![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.kronostories.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_7552-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nby Sandra Jacopucci<\/p>\n
\u201cBy express order of the Most Illustrious and Reverend Monsignor President of the Streets, it is expressly forbidden for any person to throw garbage or dump waste in this street under penalty of ten scudi and other punishments at the discretion of His Most Illustrious Lordship, in accordance with the edict issued on March 1, MDCCXXXXI.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Translated: It is forbidden to throw rubbish in the street. Anyone who does so must pay a fine of 10 scudi and risks additional punishments. And that final Roman numeral, MDCCXXXXI, is 1741.<\/p>\n
For those who enjoy breaking down the number, keep in mind that M means one thousand, D 500, C one hundred, X ten, and I one.
So: M = 1000; D = 500; CC = 200; XXXX = 40; I = 1
Total: year 1741<\/p>\n
Everything is easy to understand except the D, which comes from a graphic simplification by stonecutters of the sign CI\u2183 that indicated the number 1000: half of it, I\u2183, meant 500.<\/p>\n
In the eighteenth century, a worker could earn one scudo or less per day (often much less), so 10 scudi was a heavy fine, comparable to several hundred euros today.
In practical terms, that plaque did not simply say \u201cDo not throw rubbish,\u201d but rather:
\u201cIf you do it, we will really hurt you (in your wallet).\u201d<\/p>\n
In this photograph there is a fragment of past and present life.<\/p>\n The plaque is located in the Regola district, in Via dei Pettinari. The name comes from the artisans who worked in this area during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, especially comb makers \u2014 hence pettinari<\/em>. In the historic center of Rome, it is not difficult to find streets whose names derive from ancient craft guilds and trades that had their workshops here, usually located near the Tiber to allow access to water and river transport.<\/p>\n For example: Walking along the entire Via dei Pettinari, you reach, in a straight line, Ponte Sisto, commissioned by Sixtus IV in 1475 as the reconstruction of a Roman bridge for the Jubilee year, to improve communication between the Vatican and the city center. But what about ancient Rome? The problem was already very serious.<\/p>\n Ancient Romans had sewers (like the famous Cloaca Maxima) for wastewater, carts and slaves to collect garbage, and dumping areas outside the city. There were also laws similar to this one. The most interesting detail is that this eighteenth-century plaque shows us that the waste problem is not only modern. And the solution has always been the same: rules, prohibitions, and fines that often fail to compensate for the lack of environmental respect. At a time when Rome (or rather the Papal State) was already obsessed with urban decorum and streets were considered spaces to be regulated, the figure mentioned \u2014 the \u201cPresident of the Streets\u201d \u2014 was a monsignor with the authority to control cleanliness, manage traffic of carts and people, and prevent the city from becoming an open-air dump. The contrast in the image made me reflect: the warning carved into travertine and, below it, graffiti, crumbling plaster, and scattered litter on the pavement. They are voices from the past that endure, even when everything around them changes.<\/p>\n Amid a certain decay to which, in Rome, we have almost become accustomed \u2014 as if it were inevitable \u2014 three centuries later the wall tells us how difficult it still is to truly stop it.<\/p>\n And that plaque, now almost ironic, makes us smile.<\/p>\n It is one of those streets \u2014 and there are many \u2014 where Rome shows itself without filters: lived-in walls, layers of history, overlapping writings, overwhelming traffic, noise, and widespread disorder.<\/p>\n But there is also beauty in all this: an excess of life that spills out of houses and into the streets. \u201cHey! You can treat me badly \u2014 I am still beautiful anyway!\u201d<\/p>\n Some Roman districts (there are twenty-two in total, all within the Aurelian Walls except the last one established in 1921, the Prati district), such as Regola, Trastevere, or Ponte, are the perfect stage for this conflict.<\/p>\n Markets and street markets, artisan workshops, taverns, hanging laundry, smells of every kind, noises and voices echoing through the alleys. Perhaps it is because of that magnifying glass built into my gaze that photographs begin to speak to me, opening like a kaleidoscope, and it becomes a necessity to investigate details that at first glance seem almost invisible or insignificant \u2014 details that haste or distraction would normally overlook.<\/p>\n And so I would like to launch into a very personal and certainly divisive comment (forgive me): graffiti are not \u201cjust scribbles.\u201d If you observe them carefully, you usually see overlapping layers, marks made at different times, quick strokes, sometimes even artistic ones. The point is not who made them \u2014 something often easy to guess \u2014 but why. Almost an involuntary response of a generation to its own time. \u201cI was here.\u201d<\/p>\n I believe it is a way of leaving a trace that, when it is not indelible, does not even disturb that much.<\/p>\n Let us imagine Trastevere for a moment: perfectly clean and perfumed, without writings, without cars or scooters, silent and well-behaved\u2026 who would recognize it?<\/p>\n All of this is part of the city\u2019s DNA and probably cannot be changed \u2014 only observed with different eyes, like those of a tourist who becomes enchanted and leaves with the desire, in the heart more than in the mind, to return.<\/p>\n I am attaching a poem by Andrea Menghini<\/strong>, Roman by birth, historic television director of Osvaldo Bevilacqua, one of the most talented contributors to Sereno Variabile<\/em>, and author of Diario di borgo<\/em>, his first poetry collection.