Roma Capitale
This political poster was all over via Cavour last week and for some reason (and I have no idea of this man’s politics, but he works in the assessor’s department of Municipio VIII), it really creeped me out. The whole stoic gaze seems very “dictator” to me and a friend, without me even saying anything, stopped in front of the poster as well, commenting that she found the picture a bit strange. Maybe it’s the way the arms are crossed, the way the hair is “just so”, and the way his eyes kind of penetrate into nothingness. I can’t even imagine how much time is spent cultivating this sort of portrait. The funny thing is that about 15 minutes later when I walked back, all the posters were covered with something by the PdL saying the women on their party wouldn’t stand for a leader who clearly had no respect for women. I don’t often speculate about politics on the blog, but I really feel like this article from the New York Times really captures a lot of the issues happening here and the reasons why Berlusconi has remained, and probably will still remain, in charge even in the face of all the scandal.
Another random fact that I learned last week is that Rome is no longer the “Comune di Roma,” but “Roma Capitale.” I guess we needed a way to make ourselves feel more important than everywhere else in the country, but it seems a bit silly if you ask me. The law went into effect in October, but I’ve just now started to notice it popping up everywhere. I can’t help but think it’s a silly bit of PR generation and a way to give away more of the city’s money in printing up new letterhead, etc. Also a bit of overcompensation, as if to remind people that we’re bigger and better than Milan or Turin. Don’t worry guys, we don’t need a fancy new label to know that we’re cooler! (It’s a joke – don’t write me hate comments if you’re from either of those cities).
I wonder what you are doing here.
You are too smart to live in Italy!
Just kidding… I just wanted to say that I follow your blog, I like it very much.
And I agree with you about your thoughts over Italian society
A Roman Girl
Haha, I must be crazy! No, actually there are a million things I love about living here. Thank you for reading and thank you for the comment, I appreciate it!
Hi Jessica! The poster IS creepy – interesting take on the possible over compensation aspect of Rome’s new Roma Capitale moniker. Rome is pretty awesome from a visitor’s perspective.
Best!
Elaine
Roma is now Roma Capitale because of a money issue.
Before of this, the city received the amount of money every big city in Italy had.But Rome is bigger than the other six major cities in Italy and has also a huge quantity of archeological buildings (more than any other city in Italy,if not the world) and has also many more inhabitants(the second city is Milan with one million people,Roma has 3 millions basically)
This is why they’ve changed its status.
But I agree about the name,it’s quite silly.
You are right there is something creepy with this photo. Thinking about it, the posture of the guy and the tones of the photo reminds me of post-soviet iconography, like he was some dictator from Kazachstan… mah!