The neighbors of the center of Romeindignant, after the famous rental platform Airbnb announced that it will offer tourists to star in gladiator “fights”. in an event organized in conjunction with the Parque Arqueológico del Colosseum.
“The initiative is an affront to the heritage of the Unesco“denounced the coordinator of the association Inhabitants of the historic center of RomeViviana Piccirilli Di Capua, for whom it is about an “unscrupulous” project“(…) that will contribute to “altering the history and daily life of the inhabitants” of the capital, according to local media.
The neighbors thus responded to the announcement launched this Wednesday by Airbnb, after revealing that, in collaboration with the Colosseum Archaeological Park, it would organize the next May 7 and 8 gladiator “fights” inside the monument.. The Archaeological Park argued in a statement following the criticism that the aim of this initiative is to “combine conservation, education and innovation to bring the cultural richness of the amphitheater to an increasingly wider public.”
In addition, he has also assured that the historical evocations have been organized in collaboration with the Ars Dimicandi Associations and the Roman Historical Group, with the purpose of “reversing decades of stereotypes about the gladiatorial world and creating a format in the main Italian arenas to disseminate historiographic heritage on the world of Gladiatura”.
“With this initiative is reaffirmed, once again, a principle of commodification and consumption of culture that goes in the opposite direction to (…) that the heritage be accessible to all, tourists, Romans and Romans alike“, wrote the Councillor for Culture, Massimiliano Smeriglio, in a letter to the CEO of the platform, picked up by the media, to ask him to cancel the initiative.
Other politicians of the Municipality of Rome and its municipalities have questioned the initiative, such as the councilor of the municipality XIII Mariastella Urru: “While a handful of tourists play gladiators, the rest of the town will continue the fight, the real fight, against a market of rental, which now makes it impossible to rent an apartment in our city”.
“Our archaeological heritage deserves much more and Rome cannot be turned into an amusement park“, pointed out, for their part, the councilors Michela Cicculli and Alessandro Luparelli for whom this event is “meaningless entertainment”. In the agreement with the Archaeological Park, the platform is committed to support the project. The Colosseum is counted For the renovation of the permanent exhibition inside the Amphitheater.