Gualtieri looks at plans to open Tevere to public swimming.
Swimming along the river Tiber could become the newest way to experience the Eternal City, and cool off in the summer, under plans launched by Rome’s mayor.
Roberto Gualtieri – who will be seeking a second five-year term in office once his current mandate ends next year – has tasked a working group with assessing the Tiber’s suitability for swimming, according to a report by La Repubblica newspaper.
Gualtieri has discussed the project in the past but this seems to be the most concrete step so far towards achieving the aim of opening the Tevere to public swimming.
Earlier this week Gualtieri broached the topic again at the Festa dell’Unità – an annual event organised by his centre-left Partito Democratico (PD) party – at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome.
The mayor said he hoped to achieve the goal by the end of his potential second term, in other words by 2031, saying the main interventions required relate to industrial plants on the Tiber and the Aniene, a tributary that flows into the larger river in the north of Rome.
Gualtieri cited the case of Paris which hosted the 2024 Olympic swimming competitions in the river Seine after a €1.4 billion clean-up programme, and which opened officially to public swimming this week for the first time in a century.
Gualtieri complained that, unlike Paris, he does not have Olympic funds, seen as a swipe at his predecessor Virginia Raggi who controversially withdrew the Italian capital’s bid to host the 2024 Olympics.
However, according to La Repubblica, the answer could lie in the funds allocated for the Vatican’s “extraordinary” Jubilee planned in 2033, to commemorate the 2,000-year anniversary of Christ’s death.
Gualtieri has used funds for the current Jubilee year to successfully carry out a range of major infrastructural projects around the capital and has increasingly looked towards the Tiber, enhancing bicycle paths and opening up a series of riverside parks.
How much would it cost to make the river Tiber swimmable again? There is currently no estimate however the amount required would certainly be substantial.
The work would involve dealing with both sewage treatment plants, to eliminate bacterial contamination, and industrial plants, to treat chemical pollutants.
Bathing in the Tiber was once a common practice in Rome up until the 1960s when it was first prohibited due to pollution caused by industrialisation as well as the risk of diseases such as leptospirosis which transmitted by rats.
An exception to the rule is made on New Year’s Day when a group of daredevil divers thrill crowds by jumping off the Ponte Cavour bridge into the river’s icy waters 18 metres below.
One of the most famous New Year divers is Maurizio Palmulli, better known as Mister OK, a lifeguard who undertook the annual tradition for 35 years before retiring in 2024.
Asked by La Repubblica what he thought of the mayor’s plan, he said it “would be fantastic, a truly beautiful idea”, and “a beautiful legacy for the capital”.
Pointing out that he was not of the same political persuasion as the centre-left mayor, Mister OK stressed that “beautiful ideas for the city have no political affiliation”.
“If Gualtieri succeeds, he has my full support”, he said, adding: “I’d like to make a request to the mayor: I’d like to be present at the inaugural swim.”
