L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 14 L'Italo-Americano Traffico Pasquino yields to futility E very March, on the Sunday closest to the Ninth, drivers flock to a Baroque church with a Romanesque bell tower on the eastern end of t h e F o r u m . T h e s e p i l g r i m s , devout Catholics and members of the Automobile Club d'Italia, want their vehicles blessed by Francesca Romana, patron saint of motorists. Francesca was the Mother Teresa of 14th century Rome. Whenever she traveled at night to help the poor, a torch-bearing angel guided her through the unlit streets. Today, engineers invoke her to upgrade the city's traffic lights. Because she also possessed the gift of disloca- tion, the ability to be in two places at once, Roman cabbies place her image on their dash- boards. Inside the church, where the saint's remains are buried in a crypt, the Cardinal Secretary of State, who came from the Vati- c a n i n a " p r e - b l e s s e d " M e r - c e d e s - B e n z s e d a n , f i n i s h e s mass. The altar is lined with parochial students dressed as crossing guards, holding minia- ture stop and go signs. With an aspergillum, the Cardinal Secre- tary sprinkles holy water on a police van, an ambulance, a fire e n g i n e , a n d a g a r b a g e t r u c k parked outside. "Let the saint intercede to protect our way on the roads!" His Eminence intones. "And may motorists drive with judg- ment and prudence!" Raising an eyebrow at two smirking cops, the cardinal makes the sign of t h e c r o s s , a n d t h e f a i t h f u l respond with a blast of horns and sirens. From the Arch of Septimius Severus to the Coli- seum stretches a sea of cars, cabs, and buses. The Traffic Commissioner sighs and adjusts his tricolor sash. Greenpeace recently rated Rome the worst European capi- tal for road safety, traffic, and pollution. More people travel by car or scooter here than in any other city in its study. Some 65% of all trips in Rome are m a d e b y p e r s o n a l t r a n s p o r t , compared to 37% in much larger London, 30% in Berlin, or 16% in Paris. T h a t d o e s n ' t s u r p r i s e t h e Traffic Commissioner. Italy has one of the world's highest auto- ownership rates: 32 million cars for 57 million people. The com- missioner can recite the statis- tics. In 1913, Italy produced only 2,000 cars. By 1925, the y e a r P i u s X I m a d e S a n t a Francesca the guardian of dri- vers, that number had increased s e v e n t e e n f o l d . T w e n t y - s i x years later, when Pius XII began the custom of blessing cars on h e r f e a s t d a y , t r a f f i c h a d clogged the country. As the nation's capital, Rome felt almost obliged to lead the way. The city's core, within the A u r e l i a n W a l l s , w a s n e v e r planned for motorized trans- portation. Actually, most of it was never planned at all but grew helter-skelter. The portions that were planned in the 19th century were made for a horse- and-buggy town with less than a tenth of today's population. The centro storico is a maze. Its few wide, straight avenues— Via Nazionale. Via del Tritone. Corso Vittorio, and the Lun- gotevere—only speed traffic to s u c h h o r r i b l e b o t t l e n e c k s a s P i a z z a V e n e z i a , P i a z z a l e Flaminio, and Ponte Vittorio. S t r i k e s , d e m o n s t r a t i o n s , parades, processions, and visit- i n g d i g n i t a r i e s a n d t h e i r corteges increase the conges- tion, stalling traffic for hours. The exhaust from idling engines suffocate pedestrians and disin- tegrate monuments. Pompeii choked on ashes, but Rome will choke on fumes. Menaced by toxic inertia, Romans drive fast and furiously, disregarding the rules of the r o a d . C i t y b u s e s a r e w h a l e s amid schools of rushing, dash- ing minnows. In the tight, nar- row streets of downtown, pedes- trians jump off sidewalks and i n t o t r a f f i c . S c o o t e r s a p p e a r f r o m n o w h e r e a n d w e a v e between honking cars. Two tex- ters collide at Porta Maggiore. In the old days, muses the Traffic Commissioner, before m o t o r b i k e s , d r i v e r s b e t t e r understood each other. They communicated telepathically at s t o p l i g h t s a n d i n t e r s e c t i o n s . Now, there's so much confu- sion, traffic, and chaos on the s t r e e t s t h a t t h e y n e e d S a n t a Francesca more than ever. If o n l y s o m e o n e c o u l d p r o t e c t them from themselves. When the city proposed per- manently closing Via dei Fori Imperiali to traffic, residents p r o t e s t e d . W h y s h o u l d t h e y commute to work or run errands by threading the narrow, already congested streets behind the Forum? As a compromise, the traffic ban was limited to Sun- days and national holidays, but people still complained. They also clamored for more parking, so the city constructed an underground public garage beneath the Janiculum. Nobody uses it. A fifteen-minute walk from the heart of downtown is too inconvenient for Roman dri- vers. T h e C a r d i n a l S e c r e t a r y waves, and the crowd cheers. As a chauffeur whisks His Emi- nence away, engines rev in the F o r u m . T h e c h u r c h s q u a r e vibrates. Tires squeal. The Traf- fic Commissioner prays that Santa Francesca will prevent speeding. It would be a shame to ticket people on such a beau- tiful Sunday. P a s q u i n o ' s s e c r e t a r y i s Anthony Di Renzo, professor of writing at Ithaca College. You may reach him at direnzo@itha- ca.edu. ANTHONY DI RENZO The traffic in Rome gets worse than usual when it's time to bring vehicles to get blessed on occasion of the day of Santa Francesca Romana © Anna Hristova | Dreamstime.com A busy moment on the streets around the Colosseum © Ryhor Bruyeu | Dreamstime.com LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE

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