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You are Rome




I’m from Rome. “Cool!”, you may think.

Rome: view of the city center

If you ask me directly: “Do you like your city?” I’d reply. “Sometimes.” But if you ask me: “Do you love Rome?” I’d be more inclined to say: “Yes, I do.” Because the feeling towards this city must be mainly emotional. Too difficult to embrace it with rationality. This city is like a pretty, shabby woman who is too aware of her own beauty. So, she sometimes puts gross make-up, sometimes goes out in a pajama, sometimes doesn’t properly brush her teeth and never completes the errands she’s supposed to accomplish. Not exactly the image you may treasure in your mind.

Roma: train station

I can easily tell you about a city where trains arrive with a delay, where public transportation gets broken in the middle of the road, where you hardly find a place to properly recycle your garbage. Sometimes things get fixed and get broken again. And again. And again. Like the paving close to where I live, which never sticks properly to the ground. And if it rains, it squirts water everywhere. So, that’s the main daily occupation in this city: praying for inconveniences to not happen.

Rome: Castel S. Angelo

On the other side, anyway, this city can unexpectedly charm you. I remember once I was taking a stroll with a friend, without any particular direction. Suddenly we found ourselves in front of Saint Peter’s Basilica. It was quite late and dark already. And the square was almost empty. An emptiness that fills up. Like to reward you of all the small annoyances you have to suffer daily.

Roma: view from Tevere river

This is a city that plots, maybe unwittingly, to glitter and to shine at the right moment. Like when it rains. Roman people lose any ability in driving, cars to get bottled in the traffic jam. Sun starts fading away and lights begin to conquer the city. And rain let them sparkle left and right. The city becomes unreal. You forget it’s raining. Brown leaves in autumn lead you the way, like a carpet indicating a shortcut to your dreams. And again, you forget that just a moment earlier somebody shouted in the bus saying… Oh, I think I forgot about it.

Roma: leaves

This city can tease you with food, as the old lady likes it salty, with flavors directly reaching your heart. And adding meat to your belly. Or to your thighs. Or to both, why not? But don’t worry, you’re going to easily forgive yourself. And you will fall for it again.

And if there’s something you don’t like on the street, you can often find a shelter in the sky, usually blue, reassuring, impassible. It really makes you want to turn the world upside-down, leaving all the eyesores hidden away.

Roma: sky

Yes, this city is decadent, but all of us cannot let it fall. It’s not me to say so. It was Venerable Bede to say:

“As long as the Coliseum stands, Rome shall stand; when the Coliseum falls, Rome will fall; when Rome falls, the whole world will fall.”


Rome: Parco degli Acquedotti

This city has become a symbol. Rome represents the civilization spread as far as possible. After ancient Roman people connected most of the world they used to know with roads, in medieval times they started saying that “All roads lead to Rome.” It wasn’t a way of saying, they really meant it. That’s why the city must stand. If Rome falls, a symbol of humanity will cease to exist, in its striving to improve, to thrive.

Roma: view from Tevere river

Remember that Rome doesn’t belong to Romans only, it belongs to you too. Its history affected your life. And not slightly, let me tell you.

You are Rome, wherever you live. You live in Rome, wherever you are.



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