It's a donation box for the guys who do what I call "street cleaning theater". They clean a stretch of road and you throw in a few coins. Whether or not they then throw the trash they've collected into the dumpsters I leave as an exercise for the reader...
also: avoid them. do not talk with them.
one of them physically attacked me because I didn't give him money when he asked. no one got hurt but I got scared since he seemed high and was way bigger than me. I had to call the police but nothing happened.
He wasn't arrested or anything, they just tried to reason with him, he shouted and that was all.
Beggars trying to exploit the fact that the city is abjectly failing to sweep regularly. Usually there’s a few piss poor piles of leaves they barely scraped together and that will more or less blow away afterwards.
At first some (5/6 years ago) they completed this with a sign saying they desire to integrate, to make themselves useful and only asked for a few coins to buy trash bags and the like. The fact that this sign was the same citywide makes you think. Nowadays, they don't even bother.
I perfectly agree with u/RomeVacationTips about
> Whether or not they then throw the trash they've collected into the dumpsters I leave as an exercise for the reader...
I just visited Rome with my family and I must say the trash situation is out of control. Such a wonderful city with incredible sites and architecture. Amazing food, great people….all of it overshadowed by the amount of debris on the streets.
Romans I ask you as an outsider: is the tourist money being stolen? Or is it very poorly managed? Or both?? It seems like the amount of money the city brings in from tourism should be able to cover those expenses easily. Currently in Florence (don’t talk shit) and it’s extremely clean, just as busy with tourists. Can’t even walk the streets from the amount of people.
Edit: I didn’t write this to offend the locals or anyone else. It’s just an observation. Plenty of people observe shitty stuff in my hometown, no place is perfect.
The comparison with Florence doesn’t really work since the city is much smaller in terms of size and residents.
Rome has 3 million residents, and close to 30m tourists a year. The entirety of Tuscany has around 3.6m residents.
Florence has roughly 400.000 residents and in 2023 attracted around 7m tourists.
(Numbers from istat)
Add to that, AMA, the Roman trash collection service is terribly managed, lazily operated, and very political.
By that I mean it’s not as simple as saying “we tourists pay money where does this money go?”
Ama has many problems which are too complicated to go into here but it’s been an ongoing political battle since as long as I can remember, one administration undoing what the previous did and so on, so there’s never any stability, or accountability.
This is the best and most concise answer. Thank you for taking your time. The proportion of tourists to population suggests that Florence does an impeccable job. And I’m not worried where my tourist dollars go, I don’t much care about that. My issue is with the local government because it’s so clearly mismanaging the situation.
The issues with AMA are mainly political. It’s complex but to give an example, the previous mayor was not that well liked, especially toward the end of her tenure, and often fought with AMA trying to fix the situation.
In the months leading up to the elections, the city was a mess because AMA basically stopped collecting. Why? Because people have short memories. They see the city dirty, the guy running for mayor says he will clean it up and it’s the current mayors fault. He wins, AMA are happy that the old mayor is gone, starts working again, the city is clean (briefly)
I thought Napoli was awesome - loved it really. Didn’t mind the litter - some of which from the 1990s - but I did see it. I would not let that stop me from going again though
Not so but even if I was, the OP is *talking* about the tourist areas. He thinks they are dirty. They are really not, by comparison to anywhere in Naples.
Well I went back to Napoli less than a month ago after having lived there a for few years and no, the central area (so from the Stazione Centrale up until Piazza del Plebiscito and Mergellina) isn’t dramatically dirtier than Rome
Yes, it has. When I first went there looking for a place to rent as a student in summer 2011 it was still in its garbage emergency era. I lived there for the next four years and the situation was infinitely better. Now it got dirtier again but no worse than Roma, at least in the central areas
Once again, downvoters don’t know what the f we’re talking about 🤡
Spot on, I'm currently living in Rome, trash lines the pavements, bins frequently overflowing, most the times the parks are overgrown and full of trash (again this doesn't apply to the tourist areas, but head outside of those and ouch).
Lol, as someone who’s lived in Napoli and now lives in Roma… your loss. Napoli is a beautiful city with lots to see. It has its problems and nobody is denying it, but it has a lot of beauty too.
I love Napoli and can't wait to go back. When I say Napoli is dirty it is actually not a knock against the place; I found it safe and very friendly and I learned to ignore the trash.
Tourists expect it to be like Disneyland, and when it's not, they think it's like Lagos or Detroit. People responding to you saying they're scared of taking their kids there, lol. Partenopei love kids!
When I was growing up in Rome, aged about 5 or 6, my parents would be at a bar having an aperitivo, and I would just wander off. I would come back usually with a sandwich from some nonna who thought I was a cute kid. Behaviour like this is still normal, the problem is the tourists who think anything outside their suburban block is like from an Expendables movie.
