Dirt, degradation and beauty

I'm sitting on the bus. I was lucky. It arrived on schedule and wasn't too full. I'm sitting near the central door, the one from which people are meant to get off. The doors at the back and front are for getting on.

In front of where I'm sitting is a couple with two heavy suitcases. Their daughters are in the aisle. The oldest is swinging from the higher handholds. 

The mother glances up from her map, "Serena, stop that. We're not at home." She observes me observing her.

"Excuse me. can you tell me if we are far from our hotel?" She speaks slowly, over-enunciating the words and is clearly relieved when I answer in English.

"It's another 6 stops. that's where I'm getting off," and so a conversation starts punctuated by the loose rattling of one of the buses fittings as we bump over pot-holes and cobbles. They are from London and are spending the Easter weekend in Rome. They're already concerned about their early flight back on Tuesday and a little anxious about getting around on public transport. I reassure them, from their hotel the 160 bus will get them to all the tourist sites they can visit in a weekend.

"That is so ugly. And it's everywhere," the mother says. I follow her gaze to a graffitti covered wall alongside the road we are travelling on. 

"The train from the airport was covered in it," says her husband. I nod. There isn't much one can say. Buildings all over the city in all areas have been defaced in such a way. The authorities seem unable to do anything about it. 

 A judge in Milan recently let off two teenagers who were caught in the act. They came from a 'good family' as they say (i.e. wealthy) and their misdemeanour was to be ascribed to 'the high-spirited pranks of youth."

We have arrived at our destination and alight from the bus. I point out the large modern block of their hotel. Alas, the walls sport the works of the 'writers', the name given in Italy to people who squiggle lines all over buildings and monuments. I sadly observe the over-flowing bins, the weeds growing out of cracks in the pavements and the abundance of excrement from the neighbourhood dogs left there by their lazy owners.

There is in fact a rather bizarre rule which states that dogs can dump in the street provided it is in the area around the base of a tree. There the owners don't have to pick up. I know this because a magistrate, Labrador owner, had proudly told me he never cleaned up after his dog. He must have read my look of distaste. He reassured me and explained the rule. His dog was well-trained.

The family have one last question, "is there anything to visit here?"

Big City Life facade

"Here?" I echo. The 'Big City Life' project springs to mind, a group of buildings whose facades have been decorated by the works of street artists. The idea being to create an open air art gallery. Such works have cropped up, on commission, all over the city. I blame the graffitti artist, 'Banksy', for the craze.

I shake my head, "No. There's nothing much here." The murals of the Big City Life project aren't aging well.

Big City Life detail

I wish the family a pleasant holiday and cross the road. Here too, outside the gate to my appartment block, the bins are over-flowing. Large bin liners are lining the pavement. The crows have been at them, they are full of holes and remnants of food are strewn all over the place. Later, the rats will come and get their share. 

The newish mayor, Virginia Raggi, a proponent of the Five Star Movement was supposed to get to grips with the rubbish problem and clean up the city but  so far the problem seems to be getting worse. 

Discarded cups

It's hard to say what the mayor has achieved since she took office almost a year ago. She changed the austerity Christmas lights on the Christmas tree on Piazza Venezia after citizens complained, she signed an ordinance forbidding people from eating in cabins on the beach, and brought the speed limit on the Cristoforo Colombo down to an absurd 30kms per hour. She may have done a few other 'useful' things. 

Unfortunately, in many areas the city itself seems to have become a gigantic waste disposal plant: abandoned fridges and old TVs are left on street corners, filthy mattresses, stained sofas are left curbside as well as mountains of old clothes. Some roads and areas (such as Ponte Galleria or along the Magliana) are notorious for the amount of discarded household appliances and furniture that can be found on them.

The farmers' market in Garbatella

The centre, the area the tourists see, is the tidiest. The areas tourists rarely venture to are the dirtiest and the most run down. Not that that has stopped people blaming the state of the streets and the increase in rubbish on the tourists. 

But maybe it's the tourists the Romans should be thanking. In the last few weeks the dirt of Rome has made it to the foreign press, notably the New York Times. It's a real 'figuraccia' for the city. 

People have taken to the streets in some areas, brooms and  binbags in hand to do the work they pay for. Some politicians have tried to benefit from the situation. Finally, the rubbish trucks have rolled out and started clearing up the waste in the outlying areas. 

Let's hope it lasts.