From North to South throughout Italy all the structures will be gradually dismantled telephone booths with equipment, a symbol of past years and a generational cult.

Telephone booths, a symbol

Goodbye to the iconic telephone booths that allowed us, before the advent of cell phones, smartphones, internet and phone centers, to get in touch. After more than seventy years and about three years early, a historic era is ending which has made Italians feel closer to their families and loved ones.

The first telephone booth in Italy appeared in Piazza San Babila, Milan, in 1952. Shortly after they spread throughout Italy, used to communicate. There was even a queue, we made an appointment every day. How many love stories were born, flourished and ended up inside those booths and public telephones.

The boom occurred in the seventies until the nineties. The decline began in 2009 with the widespread diffusion of cell phones.

In the cabins love was born and ended and many jokes started as well as being film locations
In the cabins love was born and ended and many jokes started as well as being film locations

Those phone calls fueled the desire to feel and be together for a few minutes which often turned into hours. How many jokes! One felt free to use them because they guaranteed anonymity. And then what to say, how beautiful the tokens were, later replaced by telephone cards, which have now become collectors' items.

And what about the many films, many of which are very famous, which have seen telephone booths as the location of the most beautiful scenes?

The colorful prepaid cards from 2000 to 15,000 lire that were used after the tokens in the telephone booths
The colorful prepaid cards from 2000 to 15,000 lire that were used after the tokens in the telephone booths

The dismantling and removal

Object now disused, witnesses of a bygone era, pieces of history from the last century that have a lot to tell and tell us, telephone booths will be decommissioned and dismantled by the end of 2023 as no one now uses them and they are often the subject of vandalism . Today most telephone booths are often reduced to waste receptacles, used as public toilets. From a mapping it appears that some have more than one telephone, so there are 35.994 handsets.

It is estimated that the Tim that manages them will dismantle over 16.000 telephone booths throughout Italy. They will remain, yes, in places "of social interest".

TIM plans to maintain telephone booths in places of social importance such as hospitals, barracks, prisons and, probably, mountain shelters.

Italian telephone booths and equipment will be dismantled by 2023; photo from Pixaby

Reuse proposals

Many nostalgics, lovers of these now vintage objects, do not want the cabins to be removed and have thought of a useful and creative reuse: already in many parts of Italy, some of these cabins have been used as small city libraries from which to take free books. Or to use as urban planters using recycling. Great Britain has preserved these symbols. We hope that in Italy some of these cabins will remain the memory of what has been, witnesses of passing history but at the same time they can have a second and more flourishing life.

cover photo of S. Portale

Goodbye to the iconic phone booths last edit: 2023-09-02T10:02:42+02:00 da SABRINA PORTAL

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