Interesting Piece about Rome -

One of the things I agree with the author about is that Romans seem not to care. It is “someone else’s problem.” Trash overflowing? Why walk down the street and look for another bin? Just add to the heap.

We lived on a street too narrow for all the types of bins necessary — only trash bins were on our street — so we had to walk a block to dispose of recyclables (separated into 4 categories). So many people could not be bothered. They simply added recycling to trash and walked away.

Contrast Rome with Northern Italian cities or anywhere in Switzerland. The problems can be dealt with but citizens as well as government have to care and cooperate.

Most tourist areas do not have the trash heaps or rats. Residential areas you would seldom see have been the exception, especially in non-upper class areas.

There are two previous threads going about that article:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/an-interesting-article-in-ny-times-on-rome-s-real-world-conditions

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/so-why-are-us-newspapers-saying-how-terrible-italy-is

I am here right now (January 5, 2019) and am not seeing this in our area. There are trash and street crews visible every day. We are staying near the Vatican but on the opposite side of the river. It could certainly be true in other areas of Rome but, as of day 2, it has been cleaner than comparable US metro areas.

I just returned from 2 weeks in Rome, staying in the tourist area near Campo di Fiori. I was concerned about trash buildup as the issue recently had been in the press. We were there over the Christmas holidays so I thought we might be in for a problem. There was no problem visible in that area or in any other usual tourist area (Coloseum, Plaza Venezia, Corso shopping district, etc). There were many trash receptacles on the main streets that were emptied regularly. I did not see anything overflowing, and I also so trash collection trucks out on Christmas Eve AND on Christmas Day.