Street names

As my twenty-five readers - quoting Alessandro Manzoni, with Dante Alighieri, the father of the Italian language – will know, I always say Rome is a city that never ends. And I'm right to say so because here, even the names of the streets, like everything else, have a story to tell. In the Sant'Eustachio …

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Tiber flooding

According to a Latin motto "repetita juvant", "it is useful to repeat things". That’s why I will never be too tired to tell you that Rome is a city that never ends: even in the most unthinkable places this generous city will offer you a chance to learn about it. For example, on the walls.  …

Talking statues

Yes, you read the title correctly. It sounded weird to me too and when I was a kid, it was actually kind of scary. If I couldn't avoid the streets of the talking statues, or I forgot and suddenly found them in front of me, I hastened my step. I was terrified they would talk …

The Romans: blacksmiths, windows and aqueducts

Entering the workshop of our blacksmiths, Andrea and Massimo Manoni, is easy to understand how important it is to have in mind the two magic words "stratification" and "recycling". I talk about it on my home page in order to realize how Rome was built.  Their grandfather founded the Company immediately after the Second World …

The Romans: Emi Fabbri’s handmade style

I don't know how it works in your country but when Vincenzo and I announced our wedding, there was so much wedding organization advice that we got confused very soon. As for my wedding dress, after a few afternoons trying on dresses in some downtown shops with friends, mothers and grandmother Vittoria, all I knew …

Piazza Navona’s imaginary tour

Today I would like to tell you about this beautiful square, one of the icons of Rome, starting from a very personal memory. Not really a memory of mine actually, but of my grandfather Pietro, who, for some years, when he was a child, lived with his family in an apartment inside this brown front …

The Romans: Sant’Eustachio the coffee

If you ask them, they will tell you the Sant'Eustachio café is a small family business and it is indeed: Raimondo is the owner with his daughter, Federica, and his brother, Roberto. If you ask any Roman instead, he will tell you that the Sant'Eustachio café is the most famous café in Rome. Before the …

Quarantine and silence

Till a few days before the lockdown, voices of people who spoke many different languages came inside my living room from the windows and since I live in a narrow street with little traffic, without any effort you could also listen to many conversations of people on the phone who shared with the whole building …