Poor Rome.
Went a few months ago.
True there was trash but there was a metro that ran on time. A lot of the graffitti in the city center had been cleaned up. The selfie stick sellers were a plague but it was free enterprise of a sort. The people that worked did so with professionalism and officiousness. We were always treated courteously from the guy selling water to anyone else we dealt with....a huge difference from the surly fast foodians who barely look up from their cell phones to take your order.
We did NOT venture out of the touristy zone because that is what we went to see.
Italy cannot long last as the north supporting the south, starting at Rome.
Sad to see socialism so starkly failing here, in Greece, in Spain...won’t be long the rest of the EU will crack and break.
Us too, I am afraid. We refuse to take notes.
The selfie-stick sellers were a plague in Paris where I just came from, still had a great time, but I learned to really hate iPhones, and the Chinese tourists who insists on blocking the street every five seconds to take a selfie.
We just spent a few weeks in Florence. It was, single handledly, the BEST I have ever been treated as a tourist/visitor. The nicest people ever.