pay and smile ◉

rome started charging two euros to stand near the trevi fountain. the official reason is crowd control and upkeep, but what i keep thinking about is the transaction itself — the moment a place becomes a product. you used to just stumble onto it. wrong turn down a narrow street and suddenly there it is, impossibly large between the buildings, water echoing off stone. now there’s a queue and a price tag, and the experience is something you purchase rather than something that happens to you. a tourist from sicily said you just have to “pay and smile,” which might be the most italian thing anyone has ever said about surrender. but there’s something in that phrase that goes beyond fountains. how many things in life quietly shift from stumbled-upon to transacted, and we just pay and smile because what else are you going to do, not see it?