Well, that just goes to show us that foreigners are strange.
Posted on 07/16/2015 8:10:50 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
No Roman Holiday – the Eternal City is in chronic decline as a result of a toxic mix of corruption, debt, poor administration, and shabby infrastructure
It may boast the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and the glories that were ancient Rome, but the city is now in chronic decline, its business leaders and inhabitants have warned.
The Eternal City is facing crisis, with its administration engulfed in corruption scandals and debt, its roads scarred by potholes, the main airport partially closed, and a growing immigration crisis.
For generations the Italian capital has rested on past glories rather than built on them, but now its multiple problems have come to a head.
Drivers on the metro system are on a go-slow in a protest over pay and conditions, hundreds of flights into Fiumicino, the main airport, have been canceled because of a fire that broke out in a terminal back in May, and temperatures have soared this week to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.7 Celsius), making daily life even more hellish than normal.
"Rome is on the verge of collapse," Giancarlo Cremonesi, the president of the Rome Chamber of Commerce, told Reuters.
"It is unacceptable that a major city which calls itself developed can find itself in such a state of decay."
A survey by the European Commission two years ago placed Rome last out of 28 European Union capitals in a ranking for the efficiency of city services.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
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.
But, that said, you can walk down to a cafe, have beautiful weather, gorgeous scenery, order a world class pastry and espresso or cafe Americano for less than $5.
The Italians will keep on being Italians long after the socialist system collapses.
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.
My son bought one. Talked him down to 5 euro, all he had in his pocket.
I went to the Czech Republic last summer and Prague was insane. I was seeing people shooting up left and right. It's a horrible feeling to see that. Very dark.
I know, right?
In the Vatican you had swarms of folks takin selfies with the Pieta, with St. Peter...with every statue and piece of carved stone in the place. It was like a carnival, not admiration. B
I told my wife for so many folks who profess not to believe they sure cluttered up the place.
But maybe I am just curmudgeonly that way.
We did Florence also on this trip and we will be going back for sure!
We loved the city and the people, as you said, were fantastic to be with and deal with.
We went to the Mercado Centralle, as an example. Just about every vendor was very proud of his wares and willing to pose for pics, chat, whatever. We left so impressed.
IMHO the best city in Europe to visit is Krakow. Had a great time there.
Years ago, I used to walk freely around Frankfurt and never had any worry about any part of town. Last year....I made my way back to the city, and walked down one street about two blocks off the train station. Heron sales left and right....shooters doing right in front of me....just on this one street and for two blocks. Cops nowhere in sight....probably watched twenty guys shooting up at 9AM on a weekday morning. Guys just laying around on the street after getting their high. It’s destroying legit business on the street.
It’s very sad for me to read this. I was stationed at the embassy in Rome 1976-79. It was far and away the best overseas tour we ever had. Back then, there was no such thing as a selfie-stick. It was relatively safe there. C’est triste.
Vienna is a must see city. Their mass transit will get you around to just about anyplace in the city and suburbs. We spent a Sunday afternoon in the park and it was great.The museums are fabulous.Food, wine and beer are great, and it won’t clean out your wallet.
Wasn't that at the height of the Red Brigades terror?
Obama: “If you support my Global Warming Tax, I will make sure illegals get into the USA which will add $$$ into your donation bucket on Sundays.”
Lots of things maybe, but rocks.... dubious
The time to visit the St Peters is when they open in the morning 7am before the touristic hordes arrive. They are still having breakfast then. The place is relatively quiet and serene with the occasional mass taking place in one of the alcoves. I saw the sun streaming in from the front windows and that was a marvelous sight. When the hordes arrive you go up to the roof. If you have some sense of adventure go up in the dome itself. That is how I did it in 1996. Did the museum tour on another day to see the Sistene Chapel. I didn’t know any of this. I read guidebooks beforehand.
Those in higher levels of foreign local governments and foreign government-connected businesses use the Internet to get information and come to the USA.
Others take their places, use the Internet more, then come to the USA.
Then others take their places and soon come to the USA.
You’re getting the most corrupt people from many countries, and you’re getting more of them each year.
They know the next few steps to taking over the USA, too. People from some countries (like Italy) have known these steps for a few decades. People in even more backwards countries have only recently found out.
Get a degree.
Get a government job, a job in corporate management, or become a politician.
There are no professionals. They only learn enough to get into positions. There’s no ingenuity. Corruption is the way.
They aren’t Americans. They don’t want to be Americans. They were already more equal animals, like those who prefer their kind for immigration (their kind: the richer ones in the old country instead of those who only wanted to be Americans).
The first national American step toward this destruction: destruction of the technical trades. Real Americans (WASPs) were deposed by those who were not long descended from Europe, simply obtained degrees and climbed right into management positions.
The second and final step: well, you’re seeing it.
The first part of a solution would be an absolute default, stopping enforcements of regulations against new, small, rural manufacturing starts by WASPs (not necessarily all Protestants, but those with such moral and cultural heritage). Otherwise, forever wallow in the miseries of this newly ruined foreign nation: the USA.
This was not Germany, Italy, Russia, Africa, South America, India or whatever other places the more influential of the foreign hordes are coming from. It was America, as in the USA.
Educate yourselves. Find that morality. Find that ingenuity. Study. Study on your own without the mind poisons of contemporary universities. The answer is to learn, and don’t stop. Do it the rest of your lives. Build something. Make something. Study military strategies.
Wow, that is crazy. Sounds worse than what I saw in Prague. So, the United States isn’t the only place being deluged with this stuff.
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