Capital City: Rome 1870-2010 (Essay‪)‬

1. Across Two Centuries In his seminal book Roma contemporanea, historian Vittorio Vidotto reminds us that "Roma e sempre stata una citta capitale. Capitale della repubblica e poi dell'impero romano; capitale della cristianita, quindi del cattolicesimo, infine anche di uno stato ecclesiastico. Nella memoria dei posteri--e in qualche misura fino ad oggi--non ha mai perso interamente questo carattere" ("Rome has always been a capital city. Capital of the Roman Republic and then of the Roman Empire; capital first of Christianity, later of Catholicism, and, finally, also of an ecclesiastical state. In the memory of posterity--and, to a certain extent, up until today--it has never entirely lost this character," 4). Rome's contemporary identity as a modern capital, however, was not easily won; indeed, one could argue that this identity is still fluid--a work in progress, as it were, burdened with multiple pagan, Christian, and secular layers. The process of Rome's modernization began with the Breach of Porta Pia on September 20, 1870, when the city was freed from the political authority of the pope: Pius IX locked himself inside the Vatican, declared himself its prisoner, and never came out again. The majority of the population welcomed enthusiastically the Savoy troops: culturally isolated and economically weakened, particularly in the course of the preceding decade, most Romans no longer supported the current pope's rule (Bartolini 17). What had been for centuries a sacred city began the process of officially becoming a secular capital--although Rome's religious hold on Catholics, it can be argued, continues to influence politics to this day.