Wanted in Rome - October 2022

CONTENTS

Politics

THE CRAZY WORLD OF ITALIAN POLITICS ON SOCIAL MEDIA Andy Devane

ITALY'S ELECTION PROVIDED AMPLE MATERIAL FOR A POPULAR NEW TWITTER ACCOUNT. WE SPOKE TO ITS FOUNDER

As Italians headed to the polls on the last Sunday in September, the leader of the far-right Fratelli d’Italia party Giorgia Meloni caused a stir on social media when she circumvented a ban on election day campaigning.

Posting a TikTok video in which she held two melons in front of her chest, the presumed next prime minister of Italy winked into the camera as she said: “25 September. I have said it all.” The video was a reference to her surname which means “melons” and is also slang for breasts.

Seen as hilarious by some, crude by others, Meloni’s cheeky video was perhaps a fitting end to an electoral campaign that saw Italian

politicians make ever wilder and more bizarre use of their social media channels.

Capturing these moments, one by one, was a newly formed Twitter account called “Crazy Ass Moments in Italian Politics”. The founder, a 34-year-old from northern Italy, spoke to Wanted in Rome about the journey that has seen him reach more than 65,000 followers in a matter of months.

Choosing to stay anonymous, he introduces himself as “just a man with a cellphone and an internet connection having some fun on Twitter”. He set up the account in March after “falling in love” with a similarly titled page devoted to the absurdities of American politics. Realising

Italy's foreign minister Luigi Di Maio raised eyebrows with his Dirty Dancing antics in Naples.

that so-called clone pages were being created, he decided to “seize the moment” and open the Italian version.

While convinced that he would never be left lacking in terms of comedy gold, he could not have foreseen the plethora of material coming down the tracks. When Mario Draghi’s national unity government fell in July, it sparked a highlycharged election campaign that saw politicians trip over themselves in a bid to out-do each other on social media.

Crazy Ass Moments in Italian Politics was ready for them and, significantly, captioned each post in English. The Italian founder admits that using English can be problematic “especially when explaining certain contexts that are difficult for a non-Italian to understand” but says it helps to reach audiences outside Italy as well as letting Italians see their politics with new eyes. “Perhaps in this way things appear more entertaining than they already are”, he adds.

Clocking up hundreds of new followers each day, the independent Twitter venture is run by a “oneman army, a man who divides his time between work, family and now politics”. He keeps his political views to himself, maintaining a “neutral” stance and even poking fun at politicians he has voted for in the past. “I keep my perspective as detached as possible” – he says - “My policy is not to make concessions to anyone.”

In the quieter days of the spring, the account gained appeal for its quirky and concise posts, such as an old video of Matteo Salvini, leader of the rightwing Lega party, blowing “kisses to a bunch of cows for absolutely no reason”.

Then came an unprecedented summer election campaign which provided rich pickings for the account even during the usually sleepy Ferragosto holiday. So what were the highlights of the past months? “Definitely” foreign minister Luigi Di Maio re-enacting the famous “flying” scene from the Dirty Dancing movie in a Naples restaurant. Then there was Enrico Letta, leader of centre-left Partito Democratico (PD), who was left stranded after the battery died in his electric-powered campaign van.

And how could we forget Peppa Pig? “A member of Fratelli d’Italia railed against the famous children’s cartoon because there is a character with two mothers, and +Europa’s response was ‘We are on Peppa Pig’s side’. You have to see it to believe it”, he says.

Asked what the biggest social media surprise was during the election, he singles out the “sudden debut” of so many politicians on TikTok in a desperate bid to woo young voters. Silvio Berlusconi, the 86-yearold leader of the centre-right Forza Italia, boasted of “record numbers” after launching himself on the social media platform whose name he pronounced with a clock-like “tick tock” of his head.

Translating politicians’ messages into English often guarantees an extra chuckle. The leader of the centrist Azione, Carlo Calenda, kicked off on TikTok with the message: “I can’t dance because I look like a drunk bear. I can’t give you makeup advice because I am fat and ugly. But I can talk to you about politics”.

Who are Italy’s most media-savvy politicians? The mystery man behind Crazy Ass Moments in Italian Politics is quick to nominate Salvini and Berlusconi: “They are unbeatable, real bosses”.

Fratelli d'Italia leader Giorgia Meloni caused a stir on social media with a pair of melons.

In terms of who succeeded and who failed on the social media front during the election campaign, he says it’s hard to say but believes in the old adage that “there is no such thing as bad publicity”. He cites as an example Letta’s pro/con campaign, in which voters were given a ‘good’ and ‘bad’ option and invited to choose. Somewhat inevitably the concept became a meme which, he suggests, was “in its own way a success”. It was hard to tell reality from satire when Letta shared a carbonara meme based on his own campaign, urging people to always choose guanciale over pancetta.

Now that the election is over and it’s down to the serious business of forming a government, does he think politicians will continue to use TikTok or was it just a summer fling? He has already noticed a “drastic” drop in their TikTok activity in the days since the election but his guess is that

Forza Italia leader Silvio Berlusconi revelled in his instant popularity on TikTok.

they will keep the platform to “cultivate potential new voters, in the long run”.

“If they are smart they will continue to use it, and improve their performance” – he says – “If they abandon it then it means that they did not believe in it enough or that, deep down, they did not care.”

So who follows Crazy Ass Moments in Italian Politics? Most of the followers are Italian, with “around 30 per cent foreigners, often journalists or political writers”. The account registered a spike in non-Italian followers, he says, after Politico.eu suggested following it to stay up-todate on Italy’s elections.

And what about the future? “My goal is to expand my audience abroad as much as possible” – he says – “After all, the things you see in our political landscape, in what other country do you see them?”

PD leader Enrico Letta shared this meme on Twitter, leading people to ask if his account had been hacked.

Culture

FIVE OF ROME'S LESSER KNOWN STATUES

A BRIEF EXCURSION AROUND ROME VIA BRONZE AND MARBLE

Martin Bennett

Rome’s most evocative statue? Not, one might contest, the Vatican’s Lacaoon nor Michelangelo’s Moses. Not another Bernini. Nor Marcus Aurelius on his horse or the Dying Gaul. Neither king nor duke nor cardinal but an anonymous boxer. Far from being above life’s hurly-burly, but in the thick of it. There he sits in the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme museum near Termini station.

Bronze statues and other constructs that come down to us from classical times are rare. Blame the barbarians who would melt them down – eg.

Trajan on horseback or Augustus in his chariot. Blame at least one emperor, namely Constans II who stripped bronze from the Pantheon roof, carrying it off to his native Constantinople. Then blame Pope Urban VII who completed the depredation by ordering the rest of the precious metal to be removed and converted into cannons in Castel S. Angelo.

The Boxer escaped such a fate due to his having been hidden for two millennia in what were once the Constantine Baths on the Quirinale. During building work for the new capital, in

The Boxer at Palazzo Massimo alle Terme. Photo by Andrea Izzotti / Shutterstock.com.

1885 he re-emerged.

Archaeologist Rodolf Lanciano provides an eye-witness account: “I have experienced surprise after surprise… but I have never felt such an extraordinary impression as that created on the sight of this specimen of a semi-barbaric athlete, coming slowly out of the ground, as if waking from a long repose…”

The bronze is intact, down to the cauliflower ears. As is the copper for his bleeding lips and open wounds. To cite the Paul Simon song: “A reminder/ Of every glove that laid him down.” The gloves here being inlaid with metal, in accordance with the brutal Roman version of the sport. Here’s an archetype of resilience, a match for Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea. And/or the protagonist of Paul Simon’s song, switch ‘clearing’ for ancient bath complex, Seventh Avenue for disreputable Suburra nearby.

A short walk away, in the entrance vestibule at the church of S. Maria degli Angeli e dei Martirii, the next statue – Ernest Lamagna’s 2000 Angel of light - hovers rather than sits. Without the perfect wings and dainty colours of those depicted in Renaissance paintings, this angel is of the Apocalypse, rather than the Annunciation.

Its spindling and twisted bronze and iron seems emblematic of the catastrophes and wars of the 20th and current centuries. It also has a strange beauty. Thanks to Swarovski the jeweller, the angel’s body is embedded with two chunks of a visionary crystal flickering in the beams slanting down from the lantern of variegated glass set in Vanvitelli’s dome. As written on the plinth and

in the Book of Revelations: “He (the Angel) showed me that great city descending out of heaven…Her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” ‘Futuristicbaroque’ if one has to impose an artistic category.

The work also casts a look back at the vision of Sicilian monk, Antonio del Duca, who in 1541 had an in-situ vision of Archangel Uriel, thus persuading Pope Pius IV to convert, with Michelangelo’s help, the ruins of Diocletian’s Baths into a church. Particularly apt given the baths were constructed by Christian slaves, many dying as a result of their labours. Seven of them are commemorated are in the church, giving it part of its name – martiri

From angel to muse. The lovely statue standing among the machinery of power-station turned Montemartini museum has been associated with Polimnia, muse of lyric poetry. Some have seen in her thoughtful smile signs of melancholy. Yet it may equally be gently ironic, in its way as cryptic as Mona Lisa’s. As such the statue could also represent Thalia, muse of Comedy and Satire addressed in four of Martial’s epigrams.

Indeed the term muse is open to interpretation. For Homer there was only one. Hesiod cites nine. Others cite four or, with the addition of Sappho, even 10. Certainly the figure has little to suggest the grander and more distant muses of tragedy and epic. Here’s someone you can chat or gossip with. She suggests intimacy rather than awe or bloodshed. Note the exquisite folds of that dress and the perfect parting, suggesting perhaps the

The statue of Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, by sculptor Michele Tripisciano, in Trastevere. Photo douglasmack / Shutterstock.com.