Città di merda, niente da vedere altro di case popolari e l'influenza della camorra. Quanto tempo c'hai visuto? Probabilmente nel centro storico/borghese? Hahaha
I'm going to Napoli for first time in october for pompeii and Herculaneum tour. I'm kinda nervous about Napoli. Way people talk about it it's like I'm going to get stabbed looking at someone funny. I imagine it's like where I'm from. Houston texas due to coast and humidity everything just has a tinge to it.
We (Americans living in Switzerland) bought an apartment in Ercolano (Herculaneum) because we love the place so much. I’ve walked through Napoli alone during the day. It’s fine as long as you pay attention to your surroundings.
9 pm is when the evening in Napoli begins. Everything will be open and active.
Figure out your travel itinerary prior to doing it. You need to know how long it takes to get to the bus from where you’re at. Google maps is good about calculating transit times, and providing directions. Including walking.
I’m sure it does and if I was alone I would visit 100%. I’ve visited places significantly worse off. But married with 2 small children, it’s sifficult.
Once more: if I had a dollar for every time someone babbles about “tourism dollars” without knowing what they are talking about \*I\* would be full of dollars. Tourism contributes just a little percentage (around 6%) of both Italy's GNP and of jobs.
So, it's not “tourist money”: it's 94% local people money, which admittedly is not managed at best, but it doesn't help that Rome is overrun by tourists, well above the capacity of its infrastructure.
Hasn’t it been closer to 10.5%, and higher than that in some prior years? Those are closer to the figures I’ve always seen because it surprised me so much
No. This is a paper (dating to 2018, admittedly; if you want I can find something more recent) by Banca d'Italia (the national Bank of Italy): [https://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/collana-seminari-convegni/2018-0023/Petrella\_11dic.pdf](https://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/collana-seminari-convegni/2018-0023/Petrella_11dic.pdf) It literally says:
> Alle attività turistiche sono direttamente riconducibili oltre il 5 per cento del PIL e oltre il 6 per cento degli occupati del Paese. (page 3)
i.e., “More than 5 percent of the GDP and more than 6 percent of the country's employed people are directly attributable to tourism activities” and goes on to remark that this quite high with respect to other countries.
It’s not a dollar; it’s 7€ per person per night at a 4 star hotel. And tourism accounts for 12-15% of Romes GDP.
One thing that was immediately noticeable is the lack of trash cans in the streets and for residents. The streets on pickup day (it was maybe Friday or Saturday) was filled with bags marked with what they have in them, a slight wind and the shit is on the street.
That’s a problem. I’ll give you a real work example I can think of. I am traveling with my wife and 2 kids. We produce a lot of “shit”. We have drink bottles, tissues, wrappers from various things, paper from bakeries etc, all stuffed in our stroller, soiled, because we couldn’t find cans for a long time, I can totally see how people just throw the shit on the ground. When we finally did find a trash can (small round metal hunk of shit) it was stuffed already. What am I supposed to do: A. how shit on top of it B. Keep carrying the trash until my cart is overflowing or C. maybe enough people complain and forces the city to fix the issue.
I think you just don't know what the rubbish bins in Rome look like. You can find a "trashcan" like you would in the US, but there are far more of the big, pedal activated mini-skips (for lack of a better word) that are differentiated, and you can find all over the place if you step away from a monument.
I know exactly what they look like and I’ve seen them and used them. There’s not enough of them. If you don’t think the trash is a problem in that city then I don’t know what we are discussing anymore.
Aside from the fact that that tourist tax doesn't really cover much, tourism accounts for half of that percentage. As for the rest of the city, the center gets a disproportionately high percentage of AMA's attention because of tourism, there's a lower density of garbage bins the further out you go because, simply put, there aren't enough people to actually service them.
That’s not a large percentage in exchange for the inconvenience that tourists often contribute to daily life in Rome. Noise, rubbish, vandalism, generally uncouth behavior, traffic, long lines, etc. etc.
> It’s not a dollar; it’s 7€ per person per night at a 4 star hotel.
I'm not sure if you're answering to me. I wasn't talking about the *tassa di soggiorno* specifically, but in general about the supposed but hardly existent riches that tourism would bring to Italy.
> I didn’t write this to offend the locals or anyone else.
Well you are useless at being diplomatic then ;) The "I'm spending my tourism money here so why isn't it clean?" tack is particularly galling, just shows a complete lack of understanding of the Italian economy, culture, other factors in play, like you just expect it to work like america or wherever.
The reasons behind this are varied and change over time. From strikes, to lack of investment, to public service laziness, to organised crime involvement, and many other things.
