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 

Extension of Rome's "C" line: Change, Disruption, and Ugliness

We lived just off Via Gallia about 5 years ago, and while there we became familiar with ongoing construction of the new "C" line of Rome's Metro system. The work currently being done will extend the C line from the existing San Giovanni Metro stop, near the basilica San Giovanni in Laterano, to the Coliseum. The new line will be beneath an area bounded on one side by the Servian wall, and on the other by via Sannio (and its street-side market) and, further down, by apartment buildings. 

It's no doubt worth doing, but as the work goes on, the impact on the immediate neighborhood is enormous. 

Progress has been made at the eastern end of the project--enough so that a nice, popular park has been carved out above the new line.  That's the Servian wall, with San Giovanni in Laterano in the distance. 

At the end of the park is one of the entrances to the soon-to-be modernized market. 

Shabby in its way, the un-modernized market is also mysterious, captivating, and souk-like.  Plans to redo the space, to make it more orderly and geometric, and less vulnerable to the elements, are posted in the market. 

The market as it is 

A rendering of the new market 

Further to the west, more or less paralleling via Amba Aradam as it works its way downhill toward Porta Metronia, the neighborhood is captive to massive red and yellow construction barriers, which were, of course, immediately covered with graffiti. Some of these barriers are within 10 or 12 feet of apartment buildings--and have been for years. 

Construction barrier at right, graffiti everywhere

Dianne, in still another place where Bill has dragged her.

The Servian wall, of ancient vintage, runs nearby, and parts of it have been braced with metal stanchions to prevent collapse, as construction shakes and rattles existing structures. 

Porta Metronia, left. At upper right, note braces to keep the Servian wall from falling down

A tennis club still exists in the path of the subway, but one imagines that will succumb as more "progress" is made. 

Tennis club. Survival in doubt.

A lovely view. Wine on the balcony?

Bill 

A Tale of Two Libraries and Many Eras

The photos left and below right are from the same building - the Biblioteca Hertziana (the Hertziana Library and Max Planck Institute for Art History) - above the Spanish Steps in Rome.

They illustrate one of our great pleasures in Rome - the mixing of the old and the new, here the Renaissance and the contemporary with a bit of ancient Rome thrown in. The 'grotesque' mask-like exterior was created in the late 1600s by painter Federico Zuccari (for whom the Palazzo is now named), echoing the "Parco dei Mostri" outside of Rome in Bomarzo. 



As many times as we've been up the street - via Gregoriana - and in the piazza at the top of the Spanish Steps (Piazza della Trinita' dei Monti), we had never noticed this amazing facade.














Another library in Rome that inserts the 21st century into older buildings is the Biblioteca Universita' Lateranense (the Pontifical Library at San Giovanni in Laterano).

Above, its older entrance; left, inside the 21st-century library.

A close-up photo of a Zuccari fresco on science, illustrating
a graphic anatomy lesson.

We have spent years trying to get into the contemporary Hertziana during Open House Roma; there seemed to be no other way to see the inside (our emails and telephone calls for personal access went unanswered).  We finally landed a place in 2019's OHR, only to find first what we had not known existed - the 16th- century part of the complex that included Zuccari's frescoing inside the palazzo.

Tourists turn their backs on
Palazzo Zuccari's facade
in Piazza della Trinita' dei
Monti.

A Zuccari ceiling, painted 1590.

But we were there to see the 21st-century library, designed by Navarro Baldeweg and Da Gai architects, 2003-2012. It is magnificent.

Looking up through the glass lined walls, it feels like
one is looking at a James Turrell skyspace.

And, it can't be Rome without the discovery of ancient ruins, in this case the villa of Lucio Licinio Lucullo. The architects solved the problem of excavations delaying the library for decades by creating a "bridge" over the ruins so that the excavations could continue while the library was built and continues to be used. Also discovered were a ninfeo that was in the gardens of the ancient Roman villa.

Model of the Biblioteca Hertziana

Looking down from the library through the glass wall, one
sees some ancient ruins, part of a visual backdrop for the
library's entrance (at this point, being remodeled). This
area is just above the excavations, which have none of the
heavy library directly above them, just the airy space
going towards the sky.

And what would be a Roman palazzo today without a view? Those of us on the tour were treated to the rooftop terrace.

The fellows and employees of the Max Planck Institute
can take their morning coffee up here.

The Lateranense Library had long been on our wish list after architect Nathalie Grenon told us it was one of her favorite contemporary buildings. It too imposes a 21st-century library among older buildings. Architects King & Roselli (who also did the Radisson Blu in Rome) also use stepped floors to give incredible and sometimes vertiginous vistas of light and air to heavy library stacks and work areas. The library was built 2004-2006.

Modern entrance to the Biblioteca Lateranense
with the older buildings of the Pontifical
University reflected.

And as a treat, across the parking lot from the Pontifical library is Borromini's Baptistry (below).

Dianne

Rome's New Metro "Archaeological Station" - "Archeo-Stazione" - its newest and best free museum

Travelers in the San Giovanni metro station amidst artifacts from ancient Rome.

Everyone agrees Rome's 21st-century infrastructure is deteriorating to a new low - piles of garbage in the street, holes in the asphalt big enough to close streets and kill motorists, buses catching on fire, tram brakes sabotaged, parks unkempt, trees falling on cars.  And yet, one can enter a Metro station and be in a first-class archaeological museum that opened this May.

Under this very ordinary Metro entrance
lies an incredible museum.

The expansion of Rome's Metro system to a third (!) line, the C line, resulted, as almost all excavation in Rome does, in the discovery of layers of ancient artifacts.  In this case, the discoveries at the connection of the C line to the A line at the busy hub of San Giovanni in Laterano held up the inauguration of that station by a couple years and in the process opened a window into centuries of Roman life.

Artifacts discovered under the station at this level (more photos below).

Because the station was so deep, archaeologists had the chance to reach depths they don't normally work in. As a result, they used the depth of the station to provide a timeline.  As one descends into the basic 3 levels of the station, the panels on the walls and the artifacts reveal the time lines at those depths.  It's a clever way of showing human, and pre-human, history.

At the top, times for the next trains arriving.  On the wall, an indication that we are 14 and 15 meters (45-50 feet) below current Rome and in the "Middle Imperial Age--third century AD."
Also noted is the year 216, when construction began on the Baths of Caracalla.

One of the most interesting discoveries was of a 1st-century BC water system, on a farm it appears, with pipes made from used and broken amphorae.

A 1st-century BC plumbing system (more photos at the end
of the post)

The station, which opened May 18, has been an enormous hit primarily with Romans.  It may take time for tourists to catch onto this - in reality - marvelous free or low-cost museum.

A central hub - travelers going through the station, and video displays on the right.

The first level is before the Metro turnstiles and thus is free.  But for a 1.50 euro ticket, anyone can travel down to the other levels of the station. The free level has very good videos, in both Italian and English.  The second level is the most rich in artifacts.

Dianne

The escalator going to the bottom level takes one down through time.
On the right it says "Republican age" and then "Proto-historic age."

The lowest level does not have artifacts, but has pictures on the
walls of the kind of life that existed on earth (in Rome)
at this level of feet below the current level of Rome.

A Roman delighting in her 'find.'

Pipes from the 1st century BC plumbing system
(and Bill's hand and camera reflecting in the glass)

The discovery of broken amphorae used to create a pipe
in the plumbing system.

An end piece from the side of a Roman house.

Amphorae

Amazingly enough, the remains of a wooden basket--
1st-2nd century BC.