Linea 105 - Cento Cinque

there is a circulating joke among insiders

that goes sumtin like this:

do yu kno what the 105 [105 is the bus number] stands for?

It stands fo; 100 foreigners and 5 italians including the bus driver riding in that bus

And that’s not far from the truth

The bus leaves from termini [rome central station] up to grotte celoni along via Casalina

105 is not only 105 but its express tho it makes all the stops along the route

And its almost the only bus that covers that casalina route

And as an insider you will know that that is where you will find the immigrants in rome

That’s where most of us live and all the immigrants shops and businesses are located

You will be overwhelmed by the number of foreign faces packed in that bus

the route goes sumthing like this:

First major stop is Piazza Vittoria Emanuelle, this is a Chinese zone and a few Bangladesh

Chinese shops line the streets and these shops are almost always empty, hardly ever see anyone in deh

Then move on to Porta maggiore which is a busy intersection

You get to swop and change and connect and reconnect with other buses trams etc

Usually the bus empties and it just get full

Then we move on down to the a pretentious area called Pigneto

Its where the  Italian arty farty types live and hang out

So part of the 5ive Italians in the bus get off here

We then move on to Tor Pignatarra and here the bus empties almost all the Bangladeshi on board

And it continues down to an area call Cento Celle where the other Italians get off

Then begins the series of Torres as in Towers, these areas got names with Towers, still need to investigate how come…

Torre Angela Tor Bella Monaca Tor Vergata Torre Nova Torre Gaia Tor this Tor That

Torre Angela is where the Nigerian community ended up after they’d be chased out of Termini Area

There used to be a night club an eatery African shops and a string of hair and beauty salons and phone shops

In and around the Termini area until the municipality decided to ‘clean’ up the place

Now you can only find one shop and one beauty salon these daze

Tor Vergata is full of immigrants from east Europe like Romania, Moldavia etc

And these are the periphery areas

The whole trip can cost you about two hours on the road

And a whole lot of us commune daily to work

Its no wonder people are always stressing and fightin and bad mouthin ea other

There is almost always an incident happening in that bus

A Romanian arguing or dissing a Nigerian etc etc

But is all well, it’s the daily livity of sum o’ us

And this will hav to continue into next year

Until the underground metro line is completed

Which was supposed to have been completed this year

But them say it wont be ready until late next year

So until then

Linea 105 will be to our rescue

Because even when there is ‘sciopero’ -general transport strike-

Which is a monthly occurance in this here Italy

Linea 105 is always there fo us.