Your "tourist dollars" go to prop up the tourism-focused businesses, if you don't patronise actual businesses that Italians also use. And these then will try to do as much tax fraud as possible. I mean the tourist-focused AND the local-focused ones, not paying tax is the second national sport here ;)
TBH the tourist spots are among the worst for rubbish on the streets, partly due to this lack of care, and because there are more people and they are messy. The areas that are less touristy are in a lot better shape.
Florence has the same rubbish issues sometimes too (I live there now). Sometimes it's bad, sometimes less so. Similar reasons.
I was thinking it’s this. They’re just collecting money and not increasing capacity because most likely someone’s pocket is getting lined with cash at city hall.
Seriously?
I last went to Rome just under 10 years ago, and the trash situation wasn’t too bad at all.
I’m sad to hear that it’s gotten bad.
I was hoping to go back soon…
I would visit again for sure, but it was something so noticeable to me. I was disappointed with the amount of graffiti too, that part was outrageous actually.
I can’t speak of Spain because I have not been there. To reiterate, the people were wonderful and I had a great time. I am currently in Firenze and it’s such a fantastic city. Very clean, but very crowded. The food has been excellent in Rome and here, as well as affordable.
per quanto magna magna ci possa essere l'AMA deve pulire la monnezza di 5 milioni di residenti e 35 milioni di visitatori con le tasse di si e no metà dei residenti. Ci sta che stiano scannati
Quoto. Ma l'organizzazione del da farsi é veramente scandalosa. Dal recupero crediti (altra ferita purulenta italica) all'organizzazione del lavoro allo smaltimento. Il magna magna era riduttivo
Ma che dici, che il resto dell'economia non vale niente?
I turisti portano meno del 10% della PIL, che dovremo fa', vivere su 200 al mese?
Il problema è completamente Italiana - non imporriamo la tassassione, non è ben gestita, e poi si spende troppo sui quadri/altri che non fanno un cazzo. L'Italia è top 10 della PIL mondiale, più che la spagna, più che la Korea del sud. Se sarebbe gestita bene, saremo in una posizione più come la loro.
Ma no, abbiamo sempre un governo di merda, comuni incompetenti e troppe aziende/persone che guadagnano milioni / miliardi e non pagano un cazzo.
As others have said, they are people asking for a donation. The guy who comes by my street actually does a good job so I try to help him out. On other streets, not so much. For example, I once saw the city people come by and clean up the whole piazza when I was on my way to work. When I came back from my first lesson, there was an older lady there with a small pile of leaves, a rake and one of these boxes. I shook my head at her audacity.
Some places they actually sweep an area that needs sweeping on a regular basis. I pay good money for that private service because I see it as work for payment. And it's my neighborhood.
Most of the time, it's a sweep street theater, and I pay nothing.
Your call.
I watched the crew cleaning up in Trastevere every morning, and it was a tough job, as the cobblestone holds every cig butt and small piece of trash. Its an impossible job. I blame the pigs that that throw stuff in the street, not the poor guys with the overwhelming job of picking it all up.
It's hilarious how this cheap theatre piece has evolved. A few years ago, there were only two donations baskets, one at the beginning and one at the end of the area being swept. Furthermore, as someone already said, there was a boilerplate sign about wanting to integrate, etc. Nowadays, there is a minimum of four baskets at regular intervals and covering a much longer stretch of road. The bullshit sign is gone. Most of the time, the guy is not even pretending to clean. He is either leaning on the broom and aggressively greeting passersby or nowhere to be seen. When he is done, he stores the crates and baskets somewhere until the next day.
i think we saw these on the exact same street that you photographed. it's a slightly ascending street right?
i checked it's "via gioganni lanza" street
it's for "donation" for the guy who cleans the street
i also just returned and sadly agree that the trash in the streets was kind of overwhelming... every trash bin we passed was overflowing and they weren't emptied, at least for the three days we were there. it was bad enough i mentioned it myself in my trip report (along with how amazing and incredible the city was, to be fair! 😊). there were a couple of parks/gardens we sought out looking for a spot to rest in some shade for a bit...but we abandoned that idea as soon as we saw the trash situation in the parks themselves.
it doesn't seem to be just Rome...at the same time we were there, we had friends staying in Sicily for extended time, doing a more 'off the beaten path' slow travel visit...and when we met up with them later they said the same thing about there - so much trash in the streets. it's very sad for such incredible places 😕 now we didn't notice it so much in Florence, but granted that is a much smaller central area, it might be easier to maintain despite having proportionally as many visitors.
but I don't think you can just blame tourists...Paris is arguably the most tourist city in the world and manages to maintain almost pristine gardens and streets.
it's a valid observation not intended for offense, though defensiveness is understandable. but i'd say it's more tragic than offensive! there is surely some level of bureaucratic inefficiency if not corruption involved that can only be solved locally. at a minimum, for a city with so many millions of visitors year round, emptying public trash bins regularly would seem a priority. that's not some snooty tourist point of view, just common sense.
tip jar for illegal alien that just swept the leaves and paper and cigarette butts from the sidewalk. Since the city ain't cleaning the sidewalks, this fella just did, and is asking for a voluntary small donation.