Culture

amalgam of ancient masonry, trying to get a word (or verse) in edgewise between the beers, aperitifs and i-phones of the homonymous square in front as it heaves with weekend revellers. Hopefully some might occasionally pause to raise a glass to the poet’s memory. And read his poems.

A whole volume has been translated by John Du Val, including the 1932 poem All’Ombra filling a plaque at the statue’s side: “I read my paper, back propped against the hay/ Here comes a hog, so I look up and say,/ “Goodbye, Pig!” And then across the grass/ here comes a donkey; I say, “Goodbye, ass!”/ No way of telling if they’ve understood./ Whether they have or not, it does me good/ to call things what they are without the dread/ of having to go to jail for what I’ve said.”

cesurae and line-breaks whereby Martial epigrams with their fulmen in coda derive their effect.

Not a hair out of place, her gown is similarly perfect, as befits a form where shortness is of the essence, every word counts. Chin cupped in her hands, we can picture her now leaning affectionately over the poet’s shoulder, now whispering creatively in his sleep. A consolation for whatever humiliations the poet may have suffered as a cliens waiting for his daily sportula/ hand out from an ever-stingy patron or suffering the ignominy of being served last and least at one of his banquets.

The third statue is in Trastevere. From one poet to another, though equally observant when it comes to depicting local foibles, Trilussa in the early 20th century was a star. Not just in Rome, but worldwide, undertaking tours in north and south America. Then came Fascism. His penchant for “speaking truth to power” put him at odds with the authorities. He was only rehabilitated after the war, also being made a senator. As he quipped, “They’ve found a way to bury me before my time.”

Lorenzo Ferri’s 1954 statue is some further compensation, managing to convey the poet’s impish spirit. Finger raised, he rises from an

Back indoors, in another museum (the Capitoline), the excursion’s fourth statue is of Emperor Comodus, Marcus Aurelius’s wayward son and the villain of the film Gladiator. That it has survived so well the damnatio memorae imposed on the same emperor could be down to mistaken identity. The emperor gazes out not from beneath a crown of imperial laurel but a lionskin head-dress. Maybe it acted as a disguise, saving the marble from being smithereened. The statue was unearthed during the construction of Piazza Vittorio, in the same period as The Boxer was. Its beauty is undeniable, particularly when twinned by the Tritons flanking it. Comodus’s Herculean heroics in reality consisted of lopping off the heads of ostriches, then dangling them before the horrified senators in the Colosseum’s front row as if to say, “And you may be next.”

By a historical twist last on the excursion is the ‘good’ Augustus, he “who found Rome brick and left its marble”. Only here in the Trajan Markets museum’s Hall of the Colossus all that’s left are scattered fragments: a left foot more than metre long; a right foot slightly smaller; a forearm plus veins repositioned on a modern metal framework to restore a sense of proportion to the work once occupying the back of the northern portico in the Forum of Augustus below.

Originally 14 metres high it would have reduced the observer to a Lilliputian. Not as big, admittedly as the Colossus of Nero, standing at 30 metres, but two metres taller than Constantine’s. Before the statue was brought here inside, photographs show revisionist cats nestling between the Imperial toes, the rest of Augustus’s massive alter-ego since vanished into flitting sunlight and shadow.

Meanwhile, at the other end of Via Nazionale, The Boxer still remains, still remains…

Statue of a muse, Polimnia, at Centrale Montemartini.

UK NATIONAL SETTLED IN ITALY BEFORE 1 JANUARY 2021?

Make sure your residency in Italy is easily recognised. Request your new Carta di Soggiorno Elettronica from your local Questura as soon as possible. And don’t get confused…it isn’t the same thing as your electronic ID card.

Find out more on gov.uk/livinginitaly

TRAVEL SEVEN HILLTOP TOWNS TO DISCOVER IN THE LAZIO REGION

BOMARZO

This charming mediaeval town in north Lazio is best known for its fantastical Parco dei Mostri or “park of monsters”. Designed by Renaissance architect Pirro Ligorio with the aim of astonishing visitors, this wondrous park features grotesque mythological sculptures and fountains, including the gaping Orcus, Hannibal’s elephant, Pegasus the winged horse and a disorientating leaning house.

Take the 20-minute journey on the light-rail train service from Via Flaminia in Rome to Saxa Rubra, then hop aboard one of the blue Cotral buses to Calcata Vecchia. Buses leave regularly, and the trip takes a little over an hour, however it is best to consult all connections before making the journey.

By car: Approx 53 km north from Rome to Calcata via SS2, exit Settevene and follow signs for Calcata. The drive takes about one hour.

CAPRAROLA

Located on the southern slope of the densely-wooded Cimini mountains, Caprarola is a town in the Viterbo province, about 50km north-west of Rome. It is best known for its magnificent Palazzo Farnese, a five-sided Renaissance palace dating to the late 16th century, and the formal gardens. The pentagonal palace, also known as Villa Farnese, is famous for its Mannerist frescoes and spectacular staircase. How to get to Caprarola from Rome

By train: There is no direct service but trains run from

How to get to Bomarzo from Rome

By train: Trains from Roma Termini to AttiglianoBomarzo station take around 55 minutes. Trains from Rome also reach nearby Orte and Viterbo, with Cotral buses to Bomarzo operating from both towns.

By car: 93 km north from Rome to Bomarzo via A1 / E35. The drive takes about an hour and a half.

CALCATA

This craggy hamlet north of Rome was condemned in the 1930s over fears of its impending collapse, and its residents were relocated to the newly-built “Calcata Nuova”. In the 1960s however old Calcata slowly came back to life with the arrival of artists who squatted in its abandoned houses and caves. The hippy atmosphere prevails, with The New York Times describing Calcata as “the grooviest village in Italy”. There are numerous restaurants and craft shops, and the Monte Gelato waterfalls are nearby. How to get to Calcata from Rome

By train/bus: There are no direct trains from Rome.

Roma Termini to Orte (approx 40 mins). From Orte, you can take a taxi but be warned that the roughly halfhour trip will cost between €50 and €65.

By bus: From Piazzale Flaminio take a bus to Saxa Rubra (13 mins) before transferring to a Cotral bus to Caprarola (approx 1 hour and 10 mins).

By car: Approximately 60 km north from Rome to Caprarola via SR2. The drive takes about one hour and 20 mins.

CIVITA DI BAGNOREGIO

Regarded by many as the jewel in the crown of Lazio’s hilltop villages, Civita surges out of the Calanchi valley, in the northern Viterbo province. The tiny hamlet is “the dying town” due to the erosion and landslides that have chipped away at its fragile base over the centuries, from the Etruscan era to the modern day. Only about a dozen residents live in Civita which is reached by a steep pedestrian bridge, and is seeking World Heritage recognition from UNESCO.

HEALTH

How to get to Civita di Bagnoregio from Rome

By train/ bus: Trains leave from Roma Termini to Orvieto whose station is connected to nearby Bagnoregio by Cotral bus. It is also possible to reach Bagnoregio by Cotral bus from Viterbo Porta Fiorentina (trains from Roma Ostiense) but the Orvieto option is less complicated. The coaches do not run regularly so check times before travelling. Orvieto is 20km away from Bagnoregio, Viterbo 30km, both bus trips take about an hour.

By car: Approximately 120 km north from Rome to Bagnoregio, taking the Orvieto exit off the A1 motorway. The drive takes about one hour and 50 mins.

CERVARA DI ROMA

Located about 70 km from Rome in the Simbruini regional park, Lazio’s largest nature reserve, Cervara offers sweeping views of the Aniene valley. With origins dating back to the eighth century, for 200 years the natural beauty surrounding Cervara has attracted artists from all over Europe, traces of whom can still be seen carved into the mountainside. The film director Sergio Leone, of Spaghetti Western fame, filmed several movies in the village, and composer Ennio Morricone dedicated compositions to Cervara which thanked him with honourary citizenship.

How to get to Subiaco from Rome

By bus: Take a direct Cotral bus from Roma Tiburtina to Subiaco (1.5 hours).

By car: Rome to Subiaco via A24. The drive takes about one hour and 20 mins.

TIVOLI

Located about an hour outside of Rome, Tivoli is home to two major cultural landmarks, both of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Hadrian’s Villa and Villa d’Este. Dating to the second century AD, Villa Adriana was once the imperial residence of emperor Hadrian. The remains of this vast villa include statue-lined pools and a maritime theatre, while the landscaped Renaissance gardens of Villa d’Este are celebrated internationally for their multitude of magnificent fountains. Also worth visiting is Villa Gregoriana, a beautiful natural park on the outskirts of the town.

How to get to Cervara from Rome

By bus/train: Take the Subiaco bus from the Ponte Mammolo station on the Metro B line. From Subiaco take connecting bus to Cervara. For times tel. 800/150008. Trains from Rome (Roma-Pescara line) go as far as Arsoli. From there take a taxi to Cervara. By car: Take the Autostrada A24 Roma-L’Aquila, exit Vicovaro-Mandela, follow Via Tiburtina-Valeria (SS5) as far as Arsoli, then take the Strada Panoramica provinciale per Cervara. The drive takes about one hour.

SUBIACO

Located about 70 km east of Rome, Subiaco is best known as the home of St Benedict’s monastery and the Sacro Speco, a hermitage where the saint lived alone for three years. Both of these areas house 13th-century frescoes and can be visited by the public. The history of Subiaco dates back to the Aequi, an ancient Italic people, who were conquered by the Romans in 304 BC.

How to get to Tivoli from Rome

By train: Direct trains between Roma Termini and Tivoli take about half an hour. A more circuitous route involves taking a Cotral bus to Tivoli from the Metro B station of Ponte Mammolo.

