Many of the students in Rome have complained about the graffiti on all the buildings. You see many of those that complain are usually Americans or from other countries outside of Europe. In America, Canada and even Australia and New Zealand graffiti is a symbol of gang activity and a run down neighborhood. In Italy, Greece and some of the other European countries these sprayed on symbols are just simply one neighborhood communicating with another one. Or in other cases these are just one sports team fan club dissing or making fun of another sport team fan club. These are quite common and do not mean anything bad or a symbol of a run down neighborhood.
However, with this being said I do not like the graffiti on the buildings like my other American counterparts I think it is a blight on the city and makes the city look really ugly and bad. I wish they would clean it up because it does not convey a good image for Italy. Now I know we are just visiting and when in Rome you should be like the Romans but I can not help to want to clean up the city a bit more.
This is the conflict you will experience in a foreign land. You will want to impose your believes and attitudes on the others who actually live there. This is not a good thing to do by any means. In fact it is quite wise to try to assimilate as much as possible in the community as you can. How you can do this is sometimes difficult but possible if you make the effort. My point with this post is to convey a sense of conformity that you will have to adopt when in a new land. You will have to suppress your biases and beliefs as much as possible in order to fit in. Enough said about that. Ciao.
luxury resort | 30-Apr-09 at 11:36 pm | Permalink
I was really shocked to see all the graffiti in Rome and other areas of Europe as well. Being from North America we aren’t used to the older buildings with beautiful architecture and to see these buildings with graffiti on them is shocking!
Matteo @ Rome Hotels from Venere.com | 09-Jun-09 at 9:03 am | Permalink
It really is a disgrace. Sometimes when I walk by graffitis on monuments i think it is the only place where such treasures are so badly kept.
La Digue | 06-Jul-09 at 5:49 am | Permalink
In my country as well Graffiti does not convey a good message. In fact, Graffiti is translated as spoiling up a clean wall and i truely agree with that. But if it’s how Italian neighbourhoods communicate, so be it. Everyone has his own belief and culture. We have to accept this fact.
Dr. Zombie | 04-Nov-09 at 12:45 pm | Permalink
Graffiti has a very long history – as old as the greatest monuments found in Rome.
Witness the fascinating graffiti found in the excavations at Pompeii, on the tombs lined the roads on the very outskirts of Rome etc.
The history of Rome was written by the upper classes, it’s their names on the dedications of the buildings, graffiti is one of the extremely few direct contacts with the ordinary people.
deadale | 06-Nov-09 at 7:13 am | Permalink
why do they even do that? what for…