A traffic platform linked to Alberto
Sordi's classic 1960 film Il Vigile (The Traffic Policemen) is
back working in Rome's central Piazza Venezia after a two-year
closure due to nearby metro works.
"I missed it," traffic cop Fabio Grillo, who has been up and
down on the retractable platform since 2004, told ANSA.
"Every time I climb back on top , so many people tell me the
quips from the Sordi film and I have to say I like it, he's such
an important part of Rome," said Grillo, a cinema buff, of the
comic acting legend who died in 2003 aged 82.
"And then, it's a symbolic role, you're in the middle of the
piazza which is a crossroads for Romans, tourists,
personalities.
"The seats of the institutions are everywhere. You see
everything.
Asked to name his best experience on the stand, Grillo said: "A
group of children who were passing by on their way to schools
who said hello to me - and recently, now they've grown up, come
by and still remember me.
The 'vigile' is a friendly figure, representative of Rome."
Grillo and his colleagues were welcome back into the iconic
square where Mussolini used to address throngs by traffic police
chief Ugo Angeloni.
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