ROME — If, because it’s mentioned, all roads lead to Rome, then they intersect at Piazza Venezia, the downtown hub of the Italian capital, watched over by a site visitors officer on a pedestal who choreographs streamlined circulation out of automotive chaos.
For many Romans and vacationers alike, these site visitors controllers are as a lot a logo of the Eternal City because the Colosseum or the Pantheon.
That could clarify why the return this week of the pedestal (plus its site visitors cop) after a yearlong hiatus whereas the piazza was being paved, set off a media frenzy — even when there was little site visitors to direct given the widespread lockdown that started this week to comprise an upsurge of coronavirus circumstances.
“In this difficult period, I think that it was seen as a sign of something returning to normal,” mentioned Fabio Grillo, 53, who, with 16 years below his belt, is the senior member of the crew of 4 or 5 municipal law enforcement officials who direct site visitors from the Piazza Venezia pedestal.
In rain or sleet, or sweltering by Rome’s sultry summers, officers have directed site visitors from the Piazza Venezia pedestal close to the mouth of the Via del Corso, one of Rome’s primary streets, for so long as anybody can bear in mind. And the gestures they make with their white-gloved hands is one thing that every one Italian motorists dutifully memorize for his or her driver’s exams. (Important word: Two arms straight out with palms going through motorists is equal to a pink gentle).
“It’s been compared to conducting an orchestra,” mentioned Mr. Grillo.
Apart from common site visitors, Piazza Venezia can be a crossroads that leads to City Hall, the Parliament, Italy’s presidential palace and a nationwide monument the place visiting heads of state routinely pay homage — which all contributes to the chaos on the hub.
“This piazza is the aortic epicenter of the country,” mentioned Angelo Gallicchio, 62, who has managed a newspaper kiosk in the sq. since 1979. “Every person of note who comes to Rome has to pass through Piazza Venezia — you can’t avoid it.”
For a few years, Roman the site visitors police have been instructed by Mario Buffone, whose three many years on the pedestal — making him one of the town’s most recognizable figures — was immortalized in a book. He retired in 2007. “He was an icon for us,” mentioned Mr. Grillo.
Giuseppe Battisti, 47, an officer who has been on the pedestal for 12 years, mentioned that every one that’s required to do the job properly is ardour and “a little elegance.” Though the site visitors alerts are enshrined in the driving force’s code of conduct, “every agent personalizes it,” he mentioned.
Pierluigi Marchionne’s magnificence on the pedestal (his gestures earned him a “He’s bellissimo! It’s marvelous!” from a passer-by on Thursday) — is probably going what grabbed Woody Allen’s eye when he was scouting areas for his 2012 film “To Rome With Love.” After seeing Mr. Marchionne in motion, he was so taken with the site visitors officer that he rewrote the start of his script in order that he may solid him in the film, Mr. Marchionne mentioned.
“He saw me, and then we did a screen test, but let’s say he’d already chosen me for the role,” mentioned Mr. Marchionne, 45, who went on to take programs on the Actor’s Studio in New York and nonetheless often directs site visitors from the pedestal. He can be the creative director of a manufacturing firm that organizes an Italian film festival below the stage title Pierre Marchionne.
Working on Mr. Allen’s movie “was a unique experience,” he mentioned.
It’s notable that Romans in specific ought to really feel so pleasant towards somebody paid to punish site visitors infractions, that are notoriously frequent in the Italian capital.
Until the 1970s, each Jan. 6, the feast day of Epiphany, Italians would categorical their gratitude to the officers by masking site visitors pedestals with gifts. The loot was then given to charity, Mr. Grillo mentioned.
That unlikely affection could have had a lot to do with Alberto Sordi, an actor who incessantly performed site visitors officers in motion pictures, most notably in the 1960 basic “Il Vigile.”
Sordi, who died in 2003, was additionally named an honorary Roman site visitors officer. Last yr, the uniform and props from these movies went on show in a museum opened in the actor’s residence in Rome, now shut as a result of of the pandemic.
“Because of Sordi, traffic cops became more simpatico,” in addition to a logo of Rome, mentioned Mr. Grillo, who can recite scenes from Sordi motion pictures phrase for phrase.
That affection has not been with out some criticism, nonetheless. The picture of the municipal police, of which the site visitors officers are a component, has been tarnished in latest years by investigations into attainable wrongdoing — like closing an eye fixed to unlawful development and taking kickbacks.
A history of municipal police forces in Italy posted on the web site of one nationwide affiliation traces their origins to the guardians of a Roman temple in the fifth century B.C. An instructional movie from the early 1950s from Italy’s nationwide archive, Istituto Luce, nonetheless, as a substitute traces the corps’ historical past to the primary century B.C., in the course of the reign of the Emperor Augustus (there’s a pleasant contact of a chariot segueing right into a convertible).
Today, Piazza Venezia has the one site visitors pedestal left in the town. “It is part of the architecture of the piazza,” mentioned Mr. Gallicchio, the kiosk proprietor.
At first, the pedestals have been made of wooden, and site visitors officers would carry them into crossings.
At one level, a hard and fast, cement pedestal was put in in the piazza, lit up by a highlight on a close-by constructing at night time when no officer was on obligation, Mr. Gallicchio mentioned.
The highlight didn’t assist as “motorists kept smashing into it,” Mr. Grillo mentioned. So in 2006 it was changed with a mechanical pedestal that rises from the paving stones to welcome officers arriving for work.
Now, with the work performed on the piazza this yr, the officers say they’re eager to get again to a job they love and hopefully, grow to be a spotlight of vacationers’ cameras once more after the pandemic passes.
“Maybe we weren’t as famous as the Fountain of Trevi, but we were a tourist attraction.” Mr. Battisti mentioned with a smile. “I bet there are even photos of us in North Korea.”
