I love Italy: its history, its elegance, its food…
It holds such beautiful memories for me – and I’ve been lucky enough to visit a handful of times in my life.
It’s perhaps a little surprisingly then, at the age of 42, I’d never been to this amazing country’s capital Rome.
And given it was only a whistle-stop tour of the city – that has in its way shaped all of our lives – I was initially a little hesitant to be critical of it.
I was there as part of a family holiday – a cruise where we visited several famous Italian locations including La Spazia – close to Pisa and Cinque Terre – and Naples, from where we took a day trip to the stunning island of Capri.
But by far and away the place we were all looking forward to venturing to was Rome: the very cradle of Western civilisation.
We got off our ship at the port of Civitavecchia and we did the necessary calculations to work out which train we needed to take on the hour’s trip into the city.
Foolishly, I thought that in the few hours we had we could explore much of what the city had to offer. So daft! You wouldn’t expect to be able to see all of London’s landmarks in a day – or even really get a true feel for the city.
However, through manic Google-ing, we managed to come up with a decent route past some of the most impressive landmarks including the Colosseum, the Pantheon – although frustratingly it was obscured by building work on the day – and the Trevi Fountain. Not to mention a suitably Italian meal in a beautiful backstreet.
Of course, I couldn’t help to be quite overwhelmed by what we were taking in – the Trevi Fountain literally took my breath away, so unassuming are the little streets that lead up to this staggering icon.
But disappointingly, the astonishing amount of litter that spewed into the streets was just awful. As a visitor I hate to be impolite. My love for Italy kind of made me want just to ignore the issue.
So before criticising the city, I made sure to do my research. Unsurprisingly though, I’m not the first to note litter is a major issue.
Bins overflowed, gorgeous cobbled streets were covered in cigarette ends and one park we walked through was struggling with all kinds of boozy trash.
In fact the debate surrounding the litter – that Rome now seems to be drowning in – is one that locals, rather than tourists, rage about.
So much so that in 2022 Rome’s cultural elite wrote to UNESCO over its “mortifying” scenes of rubbish. That same year wild boar were tempted into the capital by the piles of mess.
Culture sector workers – including artists, professors, and environmentalists – wanted the agency to remind the city’s council of its duty to protect the world heritage site.
Last summer tourists posted videos on social media showing rats roaming close to the Colosseum. The city’s head of refuse collection – Sabrina Alfonsi – said the rats were attracted to piles of litter left by tourists.
As an outsider, I do sympathise with the council as they are fighting perhaps what is an impossible battle. Tourists cram the streets, more so than any other tourist destination I’d visited, with some far less conscientious than others.
Hefty fines? Litter-picking initiatives? Far more investment in street cleaning?
All I know for certain is that whatever it takes, a way forward urgently needs to be reached. Before the marvel of Rome is lost under a mess of grime forever.