“I think about it, two or three times a week: let me escape. It's not just my problem, I know many friends who are actually considering leaving Rome.” The one who unexpectedly utters these words is Carlo Verdone. The actor, symbol and legend of the Capitoline spirit, in fact delivers his frustration with the Eternal City to Tommaso Rodano, on daily event. Explaining that these are not considerations dictated by the moment: “The heat makes such a complicated city even more unlivable. But the decline of this city is not seasonal, it is constant.”
Construction sites and fires
And as already told in Fellini's Rome over 50 years ago, it also depends on the traffic, now aggravated by fires and construction sites: “When there was the fire at Monte Mario, I was nearby, I was working in Piazzale Clodio – Verdone says -. I tried to go home, but all the roads were closed to let the firefighters and the police pass. I was also on a scooter, in theory it should have been easier to get out, but instead I found myself stuck in a sort of hellish abyss: as I moved, I found a closed road. I was a hostage, I could no longer go home. I turned into Via Ottaviano, I thought I would escape, if I had never done so: a construction site, another closed road. I discovered that you can still get lost in Rome at my age.”
The timetables
Speaking of construction sites. The problem, according to Verdone, is not them, but the timing: “Welcome to their home, probably when they're done, the city will be more beautiful. But it's 2024: things should have been done much, much earlier.” And again: “The problem is that we are all afraid that the construction sites will expand beyond all measure. So no, it would become yet another problem. We are used to a frightening bureaucratic system: an arch or a tunnel breaks, the barriers arrive, they take over your road and you don't know when they will give it back to you. One, two, three superintendencies come into play.”
“An open-air bathroom”
“A few years ago – Verdone recalls – lightning struck the statue of Garibaldi on the Janiculum, I don't know how many years it took to put it back in place, during all this time it was no longer possible to shoot a scene there”. A few days ago, the actor had used even more merciless words, defining Rome as “the open-air toilets of a motorway service station”. daily event He elaborates on the concept: “I raised the issue of public toilets, which are visible to everyone. Try to watch for twenty minutes from the Ponte Garibaldi or the Ponte Sisto, you will see someone lower their pants and leave a nice souvenir. I guarantee it one hundred percent. Not just pee, eh, and even more substantial gifts.
Waste and civic sense
Verdone continues: “From my window I see children, drunks – Romans and tourists – hiding behind cars, statues, trees. Every time you go home you have to check the soles of your shoes. It is unseemly, unthinkable for “normal” European capitals. There is a contributory guilt, that is clear: people's civic sense also has something to do with it. But dear administration, what does it take to put Vespasians?” The administration, for its part, has installed new trash cans in the city in view of the Jubilee. But they quickly sparked controversy over their supposed uselessness, also due to the merciless attacks of seagulls.
Seagulls
“This has to be remedied – Verdone says -. Even the seagull is the result of a dirty city. They have always been there, but we have never seen such incredible numbers. And then the pigeons. In our condominium we no longer know what to do: we do not want to kill them, poor things, but they arrive in groups, ten at a time, they are no longer afraid of anything; they massacre our balconies. Rome has been dirty for too long and this is the consequence. Listen, I assure you that I am not comfortable in this role.”
“Our house”
That is, “of those who criticize their city. Then they tell me, 'You spoke badly of Rome.' But how do you do that? When you turn, you no longer see a normal road. There is not an inch of wall that has been spared. Tags, signatures, writings, ugliness, disfigurements. This city should be considered our home. When a house is well maintained, when you enter it, you pay attention, you walk in a certain way, you sit quietly, you smoke out of the window. Be attentive. But when a house is neglected, everyone feels entitled to mistreat it.”
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