Slave Markets

In places like this, the upper classes don't bother coming.

Only migrants from the provinces and other countries do so.

They don't have the right to vote in the town hall or go to mass in the cathedral.

When the sun shines on the Tiber river, it's the liveliest place in the city.

Children wake up and cry, and women carry the batons to the river to be washed.

The narrow, winding streets were filled with the stench of toilets and the smell of toast.

The girls in the attic put away the dry petticoats.

The hard-working men, clutching their disheveled hair, walked together to the dock.

It was also the liveliest place in the city when night fell.

The sweaty Anna gathered drunkenly in the small bar.

The small merchants who had just come from the capital with their goods were washing the animals in front of the inn.