Rome's Police Cabins: a History, the Sad Present, and Alternative Uses

 

This widely circulating photograph of a Rome police officer directing traffic in Piazza Venezia not only suggests that the officer may be auditioning for a a role in the latest Cinecittà epic, but shows the pedestal used by the officer for visibility and protection from the traffic at one of Rome's busiest intersections.

On our latest visit to the Eternal City, we became interested in the city's traffic control structures, usually referred to in Italian as "cabine" (cabins) or, in long form, "cabine per vigili urbani" (municipal police cabins). They are now sometimes referred to, in English, as kiosks or booths.

According to ChatGTP (sorry, but our own searches failed), the first police booths were created under Mussolini, to make it easier for police to keep watch over the major intersections and grand new boulevards favored by the regime. They were not standardized.

The familiar green metal and glass kiosks were installed mostly between 1950 and 1980, to deal with a surge in automobile traffic and to assist tourists with directions, the loss of a passport, or other matters. Another factor was the police need for fixed communication posts, because radio systems were still rather primitive. The booths/kiosks/cabins were placed at major piazzas and intersections. This one is on the left bank of the Lungotevere.

The cabine were in decline as early as the 1980s, as traffic lights increasingly regulated traffic, tourist assistance became more sophisticated, and the police had patrol cars, motorcycles, and portable radios. Some cabine were removed and others were abandoned, like the one at the intersection of via Satrico and via Acaia, graffitied and surrounded by the ubiquitous orange security tape.

A few, like the one below in the Centro near the Italian House of Deputies (Montecitorio), continue to have a function—in this case, security, though there was no one inside when we came by. No graffiti (active police presence), and a chair inside.

Rome's graffiti writers have had a field day with the cabine, and why not? This one, at via La Spezia and via Nola, in the San Giovanni area, would seem to be dysfunctional, with one window totally obscured. The window graffiti, "Meloni a Fette," likely refers to the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni. The standard translation of "a fette" is "in slices," or "sliced up." 

The intersection of via Panama and viale Liege is so busy that via Panama was recently (and controversially) redesigned. Nonetheless, the police cabina doesn't appear to be viable.

Cabine at night. Piazza Buenos Aires at via Tagliamento (up the street from via Panama) in the Salario district, with graffiti obscuring one window; and a major intersection in front of San Giovanni in Laterano, the basilica behind, the cabin dark and abandoned (there may be a small light on inside).

One of the more interesting, and puzzling, cabine is located on viale Marconi as it intersects with Lungotevere degli Inventori—i.e., just as viale Marconi crosses the Tevere to San Paolo, south of the center city. Shots of the interior of the cabina reveal 2 chairs and, at the right, a button (to change the street light?).

 

The dysfunctional state of most of the existing cabine in time led to the decision to repurpose at least some of the booths as art installations. Under Mayor Robert Gualtieri, in 2022 the city government, in conjunction with the Zètema Progetto Cultura, held a competition, asking young (18-35) artists to present proposals for the decoration of 8 police cabins in "arte figurativa" (figurative) in the following locations: Piazza Vittorio, via Vico Jugario, via Petroselli, via Casilina, via Tor Pignattara, Piazzale Labicano, Circonvolazione Gianicolense, and Piazza di Villa Carpegna. Six artists were selected, and 6 cabins were decorated. We found some; you can try to find the others.

Here's what the cabina in Piazza Vittorio (outside the fence that surrounds the central piazza) looked like in 2025. It appears more than one artist may have worked on the project. The honeycomb design with bee (right side) was accomplished in 2022 by Biceluna (aka Frederica Mancini).

Two sides feature a hand holding a cell phone:

Finally, we thought it would be fun to come up with some non-art alternative uses for the police cabins. Here are a few:

Puppet Theater
Place for Unwed Mothers to Leave Babies
Doughnut Shop for Police

We regret to report that ChatGTP does it better, and funnier. Asked (by our tech-savvy son) to provide humorous alternative uses for Roman police boxes, the AI system produced 12. Here are 4 we thought worthy:

The World's Smallest Airbnb

"Cozy 0-bedroom micro-suite in the heart of Rome. Fits one human shin. E249/night. Cleaning fee E180. Guests must crouch diagonally. No bathroom. No regrets.

     Espresso Bar for Extremely Impatient Romans

A one-customer cafe' featuring:

     One espresso machine

     One barista

     One person yelling "DUE MINUTI!"

You drink standing inside the booth, like a caffeine phone booth.

A Confessional for People Who Don't Want Real Consequences

Step inside, hit a button, and the booth loudly whispers:

"It's okay, everyone hates their coworkers."

Then spits out a tiny printed absolution. 

Gelato Panic Room

For when the heat is unbearable and the line at Giolitti is too long. 

You step inside, the door locks, and it dispenses emergency stracciatella.

Thanks, ChatGTP!

Bill 

Food Truck Fairs in Rome

 

What's not to love about olive offerings from... an olive?

While haunting the near-in suburban area of Tiburtina, off via Tiburtina. we saw signs one day for what looked like an upcoming food fair in Casal Bruciato, part of that area. Besides the neighborhood's memorable name ("burned farmhouse"), the idea of a suburban food fair, far from tourists, appealed to us.