By car: Approximately 35 km east from Rome via A24. The drive takes about one hour.

TUSCANIA

Not far from Viterbo and Lake Bolsena is the small mediaeval town of Tuscania. Its origins however date back to the Etruscans – see the town’s Etruscan Museum – and later the Romans. Tuscania’s main tourist sites include the Lombard-Romanesque Church of S. Pietro, with its large rose window, and the Etruscan necropolises. It is also known for its annual harvests of porcini mushroooms and snails, and its surrounding nature reserve.

How to get to Tuscania from Rome

By train/bus: Take a train from Roma Termini to Civitavecchia (approximately 1 hour). Transfer to a bus from Civitavecchia on the Cotral line and get off at the Tuscania stop (approx 1 hour and 10 mins).

By car: Approximately 95 km north-west from Rome to Tuscania via SR2. The drive takes about one hour and 50 mins.

CIVITA DI BAGNOREGIO

CERVARA DI ROMA

SUBIACO

TIVOLI

LAGO DI NEMI

Lago di Nemi is a small and unique volcanic lake where divers in the 19th century discovered two large ships built for the notorious Roman emperor Caligula at the bottom of the lake, filled withbottom of the lake, filled with artworks and treasures. Replicas of the ships along with other artefacts are on display at the nearby Museum of Roman Ships. Travellers can also visit the natural caves around the lake, which were a favourite haunt of 19th-century foreign artists such as Turner. Nemi is associated with the cult of the Roman goddess Diana, and, for the last 80 years, an annual strawberry festival. Visitors can reach the lake by taking the SS7 Appia southbound as far as Genzano, and then following signs for Nemi.

LAGO DI VICO

Formed by the volcanic activity of Mount Venus, Lago di Vico offers a unique geological backdrop set amid lush woodland and hills. The surrounding nature reserve is a haven for wildlife, but what is most characteristic of the area are the hazel and chestnut plantations. Lakeside campsites and hotels offer swimming, sailing and horse riding. The two towns worth a visit are Ronciglione and Caprarola with its magnificent and recently restored Villa Farnese. Lago di Vico is a 90-minute drive from Rome taking the SS2 Cassia, and turning north at Sutri.

This volcanic crater lake presents visitors with beautiful views of its clear water and surrounding forests. The picturesque towns along the shores serve as popular summer resort areas for Romans, including Castel Gandolfo, home to the summer papal palace whose gardens were recently opened to the public. On the other side of the lake is Palazzolo, a villa bought by Rome’s Venerable English College in 1920 and now open to guests. The towns surrounding the lake are known for their restaurants, shops and fruit farms. Swimming, fishing and boating are among the favourite activities for visitors, and the lake’s beach is located on the western shore. A simple 45-minute train ride from Termini, visitors can reach Lago Albano by taking the FL4 train towards Albano Laziale and

Located on the site of the Vulsini volcano, dormant since about 100 BC, this crater lake has two islands and is surrounded by rolling hills and vegetation. The area around Montefisascone on the southeast shore of the lake is famous for its Est! Est!! Est!!! wine. The town of Bolsena in the northeast is a popular tourist resort in summer and it is here that the famous so-called Eucharistic Miracle took place in 1263 when a Bohemian priest is said to have seen blood coming from the host that he had just consecrated at Mass. Capodimonte on the southwest of the lake

The lakeside area provides activities for sports and nature enthusiasts all year round. The best way to reach Lago di Bolsena from Rome is by car, as buses to Bolsena from Termini

LAGO DI BRACCIANO

Just north-west of Rome along the Via Cassia, Lake Bracciano is one of the most easily accessible lakes for Romans. The ban on motor boats (except for a little ferry) means it remains an ideal spot for swimming, sailing and canoeing. The Lega Navale operates a dinghy sailing school in Anguillara. Churches and historic sites are located in the three small towns around the lake: Bracciano, Trevignano and Anguillara. There are also places for camping and horse riding tours by the lake, which is just an hour on the Viterbo train line from Rome’s Ostiense station. The lake is overlooked by the 15th-century Orsini-Odescalchi castle in Bracciano, often chosen as the venue for jet-set weddings, and there is also an air force museum at nearby Vigna di Valle.

LAGO DI MARTIGNANO

This tiny volcanic lake just to the east of Lake Bracciano offers clean water and beaches with scenic views of the surrounding meadows and wildlife. Lago di Martignano is known for its outdoor activities such as horse riding, hiking, mountain biking and swimming. Umbrellas, loungers and luggage storage are available to rent along with canoes, sailboats and windsurfing equipment. It is also known for the hot sulphurous springs surroun ding the lake. Arriving at Lago di Martignano by car is the easiest option. Reaching the lake by public transport involves taking the FM3 train to Cesano and opting for either a local bus or taxi.

ARTandSEEK

English-language cultural workshops and visits to museums and exhibitions for children in Rome. For event details tel. 3315524440, email artandseekfor kids@gmail.com, or see website, www.artandse ekforkids.com.

Bioparco

Rome's Bioparco has over 1,000 animals and o ers special activities for children and their families at weekends and during the summer. When little legs get tired, take a ride around the zoo on an electric train. Open daily. Viale del Giardino Zoologico 20 (Villa Borghese), tel. 063608211, www.bioparco.it.

Bowling Silvestri

is sports club has an 18-hole mini golf course, with good facilities for children aged 4 and over, adults and disabled children.

ere are also tennis courts, a table tennis room and a pizzeria. Via G. Zoega 6 (Monteverde/Bravetta), tel. 0666158206, www.bowlingsilvestri.com.

Casa del Parco

Eco-friendly workshops, in Italian, in which kids can learn about nature and how to care for the environment. Located in the Valle dei Casali nature park. Via del Casaletto 400, tel. 3475540409, www.valledeicasali.com.

Casina di Ra aello

Play centre in Villa Borghese o ering a programme of animated lectures, creative workshops, cultural projects and educational activities for children from the age of three. Tues-Fri 14.30, Sat-Sun 11.00 and 17.00. Viale della Casina di Ra aello (Porta Pincia na), tel. 060608, www.casinadira aello.it.

Cinecittà World

is 25-hectare theme park dedicated to the magic of cinema features high-tech attractions, real and virtual roller coasters, aquatic shows such as Super Splash, giant elephant rides and attractions with cinematic special e ects. Located about 10 km from EUR, south of Rome. Via di Castel Romano, S.S. 148 Pontina, www.cinecittaworld.it.

Climbing

Associazione Sportiva Climbing Side. Basic and competitive climbing courses for 6-18 year olds. Tues, urs. Via Cristoforo Colombo 1800 (Torri no/Mostacciano), tel. 3356525473.

Explora

e 2,000-sqm Children’s Museum organises creative workshops for small children in addition to holding regular animated lectures, games and meetings with authors of children’s books. Via Flaminia 80/86, tel. 063613776, www.mdbr.it.

Go-karting

Club Kartroma is a circuit with go-karts for children over 9 and two-seater karts for an adult and a child under 8. Closed Mon. For details see website. Via della Muratella (Ponte Galeria), tel. 0665004962, www.kartroma.it.

Gymboree

is children's centre caters to little people aged from 0-5 years, o ering Play and Learn activities, music, art, baby play, school skills and even English theatre arts. Gymboree @ Chiostro del Bramante (Piazza Navona), Via Arco della Pace 5, www.gym bo.it.

Hortis Urbis

Association providing hands-on horticultural workshops for children, usually in Italian but someti mes in English, in the Appia Antica park. Weekend activities include sowing seeds, cultivating plants and harvesting vegetables. Junior gardeners must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Via Appia Antica 42/50, www.hortusurbis.it.

Il Nido

Based in Testaccio, this association supports expectant mothers, parents, babies and small children. It holds regular educational and social events, many of them in English. Via Marmorata 169 (Testaccio), tel. 0657300707, www.associazio neilnido.it.

Luneur

Located in the southern EUR suburb, Luneur is Italy’s oldest amusement park. Highlights include ferris wheel, roller coaster, carousel horses, bamboo tunnel, maze, giant swing and a Wizard of Oz-style farm. Aimed at children aged up to 12. Entry fee €2.50, payable in person or online. Via delle Tre Fontane 100, www.luneurpark.it.

Rainbow Magicland

e 38 attractions at Rome's biggest theme park are divided into three categories: brave, everyone, and kids. Highlights include down-hill rafting, a water roller coaster through Mayan-style pyramids, and the Shock launch coaster. Located in Valmonte, south-east of the capital. Via della Pace, 00038 Valmontone, www.rainbowmagicland.it.

Time Elevator

A virtual reality, multi-sensorial 5-D cinema experience with a motion-base platform, bringing the history of Rome to life in an accessible and fun way. e time-machine's commentary is available in six languages including English. Daily 11.00-19.30. €12 adults, €9 kids. Via dei SS. Apostoli 20, tel. 0669921823, www.time-eleva tor.it.

Zoomarine

is amusement and aquatic park outside Rome o ers performances with dolphins, parrots and other animals for children of all ages. It is also possible to rent little play carts. Children under 10 must be accompanied by an adult. Via Casablanca 61, Torvaianica, Pomezia, tel. 0691534, www.zoo marine.it.

Clockwise from top left: S. Maria di Shanghai by Mr Klevra (Big City Life), Nido di Vespe by Lucamaleonte, El Devinir by Liqen, Fish'n'Kids by Agostino Iacurci, MAGR by Seth.

Clockwise from top left: S. Maria di Shanghai by Mr Klevra (Big City Life), Nido di Vespe by Lucamaleonte, El Devinir by Liqen, Fish'n'Kids by Agostino Iacurci, MAGR by Seth.

ROME'S MAJOR

MUSEUMS

IT IS ADVISABLE TO CHECK WEBSITES FOR VISITING DETAILS DETAILS. IN SOME CASES RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED.

