'Rome is on the verge of collapse,' according to its Chamber of Commerce president

Business Insider ^ | 07/16/2015 | NICK SQUIRES, THE TELEGRAPH

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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.

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So was Washington DC