Evicted From Eternity_ The Restructuring of Modern Rome - Michael Herzfeld [88]
Violations of the building code are frequent and varied, but they all seem to follow the tripartite temporal structure indicated by my architect friend. Rome, remarked a Sardinian resident, is like a beautiful woman: you love her and hate her at the same time, particularly because, amidst all the beauty, the city has "grown badly"-and even as he and others complain about this, they themselves continue to challenge the laws. The relatively new institution of the condono is only one of the measures that ensure the survival of Rome's riotously hybrid built environment and perpetuate a far older artistic vision of Rome as a city of beautiful fragments. Piranesi's prints, for example, display artful ruins that emerge as architectural models of Rome's fractured claims on eternity. Piranesi was active during a time when many of Monti's palazzi were constructed. But there are still older corners of Rome-Michelangelo's archway across Via Giulia, for examplethat today, with their drapery of foliage, seem to imitate Piranesi rather than the other way around. In this sense, his prints represent a convergence of foreign visitors' love of picturesque disorder and the ongoing practicalities of Romans' everyday lives. In his day, the city's claims on eternity were already well and truly fractured and refracted-sometimes much more violently than they are today.35
In the modern age, neoliberalism and cheap mass tourism have brought about some unprecedented changes. These notably accelerated at the time of the preparations for the 2000 Jubilee. They have largely worked against the promiscuous vision of Rome as a kaleidoscope of fragments; they represent a more bureaucratic and "protestant" view of the city. The newspaper kiosks, for example, were all required to adopt a visual format not unlike those of their Parisian equivalents. Such homogenization, energetically pursued by Francesco Rutelli,36 sits uncomfortably with Rome's hitherto piecemeal development.
Against that vision, however, conservation regulations have had unintended consequences. Because digging new foundations is highly likely to lead to new archaeological discoveries, bringing construction to a complete halt, most property owners prefer to continue to "restructure" the existing buildings rather than start completely new construction. This process involves sometimes massive changes to the internal disposition of space; houses that have changed little since bathing was done with a sponge or in public baths require drastic refashioning for occupancy by wealthy new owners or renters.
Other objections to the historic conservation regime of the state have focused on the official insistence on using standardized colors for restored older palazzi. A barman expressed deep disgust that a wall facing his establishment was left in a state of dilapidation because the conservation authorities would not permit the use of new colors more in harmony with modern taste; the frustrated proprietor then apparently decided to leave the wall as it was, prompting the barman's irritation. Regulation thus paradoxically attempts to preserve the picturesque confusion and dilapidation of the city, but in a way that removes it from the social and aesthetic agency of the citizenry, erecting little fences around monuments and other features of note: Piranesi's ghost in the age of mechanical reproduction. 37
Romans are not hostile to preserving the remains of the past, but