VATICAN MUSEUMS

Viale del Vaticano, tel. 0669883860, www.museivaticani.va. Not only the Sistine Chapel but also the Egyptian and Etruscan collections and the Pinacoteca. Mon-Sat 09.00-18.00.

Sun (and bank holidays) closed except last Sun of month (free entry, 08.30-12.30). All times refer to last entry. For group tours of the museums and Vatican gardens tel. 0669884667. For private tours (museum only) tel. 0669884947. Closed 26 December and 6 January, Easter Sunday and Monday. Advance booking online: www.biglietteriamusei.vatican.va.

Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums Tel. 0669881814, www.vatican-patrons.org. For private behind-the-scenes tours in the Vatican Museums.

STATE MUSEUMS

Baths of Diocletian

Viale Enrico de Nicola 78, tel. 0639967700, www.archeoro ma.beniculturali.it. Part of the protohistorical section of the Museo Nazionale Romano in the Baths of Diocletian plus the restored cloister by Michelangelo. 09.00-19.45. Mon closed.

Borghese Museum

Piazzale Scipione Borghese (Villa Borghese), tel. 06328101, www.galleria.borghese.it. Sculptures by Bernini and Canova, paintings by Titian, Caravaggio, Raphael, Correggio. 09.00-19.30. Mon closed. Entry times at 09.00, 11.00, 13.00 15.00, 17.00. Guided tours in English and Italian.

Castel S. Angelo Museum

Lungotevere Castello 50, tel. 066819111, www.castelsantan gelo.com. Emperor Hadrian’s mausoleum used by the popes as a fortress, prison and palace. 09.00-19.00. Mon closed.

Colosseum, Roman forum and Palatine

Colosseum: Piazza del Colosseo. Palatine: entrances at Piazza di S. Maria Nova 53 and Via di S. Gregorio 30.

Roman Forum: entrances at Largo Romolo e Remo 5-6 and Piazza di S. Maria Nova 53, tel. 0639967700, www.colos seo-roma.it. 08.30-19.15. Single ticket gives entry to the Colosseum and the Palatine (including the Museo Palatino; last entry one hour before closing). Guided tours in English and Italian.

Crypta Balbi

Via delle Botteghe Oscure 31, tel.0639967700, www.archeo logia.beniculturali.it. Museum dedicated to the Middle Ages on the site of the ancient ruins of the Roman Theatre of Balbus. 09.00-19.00. Mon closed. Guided tours in Italian.

Etruscan Museum at Villa Giulia Piazza Villa Giulia 9, tel. 063226571, www.villagiulia.benicul turali.it. National museum of Etruscan civilisation. 08.3019.30. Mon closed.

Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna Viale delle Belle Arti 131, tel. 06322981, 08.30- 19.30. Italy's modern art collection. Mon closed.

MAXXI

Via Guido Reni 6, tel. 063210181, www. fondazionemaxxi.it. National Museum of 21st-century art, designed by Zaha Hadid. Tues-Sun 11.00-19.00, Thurs and Sat 11.00-22.00. Mon closed.

Palazzo Corsini

Via della Lungara, 10, tel. 0668802323, www.barberinicorsi ni.org. National collection of ancient art, begun by Rome’s Corsini family. 08.30- 19.30. Tues closed.

Museo Nazionale d’Arte Orientale

Italy's museum of oriental art. Piazza Guglielmo Marconi 14 (EUR). For details see website, www.pigorini.beniculturali.it.

Palazzo Altemps

Piazza S. Apollinare 46, tel. 0639967700, www.archeoroma.beniculturali.it. Ancient sculpture from the Museo Nazionale Romano, including the Ludovisi collection. 09.00-19.45. Mon closed.

Palazzo Barberini

Via delle Quattro Fontane 13, tel. 064824184, www.barberinicorsini.org. National collection of 13th- to 16th-century paintings. 08.30- 19.30. Mon closed.

Palazzo Massimo alle Terme

Largo di Villa Peretti 1, tel. 0639967700, www.archeoroma.be niculturali.it. Important Roman paintings, mosaics, sculpture, coins and antiquities from the Museo Nazionale Romano, including the Kircherian collection. 09.00- 19.45. Mon closed.

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION IN ITALY

Villa Farnesina

Via della Lungara 230, tel. 0668027268, www.villafarnesina.it. A 16th-century Renaissance villa with important frescoes by Raphael. Mon-Sat 9.00-14.00 excluding holidays.

CITY MUSEUMS

Centrale Montemartini

Via Ostiense 106, tel. 060608, www.centralemontemarti ni.org. Over 400 pieces of ancient sculpture from the Capitoli ne Museums are on show in a former power plant. 09.00-19.00. Mon closed. Guided tours in English for groups if reserved in advance.

Capitoline Museums

Piazza del Campidoglio, tel. 060608, www.museicapitoli ni.org. The city’s collection of ancient sculpture in Palazzo Nuovo and Palazzo dei Conservatori, plus the Tabularium and the Pinacoteca. 09.00-20.00. Mon closed. Guided tours for groups in English and Italian on Sat and Sun.

Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna

Via Francesco Crispi 24, tel. 060608, www.museiincomuneroma.it. The municipal modern art collection. 10.00- 18.00. Mon closed.

MACRO

Via Nizza 138, tel. 060608, www.museomacro.it. Programme of free art events at the city’s contemporary art space. 10.30-19.00. Mon closed.

MATTATOIO

Piazza Orazio Giustiniani 4, tel. 060608. www.museomacro.org. Open for temporary exhibitions 14.00-20.00. Mon closed.

Museo Barracco

Corso Vittorio Emanuele II 166, tel. 0668806848, www.mdbr.it. A collection of mainly pre-Roman sculpture. 09.00- 19.00. Mon closed.

Museo di Roma – Palazzo Braschi

Via S. Pantaleo 10, tel. 060608, en.museodiroma.it. The city’s collection of paintings, etchings, photographs, furniture and clothes from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. 09.00-19.00. Mon closed. Guided tours in English and Italian on prior booking tel. 0682059127.

Museo dei Fori Imperiali and Trajan’s Markets

Via IV Novembre 94, tel. 060608, en.mercatiditraiano.it. Museum dedicated to the forums of Caesar, Augustus, Nerva and Trajan and the Temple of Peace. 09.00-19.00. Mon closed.

Museo Canonica

Viale P. Canonica 2 (Villa Borghese), tel. 060608, www.museoca nonica.it. The collection, private apartment and studio of the sculptor and musician Pietro Canonica who died in 1959. 09.00-19.00. Mon closed. Guided tours in Italian and English (book ten days in advance).

Museo Napoleonico

Piazza di Ponte Umberto 1, tel. 060608, www.museonapoleo nico.it. Paintings, sculptures and jewellery related to Napole on and the Bonaparte family. 09.00- 19.00. Mon closed. Guided tours in Italian and English.

PRIVATE MUSEUMS

Casa di Goethe

Via del Corso 18, tel. 0632650412, www. casadigoethe.it. Museum dedicated to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. 10.0018.00. Mon closed.

Chiostro Del Bramante

Bramante’s Renaissance building near Piazza Navona stages exhibitions by important Italian and international artists. Arco della Pace 5, tel. 0668809035 www.chiostrodelbramante.it.

Doria Pamphilj Gallery

Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, Via del Corso 305, tel. 066797323, www.doriapamphilj.it. Residence of the Doria Pamphilj family, it contains the family’s private art collection, which includes a portrait by Velasquez, a sculpture by Bernini, plus works by Raphael, Titian, Tintoretto and Caravaggio. 09.00-19.00.

Galleria Colonna

Palazzo Colonna, Via della Pilotta 17, tel. 066784350, www.galle riacolonna.it. Private collection of works by Veronese, Guido Reni, Pietro di Cortona and Annibale Caracci. Sat 09.00-13.00 only. Private group tours are available seven days a week on request. For wheelchair access contact the gallery to arrange alternative entrance.

Giorgio de Chirico House Museum

Piazza di Spagna 31, tel. 066796546, www.fondazionedechiri co.org. Museum dedicated to the Metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico. Tues-Sat, rst Sun of month, 10.00, 11.00, 12.00. Guided tours in English, advance booking.

Keats-Shelley House

Piazza di Spagna 26, tel. 066784235, www. keats-shelley-hou se.it. Museum dedicated to the lives of three English Romantic poets – John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron. Mon-Sat 10.00-13.00, 14.00-18.00. Guided tours on prior booking.

Museo storico della Liberazione

Via Tasso 145, tel. 067003866, www.museoliberazione.it. Housed in the city's former SS prison, the Liberation Museum were tortured here during the Nazi occupation of Rome from 1943-1944. 09.00-13.15 / 14.15-20.00.

Palazzo Merulana

Via Merulana 121, tel. 0639967800, www.palazzomerulana.it. Museum hosting the early 20th-century Italian art collection, including Scuola Romana paintings, of the Cerasi Foundation. 09.00-20.00. Tues closed.

ART GALLERIES

1/9 Unosunove

1/9 Unosunove focuses on emerging national and interna tional contemporary artists and explores various media including paintings, sculpture and photography. Via degli Specchi 20, tel. 0697613696, www.unosunove.com.

A.A.M. Architettura

Arte Moderna Gallery housing numerous works of contem porary design, photography, drawings and architecture projects. Via dei Banchi Vecchi 61, tel. 0668307537, www. -maam.it.

Contemporary Cluster

Visual art, design, architecture, fashion design and beauty apothecary in a 17th-century palace. Via dei Barbieri 7, tel. 0668805928, www.contemporarycluster.com.

C.R.E.T.A.

