As Romans complain about the degradation of their city, seagulls continue to exploit it

Rome’s gull population has grown in recent years to the tens of thousands, according to experts

Tuesday 18 September 2018 11:04 BST
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If some mayors promise a chicken in every pot, Rome’s have delivered a gull atop every rubbish bin
If some mayors promise a chicken in every pot, Rome’s have delivered a gull atop every rubbish bin

In her fourth-floor apartment in central Rome, Emanuela Tripi wakes at dawn to the terrifying sounds of a home invasion. She creeps into her kitchen and spots the culprit – long white neck, red-rimmed eyes, yellow-webbed feet – stabbing its beak into a rubbish bag.

Growing up in Sicily, Tripi always had a romantic vision of seagulls, but now she is face to face with a predator that is aggressively colonising a city a good 20 miles from the sea. She throws a slipper. It ignores her. She lifts a second slipper. It caws violently, takes flight and charges.

“Arrivederci, you win,” she thinks as she runs out of the kitchen, closing the door behind her.

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