Follow me, as we descend Dante-like into the hell of Rome’s subway system. And don’t forget to leave all hope behind, o you who enter….

Conca D’Oro train station is brand new. Dig those funky hot pink neons – disco music, anyone?

Eek a train! Would you let your loved ones anywhere near this thing?

But don’t worry: the security guards are really on their toes. They actually stopped hugging each other for a few seconds to tell me not to photograph inside the station… Picture taken through a grimy window.

The inside of the train, is thankfully in slightly better shape than the outside. No shortage of graffiti, though.

Looking through opaque windows into the next car.

Commuters in Rome.

Frazzled faces through dirty glass.

The sad look you get from riding in Rome’s metro.

I hadn’t seen a tonsured friar since i was a kid, at least thirty years ago…

If you don’t ask, you’ll never find your way out: the signs are old, faded and sometimes missing altogether. Nice concrete wall, by the way.

This one escalator ride in Rome’s San Giovanni station is so long that this gentleman had the time to read a whole article in a magazine…
I’ll spare you the details and the nasty puddles. Rome’s subway system is a disaster in the making. In ideal circumstances, it is difficult to find you way around. Just imagine trying to do it in an emergency.
Dante had Virgil to lead him around and especially out of hell, to ‘riveder le stelle’, to gaze once again upon the stars. So ends the Inferno. Best bit of prose ever written in Italian.
Alessandro Ciapanna