Marginal Centers - Global Rome: Changing Faces of the Eternal City - page 201

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marginal Centers

Learning from Rome's Periphery

ferruccio trabalzi

F inis terrae, meaning “end of the earth” in latin, is our starting point for
the story of idroscalo: an informal, illegal, self-built multicultural neighborhood
located where the mouth of the tiber River meets the mediterranean sea. an ag-
glomeration of about three hundred homes in varying conditions of conservation
and of uncertain aesthetics, idroscalo has grown amid the benign neglect of all
political coalitions that have governed Rome since the early 1960s. idroscalo and
its two thousand residents are an important example of a persistent urban prac-
tice that, since the end of world war ii, has determined the form and shape of
most of Rome's periphery: unauthorized building. The history of this site reveals
a further characteristic of Rome's urban development: the negligent approach of
city government toward the peripheries, which it often treats as if they were not
part of the city but rather as accidents of the contemporary urban landscape. it is
thus not surprising that when Rome's authorities address the issue of the urban
poor's right to decent accommodation, they often do so in a violent manner.
The fate of idroscalo is currently in limbo because city officials and pow-
erful private investors have unilaterally decided that the site is to become part
of Rome's “second tourist pole,” with marinas, hotels, and other private ameni-
ties. in the middle of this urban renewal fever stand the residents, the majority
of whom have invested all their savings in their homes. The city government is
promising their relocation into completely different housing situations: from liv-
ing together in small, single-family homes they will be scattered around Rome in
small apartments in concrete tower blocks, where the daily face-to-face interac-
tions they are accustomed to will be replaced by anonymous encounters in eleva-
tors and parking lots.
The history of idroscalo allows us to study Rome beyond conventional cli-
chés such as “eternal city,” city of the “arts” and of the “dolce vita.” indeed these

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