It was June 2006, I had to prepare for my live drawing exam and I still didn’t know what my subject might have been. I did not want to draw people, it takes time and patience to draw such subjects and since I felt to have a more intimate relationship with the buildings of my neighborhood, I thought that at least I could create a story about them without thinking too much. A 10 min walk from my house there is a not too small square with a statue and a fountain in the middle. Every weekday there’s a market where they sell fruit, vegetables and souvenirs for tourists. There’s a ton of energy night and day. After market hours the square gets cleaned and prepared for the night life.

I always loved to hang out there any time of the day, because each moment has its own energy and light and the smile of people changes throughout the course of the day.

On this particular day in June, I decided to draw the square and everything I had in front of me at that specific moment. I sat at the bottom of the Giordano Bruno statue, a man I admire for his ideas and courage. I started looking at all the buildings around me. It was early morning and I drew the square until early evening, when they started to clean the square from the market leftovers. I observed a building, drawing all the details and the buildings around it, pigeons, signs. Every time I would notice something I took note of it and the pigeons were always there until they naturally became the main characters of my book.

The street lights in Rome are mostly yellow. The yellow stripes on this book’s edition were inspired by my visual memories of lights and shadows when I was strolling in my neighborhood by night.

Campo de’ Fiori seen by me

First edition 2006 - Second edition April 2021

(PICCIONE means pigeon)