Last time I was in Rome I had exactly the same impression. I even saw a discarded air conditioning unit at the feet of an ancient wall and it felt like I was i

Last time I was in Rome I had exactly the same impression. I even saw a discarded air conditioning unit at the feet of an ancient wall and it felt like I was in some dirty outskirts. I turned the corner and there was the Colossuem. Some Italian cities are very clean, others are even more dirty. It really depends and my guess is that after a while locals just stop seeing this. Clean and dirty is very subjective after all.