For those who were on the Rome subway, that announcement made by the loudspeakers of the carriages, shortly before arriving at a station in the center, certainly did not go unnoticed.
Indeed, in some ways, it was a real shock.
'Beware of gypsies, beware of gypsies', he repeated the voice several times, perhaps evoking the risk of pickpocketing.
Not a new phenomenon for those traveling on the subway.
But such an announcement had never been issued to warn travellers.
An announcement, moreover, with an evidently discriminatory and offensive flavour.
The journalist and writer Francesca Mannocchi
reported the incident
with a post on twitter.
"Metro A, Rome: from the loudspeakers of the carriages, a voice at a station says: 'Beware of gypsies, beware of gypsies'.
Then he returns to announce the stops: 'Next stop Barberini, exit on the right side'", he says adding: "I ask the mayor Roberto Gualtieri if it is admissible". Once I learned that there was a discriminatory and offensive announcement in a station,
Atac , the Capitoline company that manages public transport in the capital, immediately took action and identified the manager: "The announcement was obviously not registered.
It was a personal initiative - Atac reports - which the company deems unacceptable". The manager, therefore, will be subjected to "disciplinary action".
The intervention of the mayor Roberto Gualtieri was also immediate, who condemned the incident in no uncertain terms on twitter.
"It is inadmissible and unacceptable. Atac did well in taking immediate action against those who were responsible for such an offensive and discriminatory act".
An announcement and an episode that will hardly be forgotten by those who, with great surprise, listened to it.
