"Nero is here, Rome is burning." This is one of the graffiti on the walls of Rome after yesterday's demonstrations/riots. Unlike other October 15 Occupy Wall Street events, Rome's turned very ugly, as can be seen in the video from La Repubblica. There was apparently an infiltration by the radical and violent "black bloc," who quickly attacked storefronts (mostly of banks) and set fire to cars and even one Carabinieri van (with a Carabiniere inside, who managed to get out.)
There is an awful lot of discontent in Italy, much of it justified. It remains to be seen where this new movement will go, or if it will just be the latest in a series to show that in Italy (in the words of Tomasi di Lampedusa) "everything must change so that everything stays the same."
