The phone makes a few rings. “Hi Vellucci, can we have a chat about the retake on Sunday 31st March in Rome? We'd like to know more." “Of course gladly. This week is very messy. Tomorrow afternoon I go back to Rome. All right?". We meet with Simone Vellucci, the president of Retake Roma, in the station at that hour it is very crowded and we decide to find a quieter place outside to talk. Let's go out. "Madam, you shouldn't throw the cigarette butt on the ground" I hear him say "but there are no ashtrays" she replies, he insists "that's not a good reason to throw it there, if you bring a pocket one", the casual interlocutor continues "but look how many there are", "just don't increase the degradation” the answer. The exchange lasts the time to cross each other. Here, our meeting begins like this.
Simone Vellucci is the president of Retake Roma: 29 years old, law degree with honors and mention at the Roma Tre University. “This was an important stage from many points of view, one of which, perhaps the one that is producing the most long-term effects, was the fact that I met, in the context of a selection for an international exchange, Rebecca Spitzmiller professor of comparative law. I studied her profile, read something about retake which at the time was a very limited experience and in our first meeting we started talking about the importance of urban decorum ”.
It was the spark from which it all started. Then for Vellucci a study experience in the United States, a job in Confindustria, now that in a legal consultancy firm in Milan and above all a great passion; Retake Rome. Sunday 31 March is an important moment because it is scheduled a retake that involves the whole city with four simultaneous appointments. Beautiful Rome is the motto of the event and will be biggest retake ever with the participation of over 50 associations, thousands of volunteers and a program of activities that includes urban renewal actions, waste removal abandoned and also educational games on the environment, guided tours, workshops and performances artistic.
The four luoghi of the event will be Colle Oppio (I Municipality), largo Lumiere Brothers (III Municipality), FrPiazza Ragusa (VII Municipality), the canal of the fishermen in Ostia (X Town Hall). Each is paired with a natural element (respectively Earth, Fire, Air, Water), one dimension of the livability of the city (green spaces, squares, urban art, access to the sea) and a tmoney of goal n.11 (sustainable cities and communities) of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) promoted byAgenda 2030 for the sustainable development ofONU. We try to elaborate. What is Retake Rome. Who participates.
"From a formal point of view it is a voluntary organization but it is primarily a movement of citizens that promotes the quality, livability and decorum of urban spaces while maintaining the beauty of the city in a process of collaboration between citizens and institutions in line with the principle of subsidiarity of article no. 118 of the Constitution" then Vellucci specifies, revealing a certain pride "today Retake Roma is divided into 85 neighborhood groups and organizes an average of 50 events a month but in March there were 70. An incredible number. There is no association in Italy that does such a thing. A model started from Rome that is now present in 40 other cities and this month we have received requests from other European countries to create Retake groups. We work so that from Rome there is not only a rescue that involves this city but also gives a model of citizenship and association".
The president of Retake Roma speaks with passion and transport, he has clear ideas. “For me, Retake is a dimension that allows me to reconcile the fact of living in Rome by dealing with the frustration that many small daily disappointments give you, from the lady who has now thrown away her butt as she comes out of the station, to the fact of seeing what that is around us, but for me it is essential to say I am not standing still, I was born and raised here and I feel I have had opportunities from this city, I owe something to my community, I have to do my part. Retake allows you to do exactly that. Who is in Retake basically he shares the fact that he wants to replace commitment with resignation. There is no prototype of the retaker in terms of age, profession, gender, we are very transversal, we are present in suburban neighborhoods much more than in the centre, we are strong in all age groups including elementary school children except in the adolescence also because we are not yet capable of communicating effectively to that type of segment”.
The phone rings all the time, the appointments are approaching. Let's continue. Many retakes scattered throughout the city during the year then occasionally a city event. “Retake is based on a concept that is difficult to translate into Italian; empowerment. When a retaker says in my opinion we should do, we should do, everyone is called to self-activation, not waiting for the manna from heaven from the institutions or the association, we help each other but everyone can do it. Hence the fact that more than 500 retakes are made, the association does not make them, individuals do. Our goal is to mobilize more and more people around this mission. Now this big event. “Sometimes we have to cement our community and say we are in 80 neighborhoods, we do 580 things but we are a community and we have common goals. We asked ourselves what we could do to bring together not only all the ideas and energies of our association but also the civic and social ones present in the city around a theme that transcended cleanliness and was that of the beauty of the city.
This is how Bella Roma was born” laughing our interlocutor adds “someone said that it looks like an American pizzeria but the concept of beauty is intrinsically connected with Rome which is perceived more by others than by us as the most beautiful city in the world”. Walking through the city these days, beauty and Rome seem antithetical rather than intrinsic. More precisely "our ambition is to do something that is far beyond us" Vellucci tells us "and for this there are 50 associations that represent many energies of the city who believe in this mission, there are 8 embassies which are proof of the international dimension of the city, there are all the institutions present in Rome and there are many people who will come spontaneously in the four appointments that we have identified with our neighborhood groups. Everyone made their own proposals and then the most coherent ones were chosen”.
Retake Roma moves large numbers and makes many initiatives, one might think that it masks the shortcomings of others. “I think that our action does the opposite, that is, it highlights them because if there is no one who takes care of certain aspects to which many are accustomed, we arrive who, with our action, by cleaning that pole, make them visible. It's not normal for that pole to be like this, it's not normal for those writings to be there in front and nobody doing anything. So exactly the opposite. Our actions, however practical they are, are always of an exemplary nature, they are not a public service". “In recent years” he adds “I have to say that unfortunately the city's situation has not improved even for the events that pass over our heads”. In ten years of activity Retake Roma has crossed paths with four different administrations.
“Our relationship with the public administrations can be described by the fact that we are their worst nightmare and their best opportunity” he adds in one go “we make the administration work, we are absolute ballbusters, we are at the tables, we open the eyes of others, what we are trying to do is a change of mentality so that we no longer think that the cleanliness of the city is on a scale determined only by the quality of the public administration”. But the situation is there for all to see. “Unfortunately Rome has entered a negative spiral in which many aspects influence, we see a city that loses its sense of itself and this is where an event like Sunday's is born too” he adds “we try exactly to reverse this spiral and give the people the tools to understand how they can affect this process that seems much broader and at the same time frame this individual effort within a collective mobilization. We are Rome, that is, we want and are Rome".
In the president we see all the desire to do even in the way he responds to us, as if by inviting himself to be as convincing as possible. Retake Roma moves many people, a lot of passion, it shakes interests. A temptation for politics always chasing consensus. “I'll be naïve but I think the association gives a solid feeling on the outside. It has its own line, a conceptual autonomy, perhaps this risk existed at the beginning. We have a precise political idea of the city which is based on the importance that the quality of urban spaces determines not only on the attractiveness of the city's economic activities but above all on the quality of life of the people, at the same time we have the objective of influencing politics with our vision”.
Rapid growth Big numbers. A look back. Would she have said that? “Never, never, never” she says smiling “we tell each other every now and then: in Rebe' I just wanted to clean the wall of the house I didn't want to do anything else but evidently when ideas are positive they become contagious”. Sunday the big event. Then. “From Monday I hope that many more people know about Retake Roma and then we will start doing again what has been done up to now which is the trivial but revolutionary figure that has brought us here” Raschietto, post. “I thank you for the opportunity for this reflection” concludes Vellucci. Time has been long but light. There is so much more to do yet
