A city scarred and bleeding

A beautiful park, where the only other people are a young couple taking pictures and an old man, brushing his teeth. In a slightly hidden patch of grass behind the church, a man, squatting to relieve himself. He has nowhere else to go. Under a railway bridge, with walls covered by graffiti and the ground by trash, you'd see these small huts erected, made of anything you could find laying around. Some poor souls call these places home. Two young girls, no more than fifteen, sitting under an abandoned arch, playing loud music and in their hands, burning cigarettes. A small child sitting in an alley, next to her old grandmother. Holding her hands forward, she greets everyone passing by, with a big smile reserved for those who hand her a coin out of pity. These are some examples of the people living amidst this decaying part of the city, in the shadows and dark alleys of the great and magnificent monuments and buildings that make the old city such an attraction.