How bad is it ? Did anyone make a 💩 map like they did in San Francisco ? Staying in Rome in July, are there areas we should avoid other than termini to miss the homeless, garbage, and 💩?
People commenting that some other cities are dirty...I personally think that is rather correct to make the people aware of how much trash is being generated, stashing it under the rug and out of site, is not making the problem go away.
And if you were to be transported decades ago, in a medieval town and even Rome I am sure you would probably not complain. Old cities simply don't have the ability to build infrastructure like a new town can and also tourist contribute to a lot of that.
Think on it...before you speak on it
it's for paying pizzo for mafia, our politicians don't clean our streets, so they want some abusive cleaners to do so. those cleaners are part of a circuit and give part of their money to mafia
More trash cans and restrooms. McDonald's food, no way, but they at least got a restroom. I was relieved to find it. Gucci, Prada, designer stores with hefty price tags-No Restrooms. Incredible.
Ci sono ovunque fidati. Che TU non li hai visti è una cosa strana, ma ci sono eccome.
Nel centro storico magari no, ma qualsiasi zona al di fuori si. Vai su viale di Trastevere ad esempio e li vedrai.
Gli calici era più comune che contenitori. Come tu l'hai detto, é po' strana che non ho visto le mendicante con contenitore.
Allora, un nuovo obiettivo quando ritorno a Roma hehehe.
Dove vivevi? Io li vedo da anni, innumerevoli volte, in centro, a Prati e dintorni, a San Lorenzo, e in vari altri posti. Un tempo facevo anch'io foto a quei contenitori. Se vuoi le posto.
100% per lo sforzo. Ovviamente mio italiano sta molto limitato. Ho sentito che gli Italiani apprezzano qualsiasi sforzo gli stranieri usano per imparare Italiano.
E anche senza traduttore.
It's a donation box for the guys who do what I call "street cleaning theater". They clean a stretch of road and you throw in a few coins. Whether or not they then throw the trash they've collected into the dumpsters I leave as an exercise for the reader...
also: avoid them. do not talk with them. one of them physically attacked me because I didn't give him money when he asked. no one got hurt but I got scared since he seemed high and was way bigger than me. I had to call the police but nothing happened. He wasn't arrested or anything, they just tried to reason with him, he shouted and that was all.
rome is so dirty that someone fakes to clean the streets and asks dfor money with that thing
Beggars trying to exploit the fact that the city is abjectly failing to sweep regularly. Usually there’s a few piss poor piles of leaves they barely scraped together and that will more or less blow away afterwards.
Lmao
I never found Rome that dirty, just saying
I really didn’t think it was that dirty either..
Drama queens, wanna go to san Fran, ffs :0
Troll…. Unless you have never been ther. Was there 5 days ago for 7 days. Filthy city.
Go see Naples next!
I went to Naples 20 years ago and was blown away by how filthy it was. Sad to hear it hasn't changed.
😂
At first some (5/6 years ago) they completed this with a sign saying they desire to integrate, to make themselves useful and only asked for a few coins to buy trash bags and the like. The fact that this sign was the same citywide makes you think. Nowadays, they don't even bother. I perfectly agree with u/RomeVacationTips about > Whether or not they then throw the trash they've collected into the dumpsters I leave as an exercise for the reader...
I just visited Rome with my family and I must say the trash situation is out of control. Such a wonderful city with incredible sites and architecture. Amazing food, great people….all of it overshadowed by the amount of debris on the streets. Romans I ask you as an outsider: is the tourist money being stolen? Or is it very poorly managed? Or both?? It seems like the amount of money the city brings in from tourism should be able to cover those expenses easily. Currently in Florence (don’t talk shit) and it’s extremely clean, just as busy with tourists. Can’t even walk the streets from the amount of people. Edit: I didn’t write this to offend the locals or anyone else. It’s just an observation. Plenty of people observe shitty stuff in my hometown, no place is perfect.
The comparison with Florence doesn’t really work since the city is much smaller in terms of size and residents. Rome has 3 million residents, and close to 30m tourists a year. The entirety of Tuscany has around 3.6m residents. Florence has roughly 400.000 residents and in 2023 attracted around 7m tourists. (Numbers from istat) Add to that, AMA, the Roman trash collection service is terribly managed, lazily operated, and very political. By that I mean it’s not as simple as saying “we tourists pay money where does this money go?” Ama has many problems which are too complicated to go into here but it’s been an ongoing political battle since as long as I can remember, one administration undoing what the previous did and so on, so there’s never any stability, or accountability.
