There is a joke going around the city about a rich man who is asked how he accumulated his wealth. It goes something like this: Did you make your money in the stock market? Why of course not. I invested in scaffolding!

Work on St. Peter's continues. However, lucky for the tourist, the scaffolding covering the facade has come down and the original color is revealed after years of soot, dust and car exhausts have been removed.

A lot of work is going on around St. Peter's as well. On Gregorio VII work continues on the entrance to a underground parking garage for 900 buses. Here the sidewalks along Porta Angelica street straddling the walls around Vatican City are being widened, along with the complete reworking of 'capo linea' of the famous #64 bus and Piazza Risorgimento

One of the fountains in Piazza Navona has been completed, but the other two are still covered by scaffolding. This is what tourists and Romans have to look forward to.

Other Churches are also getting a new look. Here, for example, is S. Maria Supra Minverva. In addition to the work on the church, the Elephant Obelisk was cleaned of its accumulation of dirt, etc.

Even the 'old' is being spruced up. This is work being done in Largo Argentina.

Finally ATAC, the citie's public transportation authority, has also invested heavily in new buses, trams, trains, and an extension of Metro line A to "Battistni" (about 10 minutes on foot from Roma I & II). The #8 runs from Largo Argentina to Casletto (which is just on the other side of Doria Pamphili Park behind Roma I & II).