Rome was laid out where the Etowah and the Oostanaula come together to make the Coosa, and the town's seven hills mean hardly a yard here is truly flat. That's fine — a hillside lawn only asks the mower to take the slope with respect and leave the stripes running true. A visit means mowing, string trimming around retaining walls and mailboxes, an edge cut along the sidewalk, and every clipping blown back off the concrete. River fog sits downtown until the clocktower catches the sun, and by then the first yards of the day are already done. Grass in this valley grows hard from April to October, and it gets met every week.