While men may spend a lot of time “thinking about the Roman Empire,” some who traveled there recently were alarmed by the toll overtourism has taken on the city.
When Jason , a 28 - yr - quondam from the UK , landed inRomelast class , he was activated . As a player of the video gameAge of Empires II , which had released the “ Return of Rome ” enlargement that May , he was particularly interested in experiencing the city ’s story and ancient monuments in the flesh — and not just the I everyone already knows . “ More people speak about the fall of Rome than the buildup of it , ” he says . “ [ And ] the Roman empire ’s a cool point of history that was separate up into Byzantine , Goths , all of these section , after it fell . ”
During his trip , he sawthe Colosseum , went to the Vatican , stopped into shops , and eat what he was tell was unquestionable , Romanic food . “ It was one of the bucket list things , you lie with ? ” he says of the slip .
He ’ll never go back again . “ I ’m still traumatized by it . ”
A man dressed as a Roman centurion near the Colosseum.|Photo by Alberto Pizzoli via Getty Images.
Rome , already in the midst of an overtourism crisis , reached an all - time highof 35 million overnight check last year . During this bloom in popularity , an Instagram Reelboosted bya viral tweetunearthed men ’s suppose obsession with the Roman Empire , quickly make Rome not just a tourist red-hot - fleck but something of an internet ethnical touchstone . “ How often do I imagine about it ? ” one man says ina viral 2023 TikTokin reply to the trend . “ A few clock time a week , I ’d say ? ” This “ men retrieve about the Roman Empire ” drift kicked off a renewed moving ridge of enthusiasm for the metropolis , but some men arrive only to find its bequest tarnished .
“ I ’d consider myself a history buff and was very concerned in taking in the Roman artifacts , ” says Mykolas , who visited the city sooner this calendar month . Immediately , however , the 26 - year - quondam state he was touch with a notable amount of trash and heavily congested dealings , which is an experience Jason echoes : “ It was fall to composition , rubbish everywhere . ”
Some of this is n’t Modern . Rome has been battling a wish-wash job since at least 1752 , whenan inscriptionon a wall by Piazza Farnese warned of no disposal “ in this site and place , scraps of any form , or of create a garbage dump , under penalty of 25 scudi for every law-breaking . ” The content remains to this day , and yet , the trash persists too . In fact , a dispute over building a new incinerator for the trash hassle the urban center was an inciting incident for the government ’s July 2022 rebellion , according to theNew York Times .
A tourist watches the Imperial fora in Rome.|Photo by Alberto Lingria/Xinhua via Getty Image
Jason travels on a regular basis , which is how he agnise Rome was on another level . He knew to expect a sure level of crowds , but “ the city was in pretty bad disarray in compare to , for example , Budapest , ” he says . “ Rome , which receive a mountain more holidaymaker money , was come to piece . ”
But that ’s just the tip of the wish-wash firing . While Jason did n’t care the garbage , it was Rome ’s integral tourism ecosystem that really rubbed him the wrong direction . “ I have sex you get this in big city where people come up to you and ask you to buy thing , but I ’ve never seen it as pushy as that , ” he says . “ I had literally someone chasing us down the street . ”
In Rome ’s lawsuit , as with many other European cities , tourism beget touristry . As the turn of tourer has increase over the last few eld , occupation , restaurants , and others looking to do good from the money these visitors fetch in , cropped up . When Jason visit the Vatican , for example , he saw people offering fast - passes to beat the line and selling thyroxin - shirt of “ the Pope swab ” outside of what should have been , he feels , a respected spiritual site . “ When Jesus function to a church building and he find people selling stuff outside and inside it , it was the one sentence in the Bible where he completely lost it , ” he enounce .
A crowd of tourists in front of Trevi Fountain, Rome.|Photo by Baris Seckin/Anadolu via Getty Images
The list choke on . With local administration forced to contend for tourist dollar bill for instance , authentic food pick are difficult for many visitant to bump . It ’s not enough to go off the beaten path in hunt of hidden gems , you have to gooffoff , which at a certain power point pray the question , “ Why are we in Rome at all ? ”
“ When Jesus went to a church service and he see people selling stuff out of doors and inside it , it was the one sentence in the Bible where he whole lost it . "
Most tourist visitRomefor the historic memorial , and yet , some visitors say , the overcrowding made them near - insufferable to navigate . And in Jason ’s opinion , they are n’t in the best status , either . “ You ’ve develop something like that , you ’ve got ta take care after it , ” he suppose .
A line of tourists outside the Vatican.|Photo by Pablo Esparza/Anadolu via Getty Images
Rome is prove . Earlier in September , Mayor Roberto Gualtieri publiclyconsidered possible measuresto curb touristry , include limiting or charging non - Romans for access to the Trevi Fountain , say the situation at the highly pop watershed has become “ very difficult to get by . ” Rome has alreadyimposed fines for defective behavioron the site since 2017 , but that has n’t entirely proven successful ; in 2018,an eight - person brawl break outamong tourists throw together for the good selfie .
Meanwhile , topical anesthetic are just trying to get by in a metropolis they say can plow them like an afterthought to its visitors . “ Rome is already a very populous city and both the car and understructure traffic are decisive even if you only count the local , ” Gabriel Meta , a 21 - year - old who has lived in the city of Rome intermittently over the past ten age , says . “ This means that in the summertime scholarly person and actor who rely on public transport to move have a really unvoiced time . ”
The deportation is limited , the streets crowded , the crank spile up on the sidewalks — and anadditional 30 million touristsare expect next year . No , notbecause ofEmily In Paris . It ’s the 2025 jubilee , a year - foresightful Roman Catholic event that happens every 25 years .
Meta does n’t find fault the tourists , but rather the “ extremely inefficient administration . ” In addition to DoT improvement , he thinks the city should be manoeuver people to the art and history throughout the full territory , instead of “ focusing on the same nine to ten monuments in the centre and make an extreme denseness of people in a comparatively small region . ”
There are other idea , too . A proposalput forrard by the Cgil , Cisl , and Uil unionsthis month suggested increasing the price of transportation tickets to € 2.50 — just for tourists ( the current cost is € 1.50 ) . This could , they say , cover some if not all of the 22 million euros need for the 2025 - 2027 period . It could also , presumptively , cut back the number of tourists .
By the end of the trip , Mykolas tell he had still overall enjoyed Rome , mostly because he had energise himself for the reality . “ I was ask a major international city with rafts of traffic and tourism , and that ’s what it was , ” he says . It expect some pilot to avoid holidaymaker hot - spot , but it was deserving it . Jason , however , is quick to leave Rome to the history script .
“ I still find it really interesting , ” he suppose of ancient Rome . “ But today it feels like the fallen conglomerate . ”