Cultural association promoting ceramics and the visual, humanistic, musical and culinary arts through workshops, exhibitions and artist residencies. Palazzo Del ni, Via dei Del ni 17, tel. 0689827701, www.cretarome.com.

Dorothy Circus Gallery

Prominent gallery specialising in international pop-surrealist art. Via dei Pettinari 76, tel. 0668805928, www.dorothycircus gallery.com.

Ex Elettrofonica

This architecturally unique contemporary art gallery promotes and supports the work of young international artists. Vicolo S. Onofrio 10-11, tel. 0664760163, www.exelettrofonica.com.

Fondazione Memmo

Contemporary art space that hosts established foreign artists for sitespeci c exhibitions. Via Fontanella Borghese 56b, tel. 0668136598, www.fondazionememmo.it.

Fondazione Pasti cio Cerere

This non-pro t foundation develops and promotes educational projects and residencies for young artists and curators, as well as a programme of exhibitions, lectures, workshops and studio visits. Via degli Ausoni 7, tel. 0645422960, www.pasti ciocerere.com.

Fondazione Volume!

The Volume Foundation exhibits works created speci cally for the gallery with the goal of fusing art and landscape. Via di S. Francesco di Sales 86-88, tel. 06 6892431, www.fondazi onevolume.com.

Franz Paludetto

Gallery in S. Lorenzo that promotes the work of Italian and international contemporary artists. Via degli Ausoni 18, www.franzpaludetto.com.

Frutta

This contemporary art gallery supports international and local artists in its unique space. Via dei Salumi 53 tel. 0645508934, www.fruttagallery.com.

Gagosian Gallery

The Rome branch of this international contemporary art gallery hosts some of the biggest names in modern art. Via Francesco Crispi 16, tel.0642086498, www.gagosian.com.

GALLA

Exhibition space designed to showcase original, unconven tional art works at a ordable prices by artists working in various elds. Via degli Zingari 28, tel. 3476552515, www.facebook.com/GALLAmonti.

Galleria Alessandro Bonomo

Gallery showing the works of important Italian and interna tional visual artists. Via del Gesù 62, tel. 0669925858, www.bonomogallery.com.

Galleria Valentina Bonomo

Located in a former convent, this gallery hosts both interna tionally recognised and emerging artists who create works speci cally for the gallery space. Via del Portico d’Ottavia 13, tel. 066832766, www.galleriabonomo.com.

Galleria Frammenti D’Arte

Gallery promoting painting, design and photography by emerging and established Italian and international artists. Via Paola 23, tel. 069357144142, www.fdaproject.com.

Galleria Lorcan O’Neill

High-pro le international artists regularly exhibit at this gallery located near Campo de’ Fiori. Vicolo Dè Catinari 3, tel. 0668892980, www.lorcanoneill.com.

Galleria della Tartaruga

Well-established gallery that has promoted important Italian and foreign artists since 1975. Via Sistina 85/A, tel. 066788956, www.galleriadellatartaruga.com.

Galleria Il Segno

Prestigious gallery showing work by major Italia and interna tional artists since 1957. Via Capo le Case 4, tel. 066791387, www.galleriailsegno.com.

MAXXI amazes you, always

Gallery near Piazza del Popolo promoting established contemporary artists and emerging talents. Largo Fontanella Borghese 89, tel. 0669923801, www.galleriamucciaccia.com.

This historic gallery holds group and solo exhibitions showcasing the work of major 20th-century Italian painters alongside promising new Italian artists. Via Alibert 20, tel.

A dynamic gallery near Campo de’ Fiori, known for its stable of street artists. Via di Grotta Pinta 38, tel. 066865415,

New York gallerist Gavin Brown shows the work of internatio nal artists at his Trastevere gallery in a deconsecrated church dating to the eighth century. S. Andrea de Scaphis, Via dei Vascellari 69, www.gavinbrown.biz.

Hosts exhibitions representing the international scene and contemporary artists of di erent generations. Via Giuseppe Acerbi 31A, tel. 0653098768, www.ilpontecontemporanea.com.

Well-established gallery showing work by prominent Italian artists. Via del Corso 530, tel. 063610892, www.nuovapesa.it.

MAC Maja Arte Contemporanea

Gallery devoted to exhibitions by prominent Italian artists. Via di Monserrato 30, www.majartecontemporanea.com.

Contemporary art gallery that focuses on young and emerging artists. Via dei Prefetti 17, tel. 066875951, www.ma

This contemporary art gallery o ers an experimental space for a new generation of artists. Palazzo Sforza Cesarini, Via Sforza Cesarini 43 A, t el. 0639378024, www.monitoronline.org.

Space dedicated to showcasing young international artists working in pop surrealism, lowbrow art, dark art, comic art and surrealism. Via Castruccio Castracane 9, tel. 0627801418,

Nomas Foundation promotes contemporary research in art and experimental exhibitions. Viale Somalia 33, tel. 0686398381, www.nomasfoundation.com.

Operativa Arte Contemporanea

A new space oriented towards younger artists. Via del Consolato 10, www.operativa-arte.com.

Pian de Giullari

Art studio-gallery in the house of Carlina and Andrea Bottai showing works by contemporary artists from Rome, Naples and Florence capable of transmitting empathy and emotions. Via dei Cappellari 49, tel. 3397254235, 3663988603, www.piandegiullari2.blogspot.com.

Plus Arte Puls

Cultural association and gallery showing work by important contemporary Italian and international artists. Viale Mazzini 1, tel. 3357010795, www.plusartepuls.com.

RvB ARTS

Rome-based gallery specialising in a ordable contemporary art by young, emerging Italian artists. Via delle Zoccolette 28, tel. 3351633518, www.rvbarts.com.

Sala 1

This internationally known non-pro t contemporary art gallery provides an experimental research centre for contem porary art, architecture, performance and music. Piazza di Porta S. Giovanni 10, tel. 067008691, www.salauno.com.

S.T. Foto libreria galleria

Gallery in Borgo Pio representing a diverse range of contem porary art photography. Via degli Ombrellari 25, tel. 0664760105, www.stsenzatitolo.it.

Studio Sales di Norberto Ruggeri

The gallery exhibits pieces by both Italian and international contemporary artists particularly minimalist, postmodern and abstract work. Piazza Dante 2, int. 7/A, tel. 0677591122, www.galleriasales.it.

T293

The Rome branch of this contemporary art gallery presents national and international artists and hosts multiple solo exhibitions. Via G. M. Crescimbeni 11, tel. 0688980475, www.t293.it.

The Gallery Apart

This contemporary art gallery supports young artists in their research and assists them in their projects to help them emerge into the international art world. Via Francesco Negri 43, tel. 0668809863, www.thegalleryapart.it.

TraleVolte

Contemporary art gallery focusing on the relationship between art and architecture, hosting solo and group shows of Italian and international artists. Piazza di Porta S. Giovanni 10, tel. 0670491663, www.tralevolte.org.

White Noise Gallery

Based in the S. Lorenzo district, this gallery exhibits uncon ventional work by young Italian and international artists. Via della Seggiola 9, tel. 066832833, www.whitenoisegallery.it.

Wunderkammern

This gallery promotes innovative research of contemporary art. Via Gabrio Serbelloni 124, tel. 0645435662, www.wunder kammern.net.

Z20 Galleria Sara Zanin

Started by art historian Sara Zanin, Z2o Galleria o ers a range of innovative national and international contemporary artists. Via della Vetrina 21, tel. 0670452261, www.z2ogalleria.it.

where to go in Rome WHAT’S ON

EXHIBITIONS

VAN GOGH

8 OCT-26 MARCH

Palazzo Bonaparte, which reopened recently as an important exhibition space in the centre of Rome, stages a major show of Van Gogh paintings. The exhibition comprises 50 works including a celebrated self portrait of the artist from 1887, three years before his death. All the works on display come from the Kröller Müller Museum in Otterlo in the

Netherlands. The exhibition makes reference to the places where Van Gogh stayed, with a particular focus on the artist’s time in Paris. Alongside his celebrated self portrait, the exhibition includes The sower (June 1888), The hospital garden in SaintRémy (1889), The Ravine (1889) and Sorrowing old man (1890). Located in Piazza Venezia, the 17th-century Palazzo Bonaparte is best known as the home of Maria Letizia Ramolino, Napoleon’s mother, who watched the world go by from the building’s green balcony from 1818 until her death in 1836. For exhibition details including tickets see website, www. mostrepalazzobonaparte.it.

LUCIO DALLA

22 SEPT-6 JAN

Rome’s Ara Pacis museum will pay homage to the late Italian singersongwriter Lucio Dalla with a major exhibition dedicated to his life and career. The show, held on the 10th anniversary of Dalla’s death, will trace the “human and artistic journey of one of the most beloved Italian and international artists”. On display will be documents, photographs, record covers, stage costumes, video footage and memorabilia including his extensive collection of hats. Dalla is best remembered as the composer of Caruso, the 1986 hit subsequently covered by artists including Luciano Pavarotti and Julio Iglesias. Museo dell’Ara Pacis, Lungotevere in Augusta, www.arapacis.it.

A self portrait is among the highlights of a major Van Gogh show at Palazzo Bonaparte.

Lucio Dalla exhibition at Ara Pacis. Photo M. Viola, Archivio fotografico Pressing Line.

