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The Leonardo Express rumbles from Rome’s airport right to the city centre.
After 32 minutes, it arrives at its final destination, Termini, the city’s central station.
An ad in a pedestrian tunnel at the station reads, “Roma Termini — a Place to Live.”
Some have taken the message quite literally.
It’s 11:10 p.m. Stranded people from around the world are wrapped up in their sleeping bags as they lay in front of the exit on the north side of the station.
On some nights, up to a hundred homeless huddle together like freezing people in front of a fire. Many of those who sleep here are African refugees.
During the daytime, Roma from Romania represent the majority in and around the station. Left largely unchecked by the local authorities, they aggresively try to squeeze money out of foreign tourists.
A comment by one British tourist recently got posted on the Facebook page of Ignazio Marino, who became the city’s mayor in June.
The tourist said she had never before experienced “a more wretched hive of scum and villainy” than when she arrived in Rome by train. For safety reasons, she wrote, it is advisable to “spend as little time as possible” at Termini.
Marino takes criticism seriously, but also in a sporting manner. Continue reading.
Source: Spiegel
Image: hotel.rome.it
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