The Rental Market in Rome

Ciao! 

As we have reached Rome our final location of the trip, it is easy to tell that it is by far the biggest city and one of the most historical!

One of the first landmarks that we went to take a look at was The Great Roman Coliseum. The Coliseum is one of the most well known destinations in the world and it lived up to all the hype! Being my first time visiting the site I was immediately struck with how massive the structure is and how any depiction I had scene in movies or documentaries couldn’t possibly do it justice. On top of that it was by far one of the busiest places we had visited during the trip. Amongst the many people we crossed paths with, I heard 4-5 different languages being spoken and was approached by a different sunglasses, phone charger, selfie stick, water bottle, or Knick Knack salesman, what seemed like every few minutes, it’s a very unique place! 

To help guide us through our visit, we had a local historian walking around with us. She was very knowledgeable about the Coliseum and provided a ton of information that I myself had never knew. One of the facts that I found the most interesting was how during World War 2 the Coliseum was turned into a makeshift Refuge for people seeking safety from all around Italy. This was due to its historical significance that it was declared a no bomb zone. This led to many family’s living together temporarily in the coliseum to wait out the war. This fact was really interesting because the Article that Jake and I discussed this week covered the topic of living in Ancient Rome. 

Our article for the week, discussed how the rental and housing market in Rome was structured. One of the main points that the article discussed, was how many people couldn’t afford to own property and live alone, so in many situations people rented rooms in areas with many different families. The first set up consisted of apartments that would have two main families accompanied with 4-5 other families living in sub leased rooms. On top of that family’s also lived in places of work or even in buildings that served as hotels for wealthy travelers. It’s interesting to think about how people in Rome lived back then vs. today. I would assume that there has been a shift from the tendency to live in such close quarters. However, I would also assume that renting is still very prominent and that living in very close to the shop that you own and work at is still common. It also is interesting to think about a place like the Coliseum that I would normally associate with fighting and death, as a place of safety and comfort.