Rome’s mayor, Virginia Raggi, was elected as part of an upstart movement that called for new solutions to Italy’s problems. While other leaders of her 5-Star Movement party are working out details of Italy’s new governing coalition, she’s focusing for the moment on Rome’s raggedy parklands.
Her proposal? Turn the city’s sheep and cows, housed on two municipal farms, loose to crop the grass. The city has 44 million square meters of green space, and only a few hundred park workers.
As a result, in some areas, the vegetation has grown high enough for dogs to get lost in it and picnic areas, walkways and cycle paths have become unusable. Local papers have been holding contests for pictures of out-of-control flora.
While there’s a long history of animal gardeners (the White House lawn used to have its own flock, and Brooklyn’s Prospect Park uses a herd of goats. The sheep above are hard at work in Cologne, Germany) the proposal has been met with mockery by many who don’t think it’s a real solution to the problem. Area farmers, however, have said they’d welcome the opportunity to bring in their herds.
