Autumn in the city

Rome in the autumn is magical. For many people this is the best season to visit the city. The stifling heat of the summer is replaced by milder more bearable temperatures with only the first chilly notes creeping in in early November. There are also less tourists so it's easier to visit the sites without jostling elbows with sweaty neighbours.

 The trees of which there are thousands, not all are evergreens like the distinctive umbrella pines, change colour to rich auburns, reds, light browns and yellows before their leaves flutter down ready for the winter. The parks lose their summer parched yellow look and turn green again. Starlings come to Rome to winter and flock in large, impressive formations known as starling murmurations. These are truly beautiful dances in the sky, thousands of birds swirling back and forth, round and round at what seem to be incredible speeds and without colliding into each other. They are breath-taking to watch. However, should you ever find yourself caught under a murmuration, an umbrella might be handy.
For food lovers this is the season of the porcini mushrooms, pumpkins, chestnuts, artichokes, novello wines…. There are food fairs (sagre) aplenty, some in the city some in the outlying regions such as the wine harvest celebration in Marino where wine pours from the towns central fountain, the castagnata in Anzio, the porcini mushroom fair in Lariano or the polenta feast in Nerola. Autumn plenty is amply celebrated. 

However, the autumn also brings its fair share of problems. The end-of-summer storms or beginning-of-autumn storms, when warm air clashes often violently with cooler air wreak havoc all over the capital. Water pouring down from torrential rainstorms flood the streets and the underground as the gutters are too clogged up with fallen leaves to provide effective drainage. The city sweeping system already inadequate can't deal with the added load. Roads turn to streams and  underpasses can trap unwary motorists in their rising waters.
This autumn has been blighted by high winds, gusts of over a hundred kilometres an hour, which  have brought down trees.

The city administration yet again has come under fire for lack of preparedness. Public schools were closed down for 2 days in early November,so as to minimise the amount of people out on the roads in perilous conditions.
The rain and the guano left by the starlings made the roads so slippery and dangerous that some such as  Lungotevere Cenci had to be closed down. City authorities drafted in the help of animal experts who suggested releasing falcons, a natural predator of the starlings, over Rome to encourage the starlings to move on and find new wintering ground. The suggestion was controversial as it went against a ruling that forbids the introduction of wild animals into the urban area. Not that Rome lacks wild animals.
The forever overflowing dumpsters have allowed gulls to make their homes on the monuments and the roofs of buildings even though the sea is 30 kilometres away. On the outlying hills of Rome such as Monte Mario and the area near the Gemelli hospital families of wild boar foraging in the rubbish have been seen. The park of Villa Pamphili is home to  foxes. And of course there are hundreds of thousands of rats, too many for the city cats to deal with.

This autumn has also seen a referendum which had it been successful might have seen the city's public transport system fall out of the mismanaging hands of ATAC. Sadly, not enough people voted so the referendum was null. The saga of late or non existent buses as well as exploding ones is set to go on for the forseeable future. As is that of the uncollected refuse!

But enough griping, there is much to enjoy. The rainy days won't go on for much longer and will be followed by cooler, sunnier days. Christmas decorations will start going up for the extended Italian Christmas season, from the 8th of December, the feast of the Immacolata to the 6th of January, the feast of the Befana - a transition period from which the city will slip out of the autumn into the winter.