GIUSEPPE CAPOGROSSI

20 SEPT-6 NOV

The Galleria Nazionale di Arte Moderna (GNAM) presents a major retrospective devoted to Italian artist Giuseppe Capogrossi on the 50th anniversary of his death. The show marks the start of a series of Capogrossi exhibitions and events scheduled across Italy this October. One of the main exponents of Italian informal art in the mid-20th century, Capogrossi (1900-1972) was originally a member of the figurative Scuola Romana movement before embracing abstraction later in his career. Entitled Behind the scenes, the exhibition at GNAM comprises more than 30 paintings including a once-lost selection of works such as Surface 274 (1954) and Self-portrait with Emanuele Cavalli (circa 1927). The show also includes a room dedicated to his White Reliefs, from the 1960s, and the large Abstract tapestry (1963), along with around 20 works on paper and a series of archive material. Viale delle Belle Arti 131, www.lagallerianazionale. com.

EPISTOLARIUM

15 SEPT-19 NOV

Maja Arte Contemporanea an exhibition by Margareth Dorigatti inspired by the art of letter writing.

The show comprises the artist’s most recent painting cycle with around 20 works, created between 2020 and 2022. In a recent letter to the gallery owner Daina Maja Titonel, Dorigatti stated that she was a keen letter writer as a young girl and again when she first left home, before perusing through old letters during the covid lockdown.

“From these hundreds of letters I have extracted phrases at random” - she wrote - “and attempted to ‘rewrite’ them in my own fashion, in the only language I feel is truly mine: Painting.” Maja Arte Contemporanea, Via di Monserrato 30, www.majartecontemporanea. com. Giuseppe Capogrossi at GNAM. Le due chitarre (verso), 1948.

Margareth Dorigatti exhibition at Maja Arte Contemporanea.

DOMIZIANO IMPERATORE: ODIO E AMORE

13 JULY- 29 JAN

Villa Caffarelli at the Capitoline Museums stages an exhibition dedicated to Domitian, the last emperor of the Flavian dynasty, a complex character who was both loved and hated in life and in death. The exhibition, organised in collaboration with the Rijksmuseum in Holland, comprises almost 100 works, many of which are on loan from important international and Italian museums. On display are artefacts including marble and bronze busts of imperial figures and gods, marble elements of architectural decoration, and small objects in gold and bronze. Villa Caffarelli, Musei Capitolini, www. museicapitolini.org.

PICASSO AT RHINOCEROS

GALLERY

10 JUNE-16 OCT

The Fondazione Alda FendiEsperimenti stages a multimedia exhibition centred around a painting by Picasso at its Rhinoceros Gallery in Rome. The oil on canvas painting, titled Le peintre et son modèle en plein air, dates from 1963 and comes from the collection of the Intesa Sanpaolo bank. Never shown in Rome before, the work is central to the exhibition Picasso va, Picasso arriva which takes place across all floors of Palazzo Rhinoceros, located beside the Arch of Janus near the Circus Maximus. The exhibition’s title is a reference to Picasso’s Young Woman (1909) which was granted on loan to Palazzo Rhinoceros from the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg and ended up at the centre of debate in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Picasso exhibition can be visited for free – with reservations required – see website for details. Fondazione Alda Fendi - Esperimenti, Via del Velabro 9, www.fondazionealdafendiesperimenti.it.

L'elefante e il colle perduto at Trajan's Markets. O. FERRETTI, Demolizioni per l'apertura di via dell’Impero con i resti dell'elefante preistorico, olio su cartone (1932) Museo di Roma, MR 812 (© Roma - Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali - Museo di Roma).

L’ELEFANTE E IL COLLE PERDUTO

8 APRIL-5 MARCH

An exhibition at Trajan’s Markets recalls how the skull and left tusk of an extinct elephant species were discovered during excavations to make way for Via dell’Impero in 1932. The fossilised remains belonged to a straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) a prehistoric species that roamed Europe and western Asia during the Ice Age. The surprise discovery came about during frantic works to bulldoze a path through the Velia or Velian hill – a spur between the Oppian Hill and the north side of the Palatine – as part of Mussolini’s plans to connect the Colosseum with Piazza Venezia. The rushed nature of the excavation meant the almost total loss of the garden of Villa Rivaldi, a Renaissance-era palace whose grounds stretched as far as the Basilica of Maxentius in the Roman Forum. Cutting through the Velia yielded rich archaeological finds from the Roman era, in particular the remains of a domus with well-preserved frescoes and numerous statues. The unearthed treasures were collected hastily and crated off to city warehouses.

The most surprising discovery was made on 20 May 1932, when numerous fossilised remains came to light, among them the elephant skull and tusk. The remains of the elephant are on display alongside archaeological finds, archive film footage and large watercolours of the Villa Rivaldi garden, painted before it was lost forever. Trajan’s Markets, on Via IV Novembre 94, www.mercatiditraiano.it.

CRAZY: MADNESS IN CONTEMPORARY ART

18 FEB-8 JAN

Chiostro del Bramante presents a large-scale exhibition project curated by Danilo Eccher. The works of 21 international artists fill the venue’s internal and external spaces “because madness cannot have limits.” The exhibition, described as unpredictable and immersive, features 11 site-specific works displayed in rooms not normally open to visitors. The 21 artists include Petah Coyne, Ian Davenport, Janet Echelman, Lucio Fontana, Anne Hardy, Thomas Hirschhorn, Alfredo Pirri, Gianni Politi. Chiostro del Bramante, Arco della Pace 5, www.chiostrodelbramante.it.

Academies

AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME

6 OCT-27 NOV

The American Academy in Rome presents From Las Vegas to Rome: Photographs by Iwan Baan, an exhibition marking the 50th anniversary of the publication of Learning from Las Vegas by Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi. The landmark book revolutionised architecture by claiming that the lessons the American desert town had to offer equaled those of the Eternal City. “Las Vegas is to the Strip what Rome is to the Piazza,” they declared. Exhibition organisers say that Baan’s views of Las Vegas and of Rome, taken expressly for this occasion, “force us to question if we can regard architecture without moral judgment, a perspective Venturi encouraged for Las Vegas, in the ecological and social contexts of the 21st century.” A conversation with Baan, titled “Learning from Las

CLASSICAL

ACCADEMIA S. CECILIA

WORLD PEACE CONCERT

5 OCT

Toshio Yanagisawa conducts the

Lecture by Abigail Brundin at the British School at Rome. Image: Family Portrait by Lavinia Fontana.

Vegas in the Twenty-First Century,” will be held in conjunction with the exhibition opening on 6 October, from 18.00-19.00. The exhibition can be visited Fri, Sat and Sun 16.00-19.00, for full visiting details contact events@aarome.org or check website. American Academy in Rome, Via Angelo Masina 5, www.aarome.org.

BRITISH SCHOOL AT ROME 5 OCT

The British School at Rome (BSR) presents The social life of texts in Renaissance Italy, a lecture by BSR

director, Prof. Abigail Brundin, on Wednesday 5 October at 18.00. Brundin says the lecture delves into her 20 years of research into Renaissance texts “from writers to readers and from the very highest courtly poetry to the scraps of text worn on the bodies of illiterate workmen.” Her talk, in English, will aim to assess some of the wide variety of ways in which texts were used and consumed in the first decades of the age of print.

British School at Rome, Via Antonio Gramsci 61, www.bsr.ac.uk.

Balkan Chamber Orchestra in this special World Peace Concert in the Auditorium Parco della Musica. Ryuta Fujii, flute, and Kolja Blacher, violin, will perform music by Beqiri, Otaka, Prokofiev and

Mendelssohn. Auditorium Parco della Musica, Viale P. de Coubertin 30, www.auditorium.com.

STRAUSS - ELEKTRA

18, 20, 22 OCT

Sir Antonio Pappano conducts the Orchestra and Choir of the Accademia Nazionale di S. Cecilia in this one-act opera, with sopranos Ausrine Stundyte (Elettra) and Elisabet Strid (Crisotemide), mezzosoprano Petra Lang (Clitennestra) and tenor Neal Cooper (Egisto). Auditorium Parco della Musica, Viale P. de Coubertin 30, www.auditorium.com.

The Balkan Chamber Orchestra for S. Cecilia.

FEstivalS

ROMAEUROPA

8 SEPT-20 NOV

Rome’s multidisciplinary arts festival returns with the 37th edition of its annual programme of contemporary dance, theatre, art, music, technology and events for kids. This year there will be 80 shows taking place in 18 venues across the city, involving more than 400 artists from around the globe. Romaeuropa artistic director Fabrizio Grifasi said the festival would be held with the “clear and determined opposition to all forms of aggression, war, atrocities in Europe and everywhere in the world”, underscoring the firm belief “that a different future

OPERA

TEATRO DELL’OPERA DI ROMA

ALCESTE

4-13 OCT

With music by German composer Christoph Willibald Gluck. This production in three acts is conducted by Gianluca Capuano, with direction and choreography by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, with

is still possible and that it can be built through dialogue and cultural confrontation”. October highlights include a return of Bryce Dessner (The National) with the Dream House Quartet project, created together with pianist sisters Katia and Marielle Labèque and David Chalmin, with music by Dessner and Chalmin, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk and Anna Thorsvalsdottir (6 Oct). Bertold Brecht’s Threepenny Opera will be rearranged for the Berliner Ensemble, founded in 1949 by Brecht, under the direction of Barrie Kosky (11-15 Oct). South African artist William Kentridge returns to Rome with O Sentimental Machine in a creative collaboration with the Ictus Ensemble and French composer Francois Sarhan (28-29 Oct). For festival details in English, including programme, venues and tickets, see Romaeuropa website, www.romaeuropa.net.

the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma orchestra and chorus and Eastman Ballet Company, Antwerp. A Bayerische Staatsoper production, sung in French with Italian and English surtitles. Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Piazza Beniamino Gigli, www.operaroma.it.

GISELLE 21-27 OCT

Teatro dell’Opera di Roma production, a ballet in two acts with music by Adolphe-Charles Adam. Conducted by Kevin Rhodes, choreographer Carla Fracci, with Teatro dell’Opera di Roma orchestra, étoiles, principal dancers, soloists and corps de ballet. Susanna Salvi, Rebecca Bianchi and Natalia Osipova alternate in the role of Giselle. Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Piazza Beniamino Gigli, www.operaroma.it.

