Fake Fendis are a dime a dozen around Rome. You practically trip over that shit when you walk anywhere in the Centro storico or through the metro foyers.
For shoppers they're like an unobtainable oasis. From far away they seem to glisten and sparkle but that delusion vanishes into thin air when you get up close or worse, when the vendor quickly conceals his wares in his blue garbage bag and abruptly ups and runs off - practically tearing out your hair extensions as he runs off trying to avoid the cops.
If you've been to Rome I know that you've been to the Spanish steps. You know, the gorgeous stairway that links the Church of the Trinity of Monti to Rome's high end shopping area.
Wait, I'm being too arty...
You know, the staircase where you can sit and catch your breath and watch nervously as glowing, humming pieces of plastic are thrown up into the air by street vendors and you remain in a horrified stupor, hoping that they won't land on your head even though you can't look down otherwise you're forced to watch as the guy's colleagues are busy throwing that other kind of plastic at the pavement, watching it ooze and stick to the floor like green vomit.
A classy place.
Well some Romans with money (the Bulgari folks) decided they were fed up with the condition of the steps so they financed their cleaning and restoration. After years of work, the steps were finally reopened this week to great fan fare and a nighttime unveiling, complete with a pack of journos in tow.
Awkward then that the city's cultural attaché - Claudio Parisi Presicce - gaffed his speech and thanked Fendi for their generosity in restoring the staircase before realising his mistake and thanking the Bulgari group instead. Bulgari, probably to avenge the slight [not the way to treat a corporate sponsor tsk tsk], are now demanding that the staircase be closed during evenings to protect its restoration.
Erm, isn't that like being gifted an expensive handbag at night, realising that you can finally go all Joanne the scammer when you get trashed, but then the person who gave you the bag threatens to take back the gift unless you keep it indoors, wrapped in tissue paper and, like, in a safe.
The debate about how and when the Bulgari stairs can be used will no doubt rage in Rome - Romans love a good ideological argument- but for a brief moment in time at least, Rome, in addition to so much inauthenticity in its city centre, also officially had its own Fake Fendi Staircase. #awkward