Road Work with Little Machines

Yesterday a section of road across the street from our apartment was dug up, and today it

was put back together. The workmen, who might be Polish--some kind of Eastern Europeans, anyway--used this cute little roller to level the repaired road nicely, and it put me in mind of road works we've observed in Italy, which are different in many ways, as one might expect.

I have been able to locate a picture from Rome six years ago.

There, the roads are cobbled in "San Pietrini"--stones of St.Peter--and unlike the pulverized asphalt in London and other places, that has to be swept up and replaced with new materials, the Italian stones are used over and over. They can be pried up from their base of loose sand and pounded back down into place, along with the sand, using the thumping machine that this worker is operating.

Today the corresponding section of road on our side of the street was dug up, but tomorrow is Saturday, so it will probably have to wait till Monday to be put back together, and we'll be back in Wyoming by then.

(P.S. Steve reminds me that actually tomorrow is Friday, so it may get done before we leave.)