We got there a bit early, before the crowds started to build, and had our pick of food.

Above, the '70s housing some would decry, looming over a few of the 30 or so food stands, offering everything from Mexican food (far right) to grilled almost anything (the arrosticino stand at left).

We delved into some reasonably-priced carciofi alla giudia (Jewish artichokes, one of our favorite Roman foods), complete with sangria from the Mexican stand--probably not a combination of which Romans would approve.

The early fair-goers were mainly families with children, even in the shadow of the beer tents ("Birra Crudo") and cocktail bars ("Aperi-time" - their shelves lined with colorful bottles of Campari and Aperol).

The most prominent advertising was on the porta-potties (photo below): TTS Food ("Hey you, get a move on, the food is waiting"...."Your order is ready...don't take too long."

Only in doing research for this post (yes, even food fairs and Casal Bruciato require some research) did we learn "TTS Food" stands for "Typical Truck Street Food." The enterprise is active all around Rome and its environs and has a schedule. This summer they were in a dozen Rome neighborhoods, including Garbatella, Monteverde, and Trastevere. (Website here.)

Although we didn't stay for the music (see below), we will next time. It is just a pleasure enjoying  Italian food with real Italians - far from the tourists (I wonder how it all works in Trastevere?).

Right, a trumpeter setting up.

Left, arrosticini on the grill - we had some of these too.

The BBQ stand, right, seems to have an identity problem - American or Italian?

Left, pasta in a cup - with the Roman classics.

Right, grilled octopus (or pizza if you are less adventurous).

Left, catching the bus back - never far from Giorgia Meloni.

Dianne

Neo-fascism comes to picturesque small-town Italy

 

Men outside Caffè Europa in the Roman hill town of Rocca di Papa.

We've always enjoyed watching the men (it's always men) in local bars, sitting around, playing cards, talking. It seems very communal, a good place for these apparently retired Italians. We were consequently horrified to see the small town where the photo above was taken, our favorite small town in the Alban Hills outside of Rome, identified by the New York Times this past week as a hot bed of neo-Fascism.

We had become inured to the fact that Giorgia Meloni, head of the Fratelli d'Italia party ("Brothers of Italy"), would become prime minister. For months the polls had shown her leading, even if her party received only about one-quarter of the vote. She made a pact with some other devils, including Silvio Berlusconi and Matteo Salvini, on her way to the top post in Italy. Salvini was rewarded with the position of Deputy Prime Minister and - get this and don't choke - Minister of Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility (no wonder Italian Facebook went nuts over this Brave-New-World-speak).

We've also been keenly aware of the posters and graffiti around Rome that even decades ago promoted neo-Fascism. We wrote about some of these in our posts on posters and right-wing "heroes." (See here and here.)

What appalled us (and we can hear all our Roman friends going, "DUH!") was that our charming, special, sweet town voted 38% for Meloni's party, knowing they were reviving Fascism.

Are those men above likely Fascists? The New York Times featured the bar across the way, Bar Centrale. But my guess is, yes, you're looking at the right-wing there playing cards.

We had noted in a 2014 post a building we thought likely had been Fascist headquarters until after World War II. It's got the bulky look of buildings of that era, it's now a municipal building, and the date is obvious:  "A.D. 1935." One of our loyal readers, Marco, questioned that interpretation, saying: 

"I find it unlikely that the building in the photo may have been once the Party's HQ - not only the style is not Fascist in appearance, but the Fascist Era (Anno XIII E.F.) mark is nowhere to be seen on the building's façade, as are any remnants of chipped-away fasces one'd expect to find on such buildings."

He makes some good points, and perhaps we were wrong about the past (if there were some other factors we had taken into account there, I don't recall them), but there's no question about the present for Rocca di Papa.

One reason we favor the town is that it's the starting point for one of our best hikes, up Monte Cavo. In fact the photo we took, right, of Monte Cavo from the town, was taken from the now infamous (to us) Bar Centrale.

It's not hard to find men hanging out outside the bars or in the very large square that dominates the lower part of the town. (See photo below.)

From now on, we will have to listen more carefully to their conversations, though maybe we won't like what we hear.

Caffè Europa  is dear to our hearts because it's not only where we've always started (coffee) our hikes, it's also where we've ended (beer) them, and parked our scooter. The photo below was taken with our 2nd of three scooters (historically, not all at once), the foregrounded Malaguti, while the guys play cards, per usual.

That the town is picturesque is an understatement, and it's beautifully sited below Monte Cavo (see photo at end of this post). Its "shield" features the "rocca" or fortress - on the fountain that graces the top of the large square in the photo below. And the "Papa" is for a 12th century Pope who lived there (Eugenio III).

Another view below is from the cemetery, and in the distance the ruins of ancient Tusculum, a Roman town. Everything in Rocca di Papa, including the cemetery (and that 1935 building above) is on a slant, given its position on the steeply sloping hillside.

More in a later post on Mussolini and the rise of neo-Fascism.

Dianne

The town of Rocca di Papa, seen from the main piazza. The first phase of the hike to Monte
Cavo is getting to the top of Rocca di Papa via picturesque city streets. The mountain itself is straight ahead but is not visible in the photo.