Anyone been to Rome recently ? I just heard a news article on NPR stating that the trash had not been picked up in months due to the strike . We are headed there in two weeks ! Yikes !
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA
7737 posts
It's wrong. Long discussion here on TripAdvisor, including info from many Romans and tourists currently in Rome.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g187791-i22-k9763191-Rome_Garbage_Strike-Rome_Lazio.html
Posted by
Minnesota 🎒
16752 posts
There isn't a problem. See this previous RS thread as well as the one Michael posted:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/help-rome-trash-problem-traveling-with-kids
Posted by
Toledo, Ohio, US
11613 posts
I was in Roma several times this summer, last on August 7, trash is not a problem.
Posted by
OP
25 posts
Thanks Everyone ! Happy to hear !
Posted by
Forest Grove, OR
11851 posts
It's so clean right now you would not believe it since 40% of the Romans are out of town! But there has NOT been a crisis. Maybe some neighborhood had a problem, but nowhere we've been in the past 4+ years.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA
7737 posts
The fact that NPR reported this story as true has lowered my opinion of their news division. Hard to trust them now.
Posted by
Forest Grove, OR
11851 posts
Well this is a pretty small story for the U.S. market, Michael. I suspect someone opposing the new mayor planted the fiction.
Posted by
Corvallis OR
7180 posts
Michael, I agree. Most 'news' stories today are basically rumors, supposition, and innuendos so it's hard to know if there really is a 'trusted' news source anymore. It seems every news story today has to be double and triple fact checked. But I still think NPR is ahead of most.
Posted by
Forest Grove, OR
11851 posts
This evening I had a chat with a friend that lives in another part of Rome, the Esquilino. This is a rioni outside of the center most tourists visit, past Monti to the east. Termini Station is at one end of the Esquilino. Piazza Vittorio is in the Esquilino, a large immigrant community surrounding. Also San Giovanni in Laterano and the Holy Stairs. This is one of the areas with a garbage problem, but away from where the average visitor woudl see the problems, deeper in the residential neighborhoods. Also Tuscolano, further out, has a problem. No doubt other rioni that are not tourist-oriented nor high income have the problem as well. Apparently Rome's street cleaning and garbage collection efforts are focused on the northern part of the city, the higher-income and the tourist areas. So Prati, Parioli, Pinciana, the area around the British and American Embassies, Ponte Milvio, etc., are being kept cleaner.
She did say their street was particulary bad last month.