by Maria Egizia Fiaschetti
With the record number of tourists in the city from the Pantheon to the Trevi Fountain, outlawed vendors are reappearing despite the permanent presence of the traffic police. Residents: “We need more checks, the Center is no man’s land”
In the season of records – the pandemic bubble continues to attract massive flows of tourists with over 2 million and 300 thousand overnight stays recorded in Rome between March and April – illegal street vendors reappear on the Unesco site. The most attractive points in which to hook up hordes of overheated foreigners are in the monumental area, a World Heritage Site: Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona. Here is the group of itinerant vendors with the usual sampling of scarves (some with the kitsch print of the Colosseum) fluttering in front of the fountain in Piazza della Rotonda. And here are the white sheets spread out on the cobblestones as displays for the (counterfeit) bags of luxury brands. Heedless of the brigade patrol on duty in the area, the stallholders tail potential customers, taking advantage of the selfie moment or the refreshing break in the shade of the colonnade to pitch the deal: someone, perhaps a little dazed by the heatwave, gives in to the pressure.
Packed stalls
Between via delle Muratte and via delle Vergini you can see the stalls overflowing with hats of every shape (baseball, straw, flat caps, bandanas…) with the inevitable corollary of sunglasses, bracelets, necklaces, fans and various knick-knacks . In the minority compared to the crowd of salesmen who operate outside of any rules unleashed in the streets of the Center, there are also some extemporaneous portrait painters who stand out among the plethora of pseudo watercolorists surrounded by picturesque views more from a made in China print than from the Grand Tour.
Street hairstyles
At the Trevi Fountain, the type of gadget adapts to the context: the ubiquitous selfie stick intercepts the desire to immortalize the ritual coin toss by framing the scenographic background in all its grandeur. On the other hand, it remains a mystery who might ever be interested in the plastic balls to be squashed on the ground perhaps with an anti-stress function.
Among the novelties, the North African hairdressers who offer to create customized hairstyles with braids, beads, colored clips, while among the unshakable certainties of the great open-air souk there is the illusionist with a turban who pretends to levitate by virtue of who knows what power shamanic.
Resident protests
«The problem is the lack of controls – insists Viviana Piccirilli Di Capua, president of the Association of inhabitants of the historic center – the local police force is so impoverished that two policemen at the Pantheon or at the Trevi Fountain certainly cannot monitor everything. We have proposed a task force with the involvement of all the forces of order for a capillary and diversified garrison”. And yet, from her point of view, the question should be tackled upstream: «If you don’t go back to the organizations that manage these activities, you won’t get out of it. All the old Acea meter counters have become goods depots in Campo de’ Fiori, Largo di Torre Argentina, around the Pantheon: is it possible that no one notices it?». Roberto Tomassi, president of the Campo Marzio residents’ association, denounces “the ever-increasing absence of any kind of police force, starting with the traffic police… It’s like not having a local police force, but how can you do it?”. Tomassi agrees with Di Capua on the need for inter-force coordination “to try to set some stakes while the Center is now collapsing, a land without law”. Filippo Massimo Lancellotti (Roma è la mia città) shares the feeling of living in an “out-of-control city transformed into a hired Disneyland for hit-and-run tourism”.
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July 03, 2023 (change July 04, 2023 | 19:16)
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2023-07-04 19:44:24
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