Gladiators Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Cities have become creative spaces of total consumption, which constantly refuel the theoretical and practical bases of our consumer society. It is a further stage of the “fantasy city” (Hannigan): McDonaldization (Ritzer) and Disneyization (Bryman) have been largely metabolized and so-called “non-lieux” (Augé) have often become the most significant spaces and have helped to build new glocal identities. In such a context, theming – and particularly historical theming – has become a powerful and effective tool, since it gives a robust structure to the multiple and dynamic processes of mingling that characterize our liquid society (Bauman, 2000). Theming merges past and present, culture and leisure, originals and copies, as well as tourism and shopping, and gives an effective framework to this mingling, which is, at the same time, material and immaterial, visual and emotional, sensorial and experiential.
The relationship with the past is particularly interesting. The central archaeological area of Rome has become a sort of theme park, owing to the huge flows of tourists that it receives and the process of Disneyization that it has undergone, though – unlike many other Italian heritage towns, such as Venice and Florence – Rome still preserves a significant local identity and an urban life that goes far beyond tourism. The theming is present in its urban context owing partly to tourism and partly to the usual culturalization of consumption (hotels with Roman names, restaurants with Roman menus, resin souvenirs of the Colosseum, T-shirts with gladiators and legionaries etc.). We can single out the theming even in some of its most iconic places. The area of the Colosseum and forums, together with Via dei Fori Imperiali, which crosses and unites them, appears as an invisible and diffused theme park: a specialized district for leisure and cultural consumption where archaeological heritage acts as an attraction. It is not a leisure space themed to archaeology, but an archaeological space used as a theme park. Legionaries and gladiators for pictures and re-enactors act as living attractions.
Other spaces contribute to this process. Cinecittà, the dream machine of a boundless park, has helped to build the image of Rome and to theme the city. Its studios host film sets, which are at the same time a themed environment, an unusual archaeological site and a place where the myth of Rome is continually reshaped. Though distant from the main archaeological area, these studios are tied to it by an invisible thread, since they play an important role in the definition of its image. Outside the city, but inside its territory, there is also a small themed district formed by a Roman-themed outlet, “Castel Romano,” and an amusement park, “Cinecittà World”, themed to the studios that nurtured the golden age of Italian cinema.
Similarly, north of Rome, near Civitavecchia, where giant cruise ships bring huge tourist flows, a group of businessmen is trying to create “Roma Vetus”, a pharaonic theme park with reconstructions of many Roman monuments. In line with the current trends of experiential and sensory tourism, visitors would be allowed to relax in Roman baths, mint coins and grind grain. Groups of re-enactors would give life to the park, but visitors themselves would be enabled to rent costumes of gladiators, centurions and senators. We are clearly in the world of entertainment, far away from the open-air archaeological museums with their reconstructions and living-history activities. Its creators maintain that “Roma Vetus” will be used at the same time as theme park and a set for films and TV series. This park is probably destined to remain the dream of a minor group of daring speculators, but it clearly represents the dynamics at work in our liquid world.