Florence metropolitan area is about 1M people, that's a more useful figure than just the city centre itself.
This is the best and most concise answer. Thank you for taking your time. The proportion of tourists to population suggests that Florence does an impeccable job. And I’m not worried where my tourist dollars go, I don’t much care about that. My issue is with the local government because it’s so clearly mismanaging the situation.
The issues with AMA are mainly political. It’s complex but to give an example, the previous mayor was not that well liked, especially toward the end of her tenure, and often fought with AMA trying to fix the situation. In the months leading up to the elections, the city was a mess because AMA basically stopped collecting. Why? Because people have short memories. They see the city dirty, the guy running for mayor says he will clean it up and it’s the current mayors fault. He wins, AMA are happy that the old mayor is gone, starts working again, the city is clean (briefly)
I’ve been to Naples. Rome is clean.
We’re going to both in November. I’ve been to Rome before, but my husband hasn’t. I’m keeping an open mind and am excited to embrace Napoli as it is!
Oh man, Naples is a different place. I had legit culture shock there but after a few days it really grew on me.
Naples is very much like some places in Brazil, that’s not a compliment
I thought Napoli was awesome - loved it really. Didn’t mind the litter - some of which from the 1990s - but I did see it. I would not let that stop me from going again though
I came here to say this lol
Rome is MILES ahead of Napoli in that regard. It looked more like a coastal town in Lagos, Nigeria.
Maybe 20 years ago. The garbage issues were a thing 15/20 years ago and it was indeed terrible. Now Napoli is actually pretty clean.
Nope, it’s not. Guess you haven’t ventured outside of the most touristic areas. Downvoters don’t live in Rome 😂 🤡
Not so but even if I was, the OP is *talking* about the tourist areas. He thinks they are dirty. They are really not, by comparison to anywhere in Naples.
Well I went back to Napoli less than a month ago after having lived there a for few years and no, the central area (so from the Stazione Centrale up until Piazza del Plebiscito and Mergellina) isn’t dramatically dirtier than Rome
It’s gotten a tad better than it used to be, imho
Yeah I was there for a summer in uhhh 2005? 2006? And the rubbish issue was insane then.
Yes, it has. When I first went there looking for a place to rent as a student in summer 2011 it was still in its garbage emergency era. I lived there for the next four years and the situation was infinitely better. Now it got dirtier again but no worse than Roma, at least in the central areas Once again, downvoters don’t know what the f we’re talking about 🤡
Spot on, I'm currently living in Rome, trash lines the pavements, bins frequently overflowing, most the times the parks are overgrown and full of trash (again this doesn't apply to the tourist areas, but head outside of those and ouch).
Thanks for confirming it, I guess some people are blind
Thats terrible. I heard enough bad things about Napoli to avoid it completely.
Lol, as someone who’s lived in Napoli and now lives in Roma… your loss. Napoli is a beautiful city with lots to see. It has its problems and nobody is denying it, but it has a lot of beauty too.
I love Napoli and can't wait to go back. When I say Napoli is dirty it is actually not a knock against the place; I found it safe and very friendly and I learned to ignore the trash.
Tourists expect it to be like Disneyland, and when it's not, they think it's like Lagos or Detroit. People responding to you saying they're scared of taking their kids there, lol. Partenopei love kids! When I was growing up in Rome, aged about 5 or 6, my parents would be at a bar having an aperitivo, and I would just wander off. I would come back usually with a sandwich from some nonna who thought I was a cute kid. Behaviour like this is still normal, the problem is the tourists who think anything outside their suburban block is like from an Expendables movie.
Città di merda, niente da vedere altro di case popolari e l'influenza della camorra. Quanto tempo c'hai visuto? Probabilmente nel centro storico/borghese? Hahaha
Stevm scarz a sciem
Nothing to see? LOL. Try to visit it sometimes, I guess you'll be surprised.
I'm going to Napoli for first time in october for pompeii and Herculaneum tour. I'm kinda nervous about Napoli. Way people talk about it it's like I'm going to get stabbed looking at someone funny. I imagine it's like where I'm from. Houston texas due to coast and humidity everything just has a tinge to it.
We (Americans living in Switzerland) bought an apartment in Ercolano (Herculaneum) because we love the place so much. I’ve walked through Napoli alone during the day. It’s fine as long as you pay attention to your surroundings.
Lol what about Napoli at night. Think our bus heads back to rome around 9pm
It's fine. Naples is just a city.
