The square-faced blocks of Rome’s traditional, stone paving are generally laid on the diagonal with wide joints between the setts. My eye was first caught by the pink grids of fallen petals caught in the cracks below an avenue of Judas trees.  Then I started noticing the signatures of other plants around the city.  Here’s a sample.

(Click on any square to view the gallery)

 

Bud scales from plane trees
Dry olive leaves and a few spots of rain
Bud scales from umbrella pines
A well-worn stretch of road, polished by traffic.
Tiny, white pebbles and fallen pine catkins
Meadow grass and daisies, not yet in flower
Fallen orange blossom and tiny plants of corn spurry, among other species.
Chickweed and various other seedlings. This broken stretch of paving shows the shape of the individual stones. The square top face is actually the end of a tapering, rectangular block.
Fallen flowers from Judas trees – Cercis siliquastrum

 

Although the square faces suggest cube-shaped stones like those of Paris – handy missiles for riots and revolutions – the traditional paving in Rome appears to be made up of rectangular blocks, slightly tapered along the length. Hammered into place on a sand base, the lower ends wedge firmly together, leaving an open grid of joints in the road surface. Where the sand infill has worn away the cracks fill up with passing debris and seedling plants.  Each street has its own, changing signature.