TOSCA

2-5 NOV

Puccini’s melodrama in three acts, with libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica after the drama by Victorien Sardou. Paolo Arrivabeni

ROME FILM FESTIVAL

13-23 OCT

The 17th edition of Rome’s highprofile annual film festival has a new artistic director, Paola Malanga, who succeeds Antonio Mondo. The festival’s international competition will showcase 16 titles including Lila Neugebauer’s Causeway, with Jennifer Lawrence; Firam Khoury’s Alam; Mounia Meddour’s Houria; and Wang Xiaoshuai’s The Hotel. Opening the festival out of competition will be Francesca Archibugi’s The Hummingbird (Il Colibrì) starring Pierfrancesco Favino and adapted from Sandro Veronesi’s best-selling book. The American director James Ivory will receive a lifetime achievement award during the festival which will be based at the Auditorium Parco della Musica with events in other cultural venues across the capital. For details including tickets see Festa dal Cinema website, www. romacinemafest.it.

conducts, Alessandro Talevi directs, with cast including Anna Pirozzi and Ewa Płonka as Tosca. Teatro dell’Opera di Roma orchestra and choir, with the partecipation of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma Scuola di Canto Corale. Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Piazza Beniamino Gigli, www.operaroma.it.

Tosca at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo Yasuko Kageyama.

Alceste at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo Filip Van Roe.

Theatre

ACCADEMIA FILARMONICA ROMANA

GIULIETTA E ROMEO

4-9 OCT

Romeo and Juliet is back on stage, with the Balletto di Roma at Teatro Olimpico, in a reworking by choreographer and director Fabrizio Monteverde whose version is set in a dark and dusty South, fresh from a war and on the brink of revolution. Monteverde’s work strips the Shakespearean plot to “expose its cynical and angry sentiment, resulting in an essential but passionate, lyrical and cruel narrative”, according to the website.

With Carola Puddu as Giulietta and Paolo Barbonaglia as Romeo. Teatro Olimpico, Piazza Gentile da Fabriano 17, www.filarmonicaromana.org.

ROCKY HORROR SHOW 1-6 NOV

Accademia Filarmonica Romana and LSD Edizioni stage Richard

O’Brien’s humorous musical in tribute to the science fiction and

horror B movies. Staged at Teatro Olimpico in collaboration with Trafalgar Theatre, with Stephen Webb as Frank and Haley Flaherty as Janet. Teatro Olimpico, Piazza Gentile da Fabriano 17, www. filarmonicaromana.org.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show comes to Teatro Olimpico in early November.

Giulietta e Romeo at Teatro Olimpico.

ROME CLOSES GLOBE THEATRE AFTER STAIRS COLLAPSE

Rome’s Globe Theatre in the central Villa Borghese park remains closed to the public after a timber staircase collapsed on 22 September, injuring a dozen people including school children. An investigation is underway into the incident which occurred as the teenage students were leaving the theatre after a production of Macbeth by Daniele Salvo during the city’s annual Shakespearean festival. Firefighters rushed to the scene, with ambulances taking seven students and five adults to hospital with light injuries.

focus on the turbulent life of the Italian painter and sculptor who is celebrated for his portraits featuring elongated necks and faces. Based on the play by Dennis McIntyre, Depp’s film will be set in Paris in 1916 and will chart 48 hours “that will become a turning point” in Modigliani’s life, “ultimately solidifying his reputation as an artistic legend”, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Production is set to start in Europe in spring 2023, with the cast to be unveiled soon. Depp, 59, said he is “incredibly honoured” to to make a film about Modigliani who endured “a life of great hardship, but eventual triumph – a universally human story all viewers can identify with.” The project marks a return to directing for Depp, 25 years after he co-directed The Brave with Marlon Brando, as he gets his career back on track following his victory in the recent high-profile defamation trial against his former wife Amber Heard.

Rome mayor Roberto Gualtieri said that the staircase had undergone maintenance this summer and confirmed that the theatre would now remain closed indefinitely. Gualtieri also apologised to the students who had travelled to Rome on a school tour from the Abruzzo region. Productions have moved temporarily to Teatro Olimpico. The theatre is a full-scale timber reproduction of Shakespeare’s Globe, copied from the original oak and thatch designs, and almost identical to the one that stands on London’s South Bank. Built in 2003 in just three months, the theatre was the result of an idea by the late Rome actor and comedian Gigi Proietti who directed and performed in the Shakespearean festival every year until his death in 2020 aged 80. Last year the Globe Theatre was renamed after Proietti who was succeeded as artistic director by the Oscarwinning composer Nicola Piovani.

JOHNNY DEPP TO DIRECT MODIGLIANI FILM

Hollywood actor Johnny Depp is to direct a new film about Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) which he will co-produce with Al Pacino and Barry Navidi. The movie will

Born in 1884, Modigliani spent his youth in Italy, studying the art of antiquity and the Renaissance, before moving in 1906 to Paris, where he came into contact with artists such as Pablo Picasso. His time in Paris was marred by poverty and ill health, compounded by alcohol and drugs, and he was largely underrated as an artist in his lifetime. On 24 January 1920 Modigliani died of tubercular meningitis, aged 35. The next day his pregnant partner Jeanne Hébuterne took her own life, aged 21, leaving behind the couple’s 14-month-old child, Jeanne Modigliani who would go on to write the biography Modigliani: Man and Myth in 1958.

Andy Devane

Amedeo Modigliani is to be the subject of a new movie.

The Globe after the stairway collapsed. Photo Vigili del Fuoco.

Teatro Costanzi, Teatro Piazza Beniamino Gigli 1, ww

Teatro Olimpico, Piazza Gentile da Fabriano 17, www.teatroolimpico.it

Teatro Costanzi, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Piazza Beniamino Gigli 1, www.operaroma.it

Teatro Vascello, Via Giacinto Carini 78, www.teatrovascello.it

Teatro Olimpico, Piazza Gentile da Fabriano 17, www.teatroolimpico.it

Teatro Vascello, Via Giacinto Carini 78, www.teatrovascello.it

rockpop

rockpop

Concert venues ranging from major pop and rock groups to jazz and acoustic gigs.

Alexanderplatz, Via Ostia 9, tel. 0683775604 www.alexanderplatzjazzclub.it

Concert venues ranging from major pop and rock groups to jazz and acoustic gigs.

opera

dance opera

Teatro Costanzi, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Piazza Beniamino Gigli 1, www.operaroma.it

Teatro Costanzi, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Piazza Beniamino Gigli 1, www.operaroma.it

Lanificio 159, Via di Pietralata 159, tel. 0641780081, www.lanificio159.com

Live Alcazar, Via Cardinale Merry del Val 14, tel. 065810388, www.livealcazar.com

Lanificio 159, Via di Pietralata 159, tel. 0641780081, www.lanificio159.com

Angelo Mai Altrove, Via delle Terme di Caracalla 55, www.angelomai.org

Alexanderplatz, Via Ostia 9, tel. 0683775604 www.alexanderplatzjazzclub.it

Atlantico, Viale dell’Oceano Atlantico 271d, tel. 065915727, www.atlanticoroma.it

Angelo Mai Altrove, Via delle Terme di Caracalla 55, www.angelomai.org

Auditorium Parco della Musica, Viale P de Coubertin, tel. 06892982, www.auditorium.com

Atlantico, Viale dell’Oceano Atlantico 271d, tel. 065915727, www.atlanticoroma.it

Casa del Jazz, Viale di Porta Ardeatina 55, tel. 06704731, www.casajazz.it

Auditorium Parco della Musica, Viale P de Coubertin, tel. 06892982, www auditorium.com

theatre

Casa del Jazz, Viale di Porta Ardeatina 55, tel. 06704731, www.casajazz.it

theatre

Teatro Argentina, Largo di Torre Argentina 52, tel. 06684000314, www.teatrodiroma.net

Teatro Belli, Piazza di S. Apollonia 11, tel. 065894875, www.teatrobelli.it

Teatro Argentina, Largo di Torre Argentina 52, tel. 06684000314, www.teatrodiroma.net

Teatro Belli, Piazza di S. Apollonia 11, tel. 065894875, www.teatrobelli.it

Teatro Brancaccio, Via Merulana 244, tel. 0680687231 www.teatrobrancaccio.it

Teatro Ghione, Via delle Fornaci 37, tel. 066372294 www.teatroghione.it

Teatro Brancaccio, Via Merulana 244, tel. 0680687231 www.teatrobrancaccio.it

Teatro Ghione, Via delle Fornaci 37, tel. 066372294 www.teatroghione.it

Teatro India, Lungotevere Vittorio Gassman 1, tel. 06684000311, www.teatrodiroma.net

Teatro India, Lungotevere Vittorio Gassman 1, tel. 06684000311, www.teatrodiroma.net

Monk Club, Via Giuseppe Mirri 35, tel. 0664850987, www.monkroma.it

Live Alcazar, Via Cardinale Merry del Val 14, tel. 065810388, www.livealcazar.com

PalaLottomatica, Piazzale dello Sport 1, tel. 06540901, www.palalottomatica.it

Monk Club, Via Giuseppe Mirri 35, tel. 0664850987, www.monkroma.it

PalaLottomatica, Piazzale dello Sport 1, tel. 06540901, www.palalottomatica.it

Rock in Roma, Via Appia Nuova 1245, tel. 0654220870 www.rockinroma.com

Rock in Roma, Via Appia Nuova 1245, tel. 0654220870 www.rockinroma.com

Teatro Quirinetta, Via Marco Minghetti 5, tel. 0669925616, www.quirinetta.com

Teatro Quirinetta, Via Marco Minghetti 5, tel. 0669925616, www.quirinetta.com

Unplugged in Monti, Blackmarket, Via Panisperna 101, www.unpluggedinmonti.com

Unplugged in Monti, Blackmarket, Via Panisperna 101, www.unpluggedinmonti.com

Teatro Olimpico, Piazza Gentile da Fabriano 17, tel. 063265991, www.teatroolimpico.it

