Rome’s cultural elite write to Unesco over ‘mortifying’ scenes of rubbish

Artists, professors and environmentalists appeal to world body to remind council of duty to clean up mess

Culture sector workers, artists, professors and environmentalists living in Rome's historic centre have urged Unesco to remind the city's council of its duty to protect the world heritage site as they decried mortifying" scenes of rubbish and other signs of decay.

In a letter addressed to Lazare Eloundou Assomo, the chief of Unesco's world heritage centre, and signed by 150 people, the group said its complaints to authorities in the Italian capital had been ignored.