A call for the people of Rome to clean up their city and show some civic pride has gone viral following months of hand-wringing about the sorry state of Italy’s capital.
The demand by the Italian actor Alessandro Gassmann, who starred in The Turkish Bath, for Roman citizens to roll up their sleeves and get to work came as something of a shock to residents famous for their resignation and shrugs in the face of their ancient city’s perpetual deterioration.
Gassmann, whose late father, Vittorio, was a critically acclaimed star of Italian cinema in its heyday in the 1960s, tweeted over the weekend with the hashtag #Romasonoio (I am Rome), calling on the city’s residents to be an example of civility and clean up their own little corners of Rome with pride.
“Stop the complaining, stop the insults, let’s do it,” he wrote from Uruguay, where he is currently filming.
Proposta ai Romani che amano la propria città #Romasonoio pic.twitter.com/WSwM5YmWFL
— Alessandro Gassmann (@GassmanGassmann) July 25, 2015
The campaign was met with a mostly enthusiastic response, including by citizens who posted pictures on Twitter of themselves cleaning the streets.
Via Alberico II: Le due ore meglio spese della settimana. Grazie @GassmanGassmann #Romasonoio #FattiNonParole pic.twitter.com/p68fa70Udw
— valentina conti (@valedenina) July 26, 2015
Even Rome’s mayor, Ignazio Marino, who is under intense pressure to resign, thanked Gassmann for the initiative.
Apprezzo l'iniziativa #Romasonoio lanciata da @GassmanGassmann e grazie a @Retake_Roma per suo impegno quotidiano http://t.co/Dc3ZiduEJk
— Ignazio Marino (@ignaziomarino) July 26, 2015
But others, such as the actor Massimo Wertmuller, saw it as a needless provocation, saying people already pay hefty taxes for public services to pick up the rubbish and that there was only so much residents could do to salvage a broken Roman bureaucracy.
The desire to “take back” the Eternal City follows a string of stories in the international press, including by Reuters, about Rome’s decrepit state. A front-page story in the New York Times last week, just months after it ran a glowing travel video hailing the “magic” of Rome whose “beauty runs deep”, painted a dire picture of a city immersed in corruption investigations, whose services – from public transport to rubbish collection – are woefully inadequate for its nearly 3 million residents.
The Roman problem is even more vexing given the fact that the city is due to host more than 30 million pilgrims from December, the start of the special jubilee year announced by Pope Francis.
Residents in Rome are seen as having relied for too long on the city’s innate beauty and greatness, which has at times lulled Rome into a sense of complacency about the importance of maintaining its basic infrastructure and services. An explosive series of revelations that began late last year, when news of a massive corruption scandal known as Mafia Capitale first broke, has gone a long way to explain some of the city’s deficiencies: it was alleged that many of the contracts for public services, and even housing for Gypsies and migrants, were the subject of bribes and skimming by public officials.
The fact that its main airport, Fiumicino, languished at 60% capacity for weeks following a fire in one of its terminals in May, even at peak tourist season, became a symbol of Rome’s “can’t do” attitude.
The city’s patience for that view has worn thin now, however, especially with regard to the state of public transport. Metro users have lashed out at train drivers in recent weeks after the underground rail system nearly ground to a halt – on purpose – in the sweltering heat because of the drivers’ anger over new work rules and longer hours. Last week, panicked Metro riders took videos with their phones as the doors in their carriage failed to close even as the train was moving at full speed between stops.
Even the prime minister, Matteo Renzi, has let it be known that Rome’s mayor – a transplant surgeon who is seen as naive and ineffective but not corrupt – should either shape up or go home. For now, Marino is still in place – held there, it seems, by another distinctly Italian concern these days: his replacement might not be any better.
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