Bush Barred from Trastevere

Posted Monday, July 16, 2007, 6:07 PM by Lonely Planet

Being US President carries some major perks - you can get peanut butter and jelly sandwiches anywhere in the world, you get to skip passport control, and you can order troops in and out of foreign countries. But one thing you can't do is walk the streets of Trastevere in Rome, as George W. Bush found out recently.

Trastevere is one of Rome's most picturesque neighbourhoods, a tightly-packed quarter of ochre-coloured palazzi and animated piazze. Thick with restaurants, pubs and bars, it's hugely popular with Romans and fun-loving foreigners who pile in nightly to party into the small hours. It's also, apparently, a no-go area for American presidents.

Much to the amusement of the trasteverini, Trastevere's famously proud residents, George W. was politely, but sternly, dissuaded from entering the area when he visited the Eternal City on 9 June. Before his visit, Bush had requested a round-table meeting with members of the Sant' Egidio community, a Catholic charity-cum-diplomatic organisation with its headquarters in Trastevere. But when it was pointed out to him that the neighbourhood's alleyways were too small for his motorcade and that the surrounding palazzi provided ideal sniper cover, he diplomatically agreed to hold the meeting in the US Embassy.

Thus the world was spared the sight of Bush enjoying a gelato on Trastevere's suggestive streets and the city's frazzled authorities, already worried about the prospect of anti-Bush protests, were saved a further security headache. In the end, Bush's 36-hour Rome visit passed off without major incident. He came, he caught up with his old buddy Berlusconi, he met the Pope and PM Prodi, and he left, leaving the city to its traffic and Trastevere to its trattorie and tourists.

- Duncan Garwood

Labels: Europe, Travelsnitch

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