<\/p>\n Mentre er fiume s\u2019appoggia<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>A piazza Capo de Fero dar mascherone<\/em><\/p>\n l’acqua scenne lenta lenta ner vascone,<\/em><\/p>\n er gabbiano ‘nsolente se frega li rifiuti<\/em><\/p>\n e si t’appoggi ar marmo de l’imperatori<\/em><\/p>\n senti che li respiri sua, ‘n so’ muti.<\/em><\/p>\n T’accorgi che la sera sc\u00f3re e ce fai er bello<\/em><\/p>\n a senti di: “Attento a quello, ch’\u00e8 ‘no sgherro?”<\/em><\/p>\n Sotto l’arcate ce stanno ancora li segni delle pallonate,<\/em><\/p>\n so’ 50 anni e stanno l\u00e0, ferme e stampate,<\/em><\/p>\n sembra che quarcuno quelle mura co li giochi l’ha firmate.<\/em><\/p>\n Ma a te che te frega? Sotto sti portici, sai quanti<\/em><\/p>\n innamorati hanno rubbato baci alle fidanzate,<\/em><\/p>\n quarcuno ha raccontato pure ‘n sacco de cazzate.<\/em><\/p>\n Er ponte sta sempre l\u00e0, er fiume s’appoggia,<\/em><\/p>\n la sera v\u00f2rge co tutti li colori sua;<\/em><\/p>\n er ponte \u00e8 pieno co li rumori sua.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00c8 estate, e l’orgia de li sensi sc\u00e9nne accome pioggia:<\/em><\/p>\n femmine scollacciate giranno ‘n bicicletta,<\/em><\/p>\n nervose s’acc\u00e8nneno na sigaretta.<\/em><\/p>\n S’agg\u00ecreno sfrontate pei vicoli e ‘ntanto<\/em><\/p>\n l’imperatori stanno l\u00e0 senza pericoli.<\/em><\/p>\n Chi s\u00f2na er sax, chi er contrabbasso,<\/em><\/p>\n la gente passa e se diletta.<\/em><\/p>\n L’arabo te venne lo spiedino<\/em><\/p>\n er nano te gonfia er palloncino.<\/em><\/p>\n Le bandiere sui palazzi, er vento l’ha piegate,<\/em><\/p>\n e mentre passi l\u00e0 de sotto rimiri li soffitti \u2018lluminati.<\/em><\/p>\n Sai quante biondine a sti pischelli l’hanno fulminati?<\/em><\/p>\n E noi che stamo sotto, ritti su li marciapiedi,<\/em><\/p>\n le mani ce l’avemo giunte, come a d\u00ec: “Scusate!”<\/em><\/p>\n La santa messa pe stasera \u00e8 sospesa,<\/em><\/p>\n sotto er ponte cor giglio, se arzi l’occhi ci\u00e0i na sorpresa.<\/em><\/p>\n Er principe Farnese? Quello ormai s’\u00e8 dato…. \u00e8 ito.<\/em><\/p>\n Er ponte? Ah er ponte…<\/em><\/p>\n Er ponte \u00e8 ‘lluminato, sta sempre l\u00e0, \u00e8 ambrato.<\/em><\/p>\n L\u00e0 sotto, quarcuno s’\u00e8 fermato.<\/em><\/p>\n E a te, te basta na lanterna, na fiammella<\/em><\/p>\n pe ‘llumin\u00e0 sti vicoli, sti sassi,<\/em><\/p>\n della citt\u00e0, che ognuno chiama, eterna.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Photos and texts: Sandra Jacopucci<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Sandra Jacopucci \u201cBy express order of the Most Illustrious and Reverend Monsignor President of the Streets, it is expressly forbidden for any person to throw garbage or dump waste in this street under penalty of ten scudi and other punishments at the discretion of His Most Illustrious Lordship, in accordance with the edict issued […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[369,370],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-evidenza-en","category-italia-di-osvaldo-en"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Foto](\"https:\/\/www.kronostories.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/A0517321-B262-4D28-9B43-B41520191048.jpg\")
Via dei Cappellari, hat makers;
Via dei Giubbonari, craftsmen producing jackets or doublets;
Vicolo dei Catinari, makers of basins and metal containers;
Via dei Balestrari, crossbow producers;
Via dei Coronari (or paternostari), makers of rosary beads; and many others.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.kronostories.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_9469.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The bridge leads directly to Piazza Trilussa, the heart of Trastevere.<\/p>\n![\"Ponte](\"https:\/\/www.kronostories.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2-Ponte-Sisto.jpg\" "\\"<em>Ponte")
However, in reality, many people threw waste directly from windows, and the streets were often dirty despite emperors and magistrates constantly trying to impose order.<\/p>\n
It is eternal.<\/p>\n
Even today, with digital surveillance and cameras almost everywhere, it is still difficult to stop the problem.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.kronostories.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_8547-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Anti-waste plaques in Rome number about seventy in the central districts (from 1646 to the end of the eighteenth century), all issued by the President of the Streets.<\/p>\n
If you look around, you realize that besides stone plaques embedded in the walls like fragments of \u201curban laws,\u201d there are also many small votive shrines, known as madonnelle<\/em>, with sacred images.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.kronostories.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_8545.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.kronostories.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_1228.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
As if Rome were shouting:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.kronostories.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_8831.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The city has never been perfectly \u201cclean,\u201d but it has always been deeply human, and I believe the iconic Rome that everyone searches for is born precisely from this conflict \u2014 from total chaos and spontaneous (and inevitable) involvement in these urban and human environments.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.kronostories.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_8811.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.kronostories.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_6826.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
They are an accumulation of spontaneous, uncontrolled signs.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.kronostories.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_8111.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
And if you look even closer\u2026 those signs become a form of writing without an author, a presence that says:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.kronostories.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/FFAEA6D0-C43C-4E74-90E8-DC294687444D.jpg\")
<\/p>\n