Nobody really knows how old the house foundation is. Officially, the house is from the latter part of the 19th century. But underneath, there may be plenty of older Roman remains, my neighbor Mario often says.
We are in the middle of central Rome, where the emperors stayed and who incognito visited the most scandalous wine houses, where Emperor Claudius’ wife Messalina performed. The neighborhood is called Monti – the hills – because it includes three of Rome’s seven hills: Esquilinen, Qvirinalen and Viminalen.
I’m looking out my street, where prostitution remained as late as 25 years ago and where Marisa ran a brothel opposite my own house. Today, the neighborhood is really clean and all prostitution is gone in this neighborhood that has become “inside”.
Apartment prices have risen sharply. The Italian state has set up large tax breaks for those who have chosen to renovate houses and apartments. It is a huge renovation boom that is spreading throughout the construction industry.
In these cases, the tax relief can be well over 50 percent. Or even more if the renovation includes energy-saving measures such as replacing old draughty windows. Hence a continuous knocking in the neighborhood.
Lots of building materials unloaded on the narrow streets and completely blocking traffic. Rocco Calamaro has been in the construction industry for a long time.
– I have not seen anything like it, he says. There are no vacant construction workers. And those that do exist demand higher wages.
For a moment, Rocco sounds worried. He has an entire theater to renovate.
Now his problem is to get enough scaffolding. At the moment, there is no one to get hold of, he says in a worried voice.
To date, hundreds of thousands of people and households have applied for lower taxes after renovations. The final figure for the tax cuts is delayed. Italy has 60 million inhabitants and an extremely slow bureaucracy.
Banking will continue. And the builders start early and start drilling as early as seven o’clock.