much every day we were in Rome. After my regular morning quest for cappuccinos, I’d come back to the apartment to fetch my traveling companion, and we’d head out. A mere five minute stroll along a busy street, passing by banks, restaurants, pharmacies, shops, then bam, ruins! And not just any ruins – cat sanctuary ruins.

Let me say that again. Cats. Getting their own sanctuary. In the ruins.

Oh, and there was a whole world of beautiful things just beyond it.

But pausing on the cat sanctuary for moment — can I get a SQUEE!? I love, love, loved this part of Rome. I had no idea this was coming. We truly stumbled onto it, just down the road from our amazing apartment that my friend’s friends let us use all week long, and BOOM, THERE WERE CATS.

Not just a few kitties here and there, but a whole sea of them. The more we looked, the more we saw. It was a freaking village. Plus a shelter (hidden underneath the observation deck) dedicated to caring for wounded feral cats who otherwise wouldn’t survive the rough and tumble Roman streets.

I took an insane amount of photos (of course), documenting all varieties of gorgeous fluffies and scrawnies — but I was most excited to capture the one below. Especially since we had spent the prior 15 minutes zooming our lenses, to try to shoot the cats on the bottom level on their assorted prowls, before we realized there was a cat photo to be had right in front of our noses:

We could have easily spent our whole week with this hidden civilization as our sole entertainment. (Because cats are AWESOME, and hundreds of community cats totally owning Roman ruins are the AWESOMEST.) It’s a wonder we were ever able to tear ourselves away.

Yet somehow we did, and I even have a photo and a tale or two to show for it. But I’ll save those stories for another day.

Photos shot on iPhone 8.