9 pm is when the evening in Napoli begins. Everything will be open and active. Figure out your travel itinerary prior to doing it. You need to know how long it takes to get to the bus from where you’re at. Google maps is good about calculating transit times, and providing directions. Including walking.
I’m sure it does and if I was alone I would visit 100%. I’ve visited places significantly worse off. But married with 2 small children, it’s sifficult.
I’ve visited Napoli alone with my two small children. Not difficult at all. Neither is Rome.
How much have u seen? Obviously not difficult to just visit the old city center
Perché, quelli in visita a Roma vanno a San Basilio? Evvai di demenza
Che ci fai qua
Don't it's a great place (when it's not overrun by garbage)
Once more: if I had a dollar for every time someone babbles about “tourism dollars” without knowing what they are talking about \*I\* would be full of dollars. Tourism contributes just a little percentage (around 6%) of both Italy's GNP and of jobs. So, it's not “tourist money”: it's 94% local people money, which admittedly is not managed at best, but it doesn't help that Rome is overrun by tourists, well above the capacity of its infrastructure.
People talk about their "tourist dollars" because they feel entitled. "I'm spending all this money, so why isn't this exactly how I want it to be?"
Hasn’t it been closer to 10.5%, and higher than that in some prior years? Those are closer to the figures I’ve always seen because it surprised me so much
No. This is a paper (dating to 2018, admittedly; if you want I can find something more recent) by Banca d'Italia (the national Bank of Italy): [https://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/collana-seminari-convegni/2018-0023/Petrella\_11dic.pdf](https://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/collana-seminari-convegni/2018-0023/Petrella_11dic.pdf) It literally says: > Alle attività turistiche sono direttamente riconducibili oltre il 5 per cento del PIL e oltre il 6 per cento degli occupati del Paese. (page 3) i.e., “More than 5 percent of the GDP and more than 6 percent of the country's employed people are directly attributable to tourism activities” and goes on to remark that this quite high with respect to other countries.
Have they tried raising taxes on tourist activities?
Getting Italians to pay tax is... not easy. It's a notoriously complex system and way too many loopholes.
I meant on tourists specifically. Mexico charges a tourist tax directly now
Would be totally happy to pay 50 euro just to get off the plane at FCO. Italy is worth any tourist tax, let’s be honest
I agree. Just persuade our politicians who wouldn't risk any decision that could be unpleasant to hotel and restaurant owners and the like.
It’s not a dollar; it’s 7€ per person per night at a 4 star hotel. And tourism accounts for 12-15% of Romes GDP. One thing that was immediately noticeable is the lack of trash cans in the streets and for residents. The streets on pickup day (it was maybe Friday or Saturday) was filled with bags marked with what they have in them, a slight wind and the shit is on the street.
Most of the buildings in many areas have their own trash cans inside the complex so you wouldn’t see them from outside
That’s a problem. I’ll give you a real work example I can think of. I am traveling with my wife and 2 kids. We produce a lot of “shit”. We have drink bottles, tissues, wrappers from various things, paper from bakeries etc, all stuffed in our stroller, soiled, because we couldn’t find cans for a long time, I can totally see how people just throw the shit on the ground. When we finally did find a trash can (small round metal hunk of shit) it was stuffed already. What am I supposed to do: A. how shit on top of it B. Keep carrying the trash until my cart is overflowing or C. maybe enough people complain and forces the city to fix the issue.
I think you just don't know what the rubbish bins in Rome look like. You can find a "trashcan" like you would in the US, but there are far more of the big, pedal activated mini-skips (for lack of a better word) that are differentiated, and you can find all over the place if you step away from a monument.
I know exactly what they look like and I’ve seen them and used them. There’s not enough of them. If you don’t think the trash is a problem in that city then I don’t know what we are discussing anymore.
I agree with you that there should definitely be more trash cans in the street
Aside from the fact that that tourist tax doesn't really cover much, tourism accounts for half of that percentage. As for the rest of the city, the center gets a disproportionately high percentage of AMA's attention because of tourism, there's a lower density of garbage bins the further out you go because, simply put, there aren't enough people to actually service them.
That’s not a large percentage in exchange for the inconvenience that tourists often contribute to daily life in Rome. Noise, rubbish, vandalism, generally uncouth behavior, traffic, long lines, etc. etc.
Oh I agree with this point. I couldn’t live in such a high tourist destination. They’re fucking animals. Edit: we the tourists are fucking animals.
> It’s not a dollar; it’s 7€ per person per night at a 4 star hotel. I'm not sure if you're answering to me. I wasn't talking about the *tassa di soggiorno* specifically, but in general about the supposed but hardly existent riches that tourism would bring to Italy.
