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ROME vs BUENOS AIRES

Text: SHAWN BLORE
Illustrations: KIM ROSEN

1. Soft Drink/Beer Ratio
In a Rome supermarket, San Pellegrino Chinò is 43 euro cents, while a Moretti beer costs 61 euro cents. Italians are too tasteful to wander the streets can in hand, but thanks to lax liquor laws, they could. In the Paris of the southern hemisphere, a Coke costs 1.3 Argentina pesos, while a Quilmes brew costs ARS$1.5 at a street kiosk. Don’t run off with the bottle; deposits often cost more than the beer itself.

In a perfect world, 1:1 or a score of 100; anything lower is sobering.

Rome               80.5
Buenos Aires 92

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2. Carbohydrate Comparison
Italy’s starchy snack is the cornetto (like a smaller, breadier croissant), in plain, custard and marmalade varieties. Quality is excellent at 90, though fat content is high at 10.5 g/serving. Empanadas (pastries filled with cheese, chicken or ham) from El Noble Repulgue (the noble crust) in Buenos Aires would be fit for royalty… if the country wasn’t a republic. Quality is also 90, with at least 15 varieties and just 6.5 g/serving of fat.

A Parisian croissant is a baseline 100; other carbs must rise to the challenge.

Rome               82.5
Buenos Aires 99

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3. Babe and Hunk Index
Rome’s beautiful crowd was sampled in studenty Trastevere, nightclubby Testaccio, Piazza Venezia and the Piazza Barberini business district. The well-dressed and -shod Romans are among the most hunky and babelicious people on earth. The beautiful airs of Buenos Aires residents were respectable in all four neighbourhoods sampled (not to mention three pretty transvestites spotted in Palermo), but totals came nowhere close to Rome.

Summed average of stylish head turners in a crowd of 100.

Rome               63.8
Buenos Aires 49.3

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4. Street Life Indicator
Rome’s Viale di Trastevere has water, beer and coffee; fruit and nuts; shoes, clothes and bags; used books and bootleg DVDs; a flamenco guitarist and several human statues suffering for their art; and mohawked beggars. As befits a nation emerging from economic meltdown, Buenos Aires streets have only Gatorade and bottled water; ice cream, sandwiches and hot dogs; and leather everything. No beggars, but impoverished families dig through the garbage.

Percentage of goods and attractions available on a busy street or square.

Rome               100
Buenos Aires 71

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5. Public Order Index
The unruly Roman mob had total disregard for life, limb and traffic signalization. At the intersection of Viale di Trastevere and Via della Lungaretta, only five pedestrians (probably from somewhere else) didn’t jaywalk. Argentinians are just not in the same league. But in Buenos Aires taxis move faster than the national debt clock at 2 min/km, while in Rome they crawl at 3.44 min/km. (Mussolini made trains run on time; couldn’t he have done something about the traffic?)

Average number of jaywalkers in a crowd of 200 people (low score, low fun factor).

Rome               53.5
Buenos Aires 20.5

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Conclusion
Argentinians have always compared themselves to Europe. This time, though, the Italians trumped Buenos Aires in most of the categories.

Rome               380.3
Buenos Aires 331.8

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STANDINGS:

Rio	383.3
Rome	380.3
Paris	353.5
Mexico	346.1
Amsterdam	343.2
Buenos Aires	331.8
Zurich	325.8
Berlin	325.3
London	294.1
Mumbai	289.5
San Francisco	283.8
Tokyo	283.8
Hong Kong	281.5
Moscow	277.9
Shanghai	259.2
New York	255.1
Toronto	249.1
Washington	242.0
Montréal	233.9
Los Angeles	220.6
Vancouver	213.1
Chicago	197.1

Next Match : St. Petersburg vs. Havana – exclusively at enroutemag.com in December 2004.

Watch for a Civilization Index finale in January 2005. [ ]

St. Petersburg vs Havana

Rome vs Buenos Aires
Washington vs Moscow
Mexico vs Tokyo
London vs Mumbai
Chicago vs Berlin
San Francisco vs Shanghai
Toronto vs Zurich
Hong Kong vs Vancouver
Montreal vs Amsterdam
New York vs Paris
Los Angeles vs Rio de Janeiro

STANDINGS

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