Badanti: Caring for the Elderly in Rome

A common sight in Rome neighborhoods is an elderly man or woman walking arm-in-arm, or next to, a younger person.  Often that younger person is a son or daughter, but just as often it's a paid caretaker--in Italian, a badante--from the verb badare: to mind, to pay attention to, to take care of. Bada! (take care!).  Most badanti are immigrants, especially Filipinos (described by a friend as the "Cadillac" of badanti) and, increasingly, Romanians, who now can travel freely within the European Union.  Unlike in the U.S., where older people who live alone--even with a caretaker--can be quite isolated, in Rome badanti help the elderly get out on the street and engage socially, if only for an hour or so in the morning and/or afternoon.

Monteverde Vecchio (and those above)

Balsamo Crivelli

via Prenestina

Bill

Walkin' the Walk, Italian Style

If you've been in Rome more than ten minutes, you've seen the characteristic strolling position of older Italian men: hands behind the back, slight lean forward. What's up? Anthropologists might argue that the walk has evolved in a safe, secure society in which older persons need not, and do not, think about having their hands available to ward off predators. Gerontologists would add that only the slow-walking elderly would assume the behind-the-back position, because only at low speeds is the walker unlikely to need his hands to break a fall.

Bill