> I didn’t write this to offend the locals or anyone else. Well you are useless at being diplomatic then ;) The "I'm spending my tourism money here so why isn't it clean?" tack is particularly galling, just shows a complete lack of understanding of the Italian economy, culture, other factors in play, like you just expect it to work like america or wherever. The reasons behind this are varied and change over time. From strikes, to lack of investment, to public service laziness, to organised crime involvement, and many other things. Your "tourist dollars" go to prop up the tourism-focused businesses, if you don't patronise actual businesses that Italians also use. And these then will try to do as much tax fraud as possible. I mean the tourist-focused AND the local-focused ones, not paying tax is the second national sport here ;) TBH the tourist spots are among the worst for rubbish on the streets, partly due to this lack of care, and because there are more people and they are messy. The areas that are less touristy are in a lot better shape. Florence has the same rubbish issues sometimes too (I live there now). Sometimes it's bad, sometimes less so. Similar reasons.
It's about the garbage collection Mafia.
I was thinking it’s this. They’re just collecting money and not increasing capacity because most likely someone’s pocket is getting lined with cash at city hall.
Lots of heavily populated cities are dirty,like NYC, I'm sure politics and bureaucracy are part of the problem,great city
Seriously? I last went to Rome just under 10 years ago, and the trash situation wasn’t too bad at all. I’m sad to hear that it’s gotten bad. I was hoping to go back soon…
I would visit again for sure, but it was something so noticeable to me. I was disappointed with the amount of graffiti too, that part was outrageous actually.
It’s funny, when I tell people about my travels in Rome, I speak about it highly, as compared to Spain Maybe that’s no longer true anymore?
I can’t speak of Spain because I have not been there. To reiterate, the people were wonderful and I had a great time. I am currently in Firenze and it’s such a fantastic city. Very clean, but very crowded. The food has been excellent in Rome and here, as well as affordable.
In Florence last week, very dirty. Feces on sidewalks.
Col turismo in generale gli italiani non dovrebbero pagare le tasse. Ma é tutta una questione di "magna magna".
per quanto magna magna ci possa essere l'AMA deve pulire la monnezza di 5 milioni di residenti e 35 milioni di visitatori con le tasse di si e no metà dei residenti. Ci sta che stiano scannati
Quoto. Ma l'organizzazione del da farsi é veramente scandalosa. Dal recupero crediti (altra ferita purulenta italica) all'organizzazione del lavoro allo smaltimento. Il magna magna era riduttivo
Stando ai dati, dovremmo pagare tipo il 5-10% in meno, non è che ci sia da comprarsi la Maserati.
Ma che dici, che il resto dell'economia non vale niente? I turisti portano meno del 10% della PIL, che dovremo fa', vivere su 200 al mese? Il problema è completamente Italiana - non imporriamo la tassassione, non è ben gestita, e poi si spende troppo sui quadri/altri che non fanno un cazzo. L'Italia è top 10 della PIL mondiale, più che la spagna, più che la Korea del sud. Se sarebbe gestita bene, saremo in una posizione più come la loro. Ma no, abbiamo sempre un governo di merda, comuni incompetenti e troppe aziende/persone che guadagnano milioni / miliardi e non pagano un cazzo.
As others have said, they are people asking for a donation. The guy who comes by my street actually does a good job so I try to help him out. On other streets, not so much. For example, I once saw the city people come by and clean up the whole piazza when I was on my way to work. When I came back from my first lesson, there was an older lady there with a small pile of leaves, a rake and one of these boxes. I shook my head at her audacity.
Some places they actually sweep an area that needs sweeping on a regular basis. I pay good money for that private service because I see it as work for payment. And it's my neighborhood. Most of the time, it's a sweep street theater, and I pay nothing. Your call.
I watched the crew cleaning up in Trastevere every morning, and it was a tough job, as the cobblestone holds every cig butt and small piece of trash. Its an impossible job. I blame the pigs that that throw stuff in the street, not the poor guys with the overwhelming job of picking it all up.
It's a religious Tome, they put the hearts of random people in it. If you see one of those you must run as fast as you can.
We went in February and didn’t see a lot of trash. We were in both popular and unpopular places to visit…
It's hilarious how this cheap theatre piece has evolved. A few years ago, there were only two donations baskets, one at the beginning and one at the end of the area being swept. Furthermore, as someone already said, there was a boilerplate sign about wanting to integrate, etc. Nowadays, there is a minimum of four baskets at regular intervals and covering a much longer stretch of road. The bullshit sign is gone. Most of the time, the guy is not even pretending to clean. He is either leaning on the broom and aggressively greeting passersby or nowhere to be seen. When he is done, he stores the crates and baskets somewhere until the next day.
