A museum station, or rather a "narrative station", as the Superintendent Francesco Prosperetti and the mayor Virginia Raggi have defined it, present at theinauguration of the new San Giovanni station of the C underground line in Rome. A unique jewel in the world, a journey through time among the finds of imperial Rome (including an avant-garde plumbing system and even peach pits from two thousand years ago, found intact), which on Saturday 1st April will also be open to the public .
But if on the historical and cultural side there is nothing to complain about the great work done by Special Superintendency for the Colosseum and the central archaeological area of Rome and by the company that is carrying out the work, the Metro C SCpA (a consortium in which, among others, Astaldi and Ansaldo Sts participate), there are however some clouds over the near future of public transport service, for millions of Roman citizens and tourists arriving from all over the world.
In fact, it is estimated that the fully operational line C it will be able to transport 600 people a day with a capacity of 60 passengers during peak hours, but the point is precisely that: when will San Giovanni station become fully operational, which among other things will have to guarantee the crucial connection with line A? The councilor for mobility Linda Meleo has ensured that the stop will come into operation "within the year", i.e. presumably after the summer, even if it is not yet said that the connection with the line A station will be fully guaranteed right away , because the adjustment works according to the technicians could continue until 2018 forwarded. In any case, it will not be necessary to stamp a second ticket, of course, but the junction (the first of line C, so far isolated from the others and which in the programs will also intersect line B at the Colosseum) may not be so agile right away.
Then there is the issue of train frequency: so far the C goes to a train (of the latest generation, driverless) every 20 minutes, but the connection with the very busy line A would require many more. And then will they be able to respect the times for arriving at the Colosseum in 2021 to reconnect to line B? But above all, will there be the political will on the part of the 5-star council, which in the past has expressed more than a few perplexities, to extend the project to piazza Venezia and then to piazzale Clodio, as envisaged in the original project? On these aspects, the answers of Virginia Raggi and the councilor Meleo were not so definitive: "We are evaluating the best solution for the city", they said in response to questions from journalists.
Another small flaw is the usability of this unattainable underground museum to the international public. As the mayor also pointed out in the conference, many of the illustrative panels distributed on the various floors of the station, which retrace 21 phases of the history of Rome, from prehistory to the Empire, they are not translated into English: "The hope is that this work can be implemented", said the first 5-star citizen, recalling the importance of enhancing what elsewhere in the world would be a real museum, for its artistic value. In which other city in the world, just above where the trains will pass in a few months, was there a farm where the slaves worked on a large peach orchard? There are dozens of hazelnuts left, the roots, the pots for the cuttings, the other humble tools of work. Testimonies of daily life, waiting for the C line to enter today's daily life.
