Retake Rome: Volunteers Cleaning Up the City's Neighborhoods

Ten years of existence. And about 1.000 shares in a year, almost 3 a day. The story of Retake, born in 2010 with the first anti-degradation raid, is unique not only in the capital of degradation but in all of Italy. So much so that the project could soon be exported to other cities across the country.

RETAKE ROME

Retake Rome It's a volunteer movement whose goal is to clean the Eternal City of graffiti, stickers, and vandalism. The urban decorum of Rome is so important to these people that they gather in groups, based on their neighborhoods, and go out to carry out actual cleaning operations on walls, sidewalks, telephone booths, and so on. The volunteers of Retake They are a veritable army of urban decency sentinels, guarding the common good, the city for all. In total, there are 90 groups working in the various neighborhoods of the capital, mobilizing 2.500 people.

ALSO READ: Diamante, a Calabrian town fighting depopulation with art. Over 300 murals decorate the historic center.

WHAT IS RETAKE

Illegal posters and flyers plastered everywhere—on light poles, gas meters, walls, and in the subway. Nowhere seems to escape this kind of degradation, in which no one is responsible and everyone is complicit. Protect and improve the city It is not always an easy task for these guerrillas of the urban decorum. Sometimes they are criticized and ridiculed.

A group of boys detail their misadventure on their blog Rome sucks He recounted that, while cleaning up the illegal posters that plastered a bridge, passers-by, accustomed to the degradation, mocked and criticized them: "This way the bridge is a sterile place, I preferred the color of the illegal posters!"

TO KNOW MORE: Sant'Angelo di Roccalvecce, the fairytale town, the village's rebirth thanks to murals

RETAKE ROME: HOW TO PARTICIPATE

Fortunately for most of the clean-up (cleaning interventions) a large portion of the population participates, increasing the number of guerrillas of decorum From a few dozen to a few hundred. Every time they gather, there's always a few tourists who join in, ordinary people, and especially many children.

(The images are taken from the Facebook page . “Retake Rome”)

INITIATIVES TO SAVE OUR CITIES FROM DEGRADATION:

• Alba, the city of wine, is becoming a city of water. Thanks to municipal kiosks.
• In Turin, urban decay is being fought with art thanks to a condominium-museum (photo)
• Palermo: Manzoni, Prévert, Alfieri, and Gibran appear on the walls. Against degradation.