Sprayed-on swastikas and far-right phrases were all covered over in the night between May 27 and 28 in Fiumicino, Greater Rome. The seaside ‘borough’ awoke yesterday in complete bafflement. Its high street and nearby roads appeared whiter than white – dazzling. Anonymous individuals had plastered pavement walls, lamp posts, trees and the iconic pedestrian walkway over the Tiber with A4 sheets.
Entire reams had been used. These manifesti sported rhymes and sonnets by celebrated poets from Italy and beyond, including William Shakespeare.
“How can I then return in happy plight, That am debarr’d the benefit of rest?” The first two lines of Sonnet XXVIII were there too, in multiple copies, accompanied by the very best poetic endeavours of Giacomo Leopardi, Arthur Rimbaud, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Guido Cavalcanti, Nâzım Hikmet and others.
