On one of the first warm, sunny Friday’s of the year in Rome, I took a stroll through the city, passing tourists heading to the Colosseum and people in suits purposefully striding to their offices. My destination: Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, a point of cultural importance for people from all over the world who have come to live in Rome.
Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, or Piazza Vittorio (as the locals say), is distinguishable from Rome’s other piazzas, as it encapsulates a lush garden featuring a variety of non-native trees like palms and magnolias, making you feel as though you have been transported to a tropical paradise. According to Marta, the leader of our Migrantour, a tour dedicated to showing the history and influence of migration in Rome, the presence of these trees is a part of the Esquilino multicultural identity. The trees are symbolic of Italy’s relations with other countries and welcoming of diversity.
Before embarking on the Migrantour with the other Envoys and Temple Students, I had been exposed to a good amount of information about the influence of immigration in Rome due to my studies this semester. My internship at a law firm dealing with immigration legislation has allowed me to grasp the political and legal aspects that affect immigrants and the country. On the other side of the spectrum, I have been exposed to the more human, emotional side of the story in my “Italian Migrant Literature” class, where we read books written by immigrants about their lived experience in Rome.
At the time of the Migrantour, I was reading Scontro di Civiltà per un Ascensore a Piazza Vittorio with my class, a short novel about residents in an apartment complex near Piazza Vittorio who fight about the building’s elevator while trying to solve a murder mystery. Each character in the novel is an immigrant from a different country, and the book highlights each of their quirks and the difficulties they face as immigrants in Rome. Engaging in the Migrantour at the same time as reading this novel helped me to contextualize what I had been reading, as well as increased my curiosity in the neighborhood surrounding Piazza Vittorio. Being able to connect my studies to the real city was so valuable, affirming that my personal interest in immigration and cultural studies is valuable and can help me understand the world around me.
The tour embarked and we made various stops around Esquilino, popping into shops, chatting with their owners, and learning about places where we could get food and traditional products from different cultures. Of course, studying abroad is about embracing the place you are in and learning about their culture, and I absolutely adore Italian culture and wouldn’t trade that for the world. However, throughout my travels I have visited cities with a strong international presence such as London, where I felt that you could find a community there no matter where you are from- and I wasn’t necessarily feeling that way in Rome.
The truth is that my dark curly hair and brown eyes allow me to fit right in with Italians, and I personally don’t need to worry too much about finding a place where I feel accepted, which I know is not the case for so many people who chose to live or study in Rome. Learning about these multicultural places through Migrantour made me happy to see other cultures being represented here in Rome, knowing that there are places for everyone to feel at home in and be exposed to various cultures.
Io, Venditore di Elefante, is another book I read in Italian Migrant Literature, with the central message that no matter what the response to immigration in Italy is, immigration will continue to occur, and migrants will continue to be a part of the history of the country. I heard echoes of this message as we walked around Esquilino. Many migrant communities in Rome have been marginalized over the years, but they have persisted, and are an essential part of the city. Many of the shops and restaurants in Esquilino have been successful for many years, demonstrating the need for diversity in any city.
The final stop of our Migrantour was the Nuovo Mercato Esquilino, which has been dubbed the ‘most diverse food market in Rome.’
As we walked through the gigantic market, we got to interact with workers at many different stalls which sold spices, fish, meat, and produce from all over the world, as well as meet with the market’s head manager. Utilizing the Italian speakers in the group to translate, the manager explained to us the story of his migration from Egypt to Rome, and how the struggles that he faced were meant to be, a necessary part of the journey to where he is today. Speaking with this man was a great way to end of the Migrantour, as his optimistic outlook on life and adversity was clear and contagious.
Overall, engaging in the Migrantour was an amazing way to connect my studies of migration and culture to the real world, utilizing Rome as my classroom, and to meet some people who have lived the experiences I have been trying to understand. Immigration politics are very divisive in Italy at the moment, and I encourage you to read more about the situation below. While Rome is a great place to visit to learn about ancient history and experience Italian culture, it is also important to recognize it as a continuously growing and diversifying international city.
Learn more about Temple Rome’s Culture & Identity Envoy program.