Italy in June has much to commend it, but what is brought most close to home in those endless balmy evenings is that the city of Rome is more than a series of old buildings connected by really rather good places to eat.

It is a living, breathing, occasionally panting city and nowhere within its municipal city limits for the WST World Cup Rome was their more vitality and youthful energy popping off than at Lido di Ostia’s The Spot skatepark and in the Parco Colle Oppio, downtown slap bang in the thick of the action.

The crowds in attendance told their own story- this is still a new sensation for a city like Rome which emphasises its youth cultural traditions less so than its historic ones, and less so historically than other similar world cities such as, say, Berlin or Prague.,

To be able to see- for free, let it be said once more- not just the best skateboarders in the world, but skateboarders from all over the world represent their nations in the Italian capital was clearly too good to turn down- and Street MC Lucy Adams had to continually remind dumbstruck passersby that they could indeed just stroll in and grab a seat on the bleachers framed by the Colosseum throughout week two.

Week one- Ostia Park- however, was where the most local impact was made, as the Spot’s owner Willy Zanchelli and his really dedicated team oversaw taster sessions for local school kids throughout the contest week.

We talk a lot about community in skateboarding but these guys live it and build it every day. AND they let you choose your own ratios for the granita slushy machine, no questions asked.All-round, a class act.

Although we have dissected the results and ranking permutations of WST World Cup Rome Park 2025 at some length elsewhere, the aspect of the entire event which leaps out in the memory these weeks after was the effect which the golden run had on proceedings.

The introduction of a final roll of the dice for the top 5 after regular combat saw more last-minute leaderboards shake-ups than is good for a correspondent of advanced years and brought along with it many momentary what-ifs which make skateboarding so compelling to watch live.

The focus shift to downtown Rome for week two saw absolutely no change whatsoever on the weather front as the clouds took their annual holiday and a good old-fashioned sizzler set in.

Could be worse- most of us on the WST have seen the heavens open in Rome like an unpaid bill catching up with the city- but June 2025 was one in which the wisdom behind, and efficiency of, the city’s ancient but supremely functional aqueduct system was greatly apreeshed.

Also very much appreciated and of great benefit to the WST Street event was the presence and involvement of Rome’s lynchpin skate shop 7 Hills, who not only brought new obstacles for the warm-up area, but broadcast live and direct to their constituency via social media throughout.

It was a really culture-rich engagement to be able to talk to scene faces like Alessandro Martoriati about the past, present and future of the year-round skateboarding scene in this least typical of all European capitals.

As we said in our interview with local legend and former H-Street graphic designer Francesco Albertini: roots and culture.

We love to learn more, and grow more as we do.

So as the path of the World Skateboarding Tour now turns inexorably to the American capital this September, lets pause on the road to look back on some stolen moments from an electric fortnight in Italy.

Onwards we go.