In 2015, Italians resigned from Roman numeration, which is still present on road signs and documents after thousands of years.
According to the new directive approved by the city of Rome, the Roman legacy was to disappear from the city’s public life. For example, the current Corso Vittorio Emanuele II will be called Corso Vittorio Emanuele Secondo. Another famous Roman street, S. Pio X, will turn into S. Pio Decimo. The directive was proposed by Istat – the national statistical agency, which, in its opinion, was to standardize and simplify the Italian numerical system. Changes to the streets will be implemented gradually, however, the marking of the documents will be corrected immediately.
The city council’s decision was badly received by the press. Mario Ajello, the commentator for Il Messaggero, said the new rules were “cultural suicide”. The renumbering directive is another poorly rated step to improve Rome. Earlier, city officials introduced more official state slogans in English. In addition, the official image of the city was abandoned – the she-wolf feeding Romulus and Remus – the most famous symbol of Rome.
