Oh Saint Silvio, where would we be without you?

On March 20^th, Rome once (again) saw another so-called massive demonstration at the historical Piazza San Giovanni, only about 400 metres from where I live in Rome, in favour of our “Great” Leader, Silvio Berlusconi, and his Freedom Party.

Seeing that it was a nice day, we decided to go for a walk as we had to also see an art exhibit in the heart of Rome on Via del Corso. As we went by the square, around 3.30 pm, we found it rather odd that there weren’t a lot of people. As we began heading towards the Colosseum, a human “wave” of his faithful followers—including many ministers of his current cabinet—began literally flocking towards the square! They had met at the Circus Maximus and with another large group that met on the other side of San Giovanni, eventually joined forces at 5:00 pm for the arrival of the “Great” Leader himself (who also stated rather arrogantly that his government intends to find a cure for cancer “within 3 years”!). People said that about 1 million people showed up when there were probably not more than 300,000 people. Rome was though quite chaotic as there was Silvio's demonstration, another pro-water demonstrantion the very same day, the Rome-Udinese soccer match that night and Rome's marathon on Sunday!

And yes, as one can see by the pics (all by M. Rimati), they came in all shapes and sizes and with a multitude of colourful signs as well. All that was pretty-well missing that day was a with long hair and a long white robe and carrying a cross in Silvio’s honour!