The capital acquired an Italian architectural look. Europeans used Asmera "to experiment with radical new designs". By the late 1930s, Asmera was called ''Piccola Roma'' (Little Rome). Journalist John Gunter noted in 1955 that "the Italians built Asmara well, like Tripoli, with handsome wide streets, ornate public buildings, and even such refinements of civilization as a modern sewage system ... Asmara gives the impression of being a pleasant enough small city in Calabria, or even Umbria. Nowadays more than 400 buildings are of Italian origin, and many shops still have Italian names (e.g., ''Bar Vittoria'', ''Pasticceria moderna'', ''Casa del formaggio'', and ''Ferramenta'').