There is a lot of bird poo in Rome. Every year hundreds of migrating starlings pass through Rome and tonnes of droppings pass through them creating a dirty, smelly, greasy and impossible to clean mess along the banks of the Tiber. It’s got so bad that the news has even reached the pages of the Guardian newspaper.

Via Flickr antmoose

I was there last week and the stink and noise is incredible. Think screeching harpies who haven’t washed for a year. Walking beneath the trees you are risking a nasty slip in the filth, but if you manage to see the birds swarming and swooping like a perfectly organised flying synchronised-swimming troop, especially at dusk over the rooftops of Rome, it is worth the pain and the smell.