Looking for a gull

I'd read the story. A picture of a gull with its cv (because gulls have those) had been affixed to the walls of the AMA headquarters in Rome. AMA (Azienda Municipale Ambiente) is the refuse collection agency in Rome. The gull postulated for a position with claims of instant availability, a liking for refuse and experience in catching rodents.It was as fit a candidate as any for the position of ecological worker, as refuse collectors are called here.

I decided to go looking for the gull. The AMA headquarters are on Via Campo Boario, round the back of the non-catholic cemetery and outside the city walls. I set off with my dog. It was a spring morning like so many, slightly hazy, already too hot with pollen floating about. It wasn't long before I had to remove my cardigan and tie it round my hips.

At Parco Scott (named after Robert Scott, he of the failed Polar expedition) I let the dog run free in the dog enclosure which wasn't too fragrant. I'm being polite. In some areas it stank! All the bins were overflowing with multi-coloured and brightly patterned dog poop collection bags. It looked like the park hadn't seen an ecological worker in a while. Nor had the park cleaning service been either as the dogs ran and played in clumps of grass and weeds at times higher than the smaller pooches. I didn't stay long: time for the dog to sniff and play with her pals then it was time to move on.

I headed towards the steadily flowing Cristoforo Columbo , one of the cities most dangerous roads that leads out of the centre towards the business district of EUR and further on through residential areas to end up at the sea in Ostia. I crossed it into Garbatella, the modern side of the district. It is all five-floor or higher apartment blocks.

Down at ground level I was surprised at the amount of dogs passing by - especially of the smaller yappier variety. I had read a statistic that said 1 in 3 Italian families owned a pooch. I'd been dubious. But out in Garbatella this seemed to be the case. 

I hesitated as at the terrace of a café a doggy squabble was in progress. A Jack Russell terrier with raised hackles, peeled back lips to expose all its teeth and yapping away was dodging forwards to nip at the back of a passing dog twice its size. The owner reigned in the yapper as the owner of the other dog yelled at him some Roman insult. As I passed in front of a glass entrance door to a building a Cocker Spaniel came out pulling its owner along for a walk.

where old and new Garbatella meet

I turned off the principal road, circonvallazione Ostiense, onto smaller quieter back roads that led past the overpriced albeit attractive behemoth Eataly. From thence, I passed below the railway tracks, via a graffitied tunnel, Lord Byron was looking dapper, to piramide.  It shone in the sun. I strode down Campo Boario, and peered into the cemetery.The neatness of the cemetery contrasted with the messiness outside the city walls. Weeds grew high, pigeons pecked in the tall grasses and among the strewn litter. A scattering of beer bottles some broken dotted the pavement which the roots of trees had pushed up and distorted. There wasn't a gull insight, either live or in any other format - which considering the amount of litter was a surprise! 

Just past the intersection between the ancient walls and Monte Testaccio, off Piazza Vittorio Bottega, I found the gull I was looking for. Well, more exactly, its remains. A piece of the beak, a claw, the outline of the sketch as well as barely visible the letters CV. 

It showed that when it wanted to AMA could get something done fast. Maybe not in the street where I lived, maybe not in the streets where most Romans lived, but from the walls of its own headquarters, offending refuse was removed fast.

I walked back home dodging overflowing refuse from the large dumpsters all over the city. No doubt gulls, crows, pigeons and rodents had had a hand (or beak) in strewing it so widely.

Later I check the seagull ad, the poster had been placed there by the street artist Maupal. The seagull was described as 'volatile, courageous and aggressive', its listed hobbies were 'eating fish, dead animals, rats and food waste.' The artist had done the poster to highlight the fact that the city was "on the verge of collapse."
Unfortunately, this is only too true.