Cleaning Up Rome, One Tweet at a Time

It’s time to clean up Rome—and ordinary Romans are the most appropriate people to do it. That’s the message of a remarkably successful social media campaign launched in Italy’s capital this past Sunday. Kicked off by well-known actor Alessandro Gassman under the hashtag #Romasonoio (“I am Rome”), the campaign is urging ordinary Romans to stop leaving care of their city to inept, dysfunctional authorities and start taking personal responsibility. On social media, Gassman commented (via Google Translate):

It’s a call to which many have responded. Two days later, the hashtag is still very much alive, both on Twitter and in the media. Locals have been chiming in with support and uploading photos of themselves tackling strewn rubbish, shaming major littering offenders (including shops and restaurants), scrubbing off graffiti, and freshly painting public areas.