The autumnal evening sun fell on the Colosseum, shadowing its arches in light, as a group of angry protesters wrapped in keffiyehs stormed the ancient arena. Inside, they found tourists roaming its stone tiers—and then were escorted out by police between 10 and 15 minutes later.
It was Saturday, October 24, and thousands of rioters were flooding streets across Italy, screaming, throwing bottles, and clashing violently with police as they protested what looked to be a curious combination of cost-of-living concerns in Italy and the ongoing war in Gaza. Some of the demonstrators waved red banners bearing the hammer and sickle, while others flew Palestinian flags. They marched across the city chanting anti-government slogans mixed with calls for a free Palestine and for “police out.”
“We are very angry,” Cara, a protester outside the Colosseum, told me. “About a lot of things: the prices, the rent, the food.” Alicia, another protester, said that “a lot of young people need to decide if they want to work or they want to study because you cannot do both, unless you have a rich family.” Many of the demonstrators, most of whom were young, were wearing leather jackets and carrying bottles of beer. The police line facing them was thin: Some officers were dressed in plainclothes and blocked the passage of protesters as they attempted to reach the government buildings near the Largo di Santa Susanna.
To explain how they had come together, protesters showed me “Mappa della rivolta,” an Instagram account that maps demonstrations as they spring up across the country. As we looked at their phones, stun grenades exploded. Riot police pushed forward and fired a water cannon down the alley, sending people running into side streets.
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