The Trains Don't Run On Time

Before I get started again, let me take a minute to thank Elizabeth and Dan for filling in for me last week; I hope y'all still want me back! Blogging is a big thing to take on, so I'm extremely grateful that amidst the stimulus bill, and their day jobs, Elizabeth and Dan took the time to keep FedBlog going.

I'm back after a week in Rome, which, in between eating myself silly in trattorias and wandering through lots and lots of ruins, inspired some thoughts on governance. The thing about Italy is, that while the food is remarkable, and much of Rome at least, is gorgeous, some important parts of the city don't really seem to work. The Forum, for example, one of the most important tourist locations in a country with a tourism economy, doesn't have labels for any of the ruins. Not in English, not in Italian. Nothing. It doesn't mar the beauty of triumphal arches like this one (with something this big, it's hard to miss the point), but some explanation sure might be helpful:

The city, including a building that appeared to be the ministry in charge of preservation, is covered in graffiti. Some of it's gorgeous and artistic, like this, from a wall outside a schoolyard:

Some of it's political, some of it's personal, but it's all impressive in volume and scope. But it's also clear that the city's just given up fighting that particular battle, and a lot of battles over historical preservation. The church that houses Michaelangelo's Moses looks as if the ceiling is about to start shedding large chunks of plaster. The Colosseum and the Forum look dangerously ill-preserved. At Pompeii, there's moss and plants growing inside the plastic used to protect some of the frescoes that survive. I felt a bit on edge all the time, as if someone in government out to be sweeping in to save this stuff. Historical preservation in the United States may be underfunded, but I'd say the National Park Service in general does quite a fine job of keeping things from looking as if they're about to rot or fall apart.

But I guess I have to remember, as this monument to Garibaldi attests, that Italy is still fairly new to the business of being a unified country:

Or maybe it's just that, as Bill Bryson puts it, "If the Italians had the work ethic of the Japanese they could be masters of the planet." I wouldn't necessarily trade Italian cookery, for example, for historic preservation. But it doesn't seem like it has to be a one-off. Yes, the Mafia is a major problem. Yes, there's a LOT of stuff to protect. Yes, the economy's going to hell in a handbasket. But historic preservation is at the root of Italy's economy, and in Italy, the stuff to be preserved is so significant it ought not to be lost. It shouldn't be a choice, between divine food, and high fashion, and a relaxed way of life, and keeping the Pantheon standing.

Anyway, just some travel thoughts. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.