This is an ancient Roman foot. The rest of the statue has long been missing and now this foot sits in an alley in Rome where cars and motorcycles park practically on top of it. Only a city as steeped in history as Rome could leave something as old and historic unattended like this. If we had this foot in the U.S. it would surely be in a museum, or protected by glass... or at least there'd be a plaque nearby to let people know, "Hey, there's an ancient Roman foot right here." We learned about the foot from a travel book.