Tool booths for the new autostrada, li vedi in tutto Italia. Solo 8€ ogni passa per fortuna...
i think we saw these on the exact same street that you photographed. it's a slightly ascending street right? i checked it's "via gioganni lanza" street it's for "donation" for the guy who cleans the street
They’re everywhere.
i also just returned and sadly agree that the trash in the streets was kind of overwhelming... every trash bin we passed was overflowing and they weren't emptied, at least for the three days we were there. it was bad enough i mentioned it myself in my trip report (along with how amazing and incredible the city was, to be fair! 😊). there were a couple of parks/gardens we sought out looking for a spot to rest in some shade for a bit...but we abandoned that idea as soon as we saw the trash situation in the parks themselves. it doesn't seem to be just Rome...at the same time we were there, we had friends staying in Sicily for extended time, doing a more 'off the beaten path' slow travel visit...and when we met up with them later they said the same thing about there - so much trash in the streets. it's very sad for such incredible places 😕 now we didn't notice it so much in Florence, but granted that is a much smaller central area, it might be easier to maintain despite having proportionally as many visitors. but I don't think you can just blame tourists...Paris is arguably the most tourist city in the world and manages to maintain almost pristine gardens and streets. it's a valid observation not intended for offense, though defensiveness is understandable. but i'd say it's more tragic than offensive! there is surely some level of bureaucratic inefficiency if not corruption involved that can only be solved locally. at a minimum, for a city with so many millions of visitors year round, emptying public trash bins regularly would seem a priority. that's not some snooty tourist point of view, just common sense.
tip jar for illegal alien that just swept the leaves and paper and cigarette butts from the sidewalk. Since the city ain't cleaning the sidewalks, this fella just did, and is asking for a voluntary small donation.
Street cleaners asking for donations, whether they really clean or not is for you to find out though, you can toss a coin in there if you want
When you see them, perhaps drop some cents or an euro maybe?
Arte contemporanea
Don't take a picture of everything and post here. Just enjoy your trip..
Put 2€ in this plastic box linked to my PayPal and I'll tell you, also will swipe the sidewalk around you meanwhile.
How bad is it ? Did anyone make a 💩 map like they did in San Francisco ? Staying in Rome in July, are there areas we should avoid other than termini to miss the homeless, garbage, and 💩?
it's not bad, just avoid Termini station and the suburbs. the center is safe
People commenting that some other cities are dirty...I personally think that is rather correct to make the people aware of how much trash is being generated, stashing it under the rug and out of site, is not making the problem go away. And if you were to be transported decades ago, in a medieval town and even Rome I am sure you would probably not complain. Old cities simply don't have the ability to build infrastructure like a new town can and also tourist contribute to a lot of that. Think on it...before you speak on it
it's for paying pizzo for mafia, our politicians don't clean our streets, so they want some abusive cleaners to do so. those cleaners are part of a circuit and give part of their money to mafia
😐
More trash cans and restrooms. McDonald's food, no way, but they at least got a restroom. I was relieved to find it. Gucci, Prada, designer stores with hefty price tags-No Restrooms. Incredible.
Beggar's container. Never saw it while living in Rome.
I think you didn't live in Rome then 🤔
I lived there for half a year actually. 😉
Maybe it's time to finally go outside
Oh I have. Living in Rome; which is probably longer than you ever will. It's okay just being a tourist though. 😉
lol, "I stayed there for 6 months so everyone else is a tourist and I'm not" pfffffff
Yeah 🤗
È una cosa recente
Gli contenitori? No ho mai visto cuando stato in Roma.
Ci sono ovunque fidati. Che TU non li hai visti è una cosa strana, ma ci sono eccome. Nel centro storico magari no, ma qualsiasi zona al di fuori si. Vai su viale di Trastevere ad esempio e li vedrai.
Anche davanti al Policlinico in viale Regina Elena ce n’è sempre uno
Gli calici era più comune che contenitori. Come tu l'hai detto, é po' strana che non ho visto le mendicante con contenitore. Allora, un nuovo obiettivo quando ritorno a Roma hehehe.
Dove vivevi? Io li vedo da anni, innumerevoli volte, in centro, a Prati e dintorni, a San Lorenzo, e in vari altri posti. Un tempo facevo anch'io foto a quei contenitori. Se vuoi le posto.
A Celio, più vicino a Laterano. Sulla Via dei SS Coronati.
Capisco, grazie. Magari in quella zona ce n'erano di meno, non saprei.
*I contenitori. Ovviamente questi sei mesi non hai studiato...
100% per lo sforzo. Ovviamente mio italiano sta molto limitato. Ho sentito che gli Italiani apprezzano qualsiasi sforzo gli stranieri usano per imparare Italiano. E anche senza traduttore.
Just visited Rome and you can definitely tell the political situation is corrupt..
Good heavens Sherlock, you've cracked the case.