Teatro Olimpico, Piazza Gentile da Fabriano 17, tel. 063265991, www.teatroolimpico.it

Teatro S. Genesio, Via Podgora 1, tel. 063223432, www.teatrosangenesio.it

Teatro S. Genesio, Via Podgora 1, tel. 063223432 www.teatrosangenesio.it

Teatro Sistina, Via Sistina 129, tel. 064200711, www.ilsi stina.it

Teatro Sistina, Via Sistina 129, tel. 064200711, www.ilsistina.it

Teatro Vascello, Via Giacinto Carini 78, tel 065898031 www.teatrovascello.it

Teatro Vascello, Via Giacinto Carini 78, tel. 065898031, www.teatrovascello.it

Teatro Vittoria, Piazza di S. Maria Liberatrice 10, tel. 065781960, www.teatrovittoria.it

Teatro Vittoria, Piazza di S. Maria Liberatrice 10, tel. 065781960, www.teatrovittoria.it

ByKateZagorski

AUBERGINE PARMIGIANA

THE SIGNATURE INGREDIENTS OF SOUTHERN ITALY

Although its true origin continues to be contested between Sicily and Campania, parmigiana di melanzane (or melanzane alla parmigiana) is nevertheless a celebration of the signature ingredients of southern Italy. Slices of plump, ripe aubergine are layered together with an intense tomato sauce, fragrant fresh basil and milky mozzarella before being baked in the oven to create a harmonious taste of summer.

There are many variations to the preparation of the dish. The aubergine will usually be fried, sometimes with just a light coating of our, or maybe also dredged in egg and breadcrumbs, but some prefer a lighter version made with grilled aubergine which eliminates some of the oil content. The cheeses used can also vary though most recipes agree on a combination of mozzarella and grated parmesan or grana.

It is best to use inky-purple aubergines which are rm and shiny. Even though it increases the preparation time, it is wise to salt and drain the slices before frying to eliminate any bitterness. This also reduces the water content which can make them soggy and insipid. It is also important to give your tomato sauce ample time to simmer and reduce in order to create the proper base from which the other elements can sing.

From start to nish this dish is a labour of love, especially batch-frying in the hot summer temperatures, but the result is deliciously satisfying and gets even better when there are leftovers to devour the next day.

5 medium aubergines

2 x 700ml jars of tomato passata

1 onion, nely chopped

1 clove garlic

5 x 125g balls of mozzarella

100g grated parmesan or grana

1 bunch of fresh basil leaves

Salt Pepper

Flour, for dusting

Extra virgin olive oil

1lt peanut or sun ower oil, for frying

Wash and trim the aubergines. Cut lengthways into slices of about ½ centimetre in width. Layer in a colander, sprinkling with salt in between the layers. Place over a bowl and put a heavy plate on top to push the aubergine down. Leave to drain for at least 30 minutes. Once drained, discard the bitter juices then rinse the slices and dry well with kitchen paper or a clean cloth.

In a wide pan, heat the oil until boiling (you can test with a wooden toothpick or a small piece of aubergine, if small bubbles gather the oil is ready). Sprinkle some our on a plate then one-by-one take each slice of aubergine, coat it in our on both sides and carefully lower it into the oil. Cook for around 2-3 minutes, turning regularly until it begins to turn golden, then remove and place onto kitchen paper to drain o the excess oil. Continue to fry the slices in batches, try not to overcrowd the pan.

To prepare the tomato sauce, heat a generous glug of olive oil in a saucepan, nely chop one onion and add to the pan along with one whole, peeled, garlic clove. Gently fry for a few minutes until the onion is soft and translucent. Remove the garlic and add two jars of tomato passata. Season well with salt and pepper, bring to the boil then turn down to a gentle simmer, cover and cook for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce has reduced by half.

Chop the mozzarella into 1-2cm cubes, place in a colander and use your hands to squeeze out the excess water. Leave to drain for 10 minutes. When everything is ready to be assembled, take a large baking dish and spread a little tomato sauce across the base. Layer some slices of aubergine then spoon over more sauce, add some fresh basil leaves, cubes of mozzarella and a good sprinkle of parmesan. Continue with layering in the same order of aubergine, sauce, basil, mozzarella, parmesan until the top layer of aubergine. Spread over a little sauce along with the remaining mozzarella and plenty of parmesan to nish.

Heat the oven to 180°C and bake your parmigiana for approximately 30 minutes until the top is crispy and the sauce is bubbling.

The best vegan and vegetarianrestaurants in Rome

From breakfast to dinner, from bistros to restaurants, the choice for veggies and vegans in Rome is ever wider. You can enjoy delicious dishes that don’t skimp on flavour or cause any harm to animals.

SO WHAT?!?

The dishes at this totally vegan restaurant in Pigneto recreate traditional recipes (there being a particular focus on zero km and organic products). So it’s not just spoonfuls of veloutés and salads here, you can enjoy starters such as gluten-free fettuccine with ragu and pesto gnocchi with sage and cashews (€8.50), to mains such as zuccotto made with lentils in the Mediterranean style (€8.50) and desserts such as tofu cake with blueberries and ginger (€5).

ROMEOW CAT BISTRO

The cooking at this bistro that’s seemingly half run by cats (the eatery’s permanent residents), is entirely vegan, taking inspiration from Indian and Mexican cuisine, while also serving a menu of raw food. You can enjoy muffins, brownies and raw cakes for breakfast, for lunch and dinner there’s troccolo (thick spaghetti) with wild aspara gus, a light turmeric cream and asparagus chips.

LA CAPRA CAMPA

One of Rome’s best known vegan bistros offers only 0 km vegetables, that come directly from the Lazio countryside: the flours, legumes and grains are all organic, and the dry fruit is fair trade. And if that isn’t enough, the gluten-free and ‘vegan cheeses’ are made in-house.

GREZZO

If you’ve got a sweet tooth and don’t want to give up the cheese cake, tiramisù and other delicious desserts, there’s Grezzo, the raw patisserie and chocolate shop. The tasty raw chocolate is manipulated at low tempera tures to keep all the nutritional qualities of the cocoa. All the desserts are completely vegan and gluten free.

UOVO À POIS

If you feel like a sweet treat made with whole-wheat flour and natural, unrefined sugar (the only exception being the icing sugar and food colourings used in the cake decoration), and free from milk and hydrogenated fat, this organic, gourmet patisserie is the place for you. There are also whole cakes available to order and pastries made with alternative sugars.

UNIVERSO VEGANO

If you’re craving fast food and tasty paninis, look no further than Universo Vegano, the cruelty-free franchise that uses no products that are derived from animals and serves only home-made Italian food, using no conserva tives or colourants. You can try the vegetarian pizza, the Bolognese vegan lasagne, the paella or the tofu and spinach cannelloni.

IL MARGUTTA

Known as RistorArte, is famous in Rome for being an excellent vegetarian restaurant where you enjoy, other than gourmet food, art exhibitions, theatre shows, book launches, meet-ups and debates. At Il Margutta, from brunch until dinner time, the dishes are made with the highest quality products. There’s a tasting menu (and even a vegan menu available) or you can eat from the à la carte menu.

ORTO

A vegetarian restaurant in Prati where the food is affordable and the portions are huge, packed with lots of organic vegetables and delicious local olive oil. For dinner there’s an à la carte menu and at lunch time there’s an enormous buffet. There are also two specials each week for when you feel like trying something a little different.

LE BISTROT

A vegan and vegetarian restaurant with a retro vibe, serving traditional recipes with a focus on Mediterrane an flavours. You can try the onion or vegetable soup (€12), black spaghetti with taggiasca olives (€12) and red turnip and truffle risotto (€12). Don’t miss the desserts – there are traditional sweet treats or vegan and gluten free versions.

FIORE CRUDO E VAPORE

A restaurant where the cuisine combines local and traditional recipes with raw cooking. As a result vegeta rians, vegans and carnivores alike feast beside one another. The restaurant tries to satisfy every taste and dietary requirement, with organic produce and a huge menu. You can try gourmet dishes, raw food recipes, salads and a selection of raw and traditional desserts.

Indirizzi

So What?!?, Via Ettore Giovenale 58, tel. 3298265250.

Romeow Cat Bistrot, Via Francesco Negri 15, tel. 0657289203.

La Capra Campa, Via Dignano D’Istria 51/a, tel. 327456 8592.

Grezzo, Via Urbana 30, tel. 06483443.

Uovo à Pois, Via Pellegrino Matteaucci 62, tel. 3429448443.

Universo Vegano, Piazza del Paradiso 18, tel. 3481004757.

Il Margutta RistorArte, Via Margutta 118, tel. 0632650577.

Orto, Via Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli 142, tel. 0645678050.

Le Bistrot, Via delle Sette Chiese 160, tel. 065128991.

Fiore Crudo e Vapore, Via Boncompagni 31/33, tel. 0642020400.

Associations

American International Club of Rome tel. 0645447625, www.aicrome.org

American Women’s Association of Rome tel. 064825268, www.awar.org

Association of British Expats in Italy britishexpatsinitaly@gmail.com

Canadian Club of Rome canadarome@gmail.com

Circolo di Cultura Mario Mieli

Gay and lesbian international contact group, tel. 065413985, www.mariomieli.net

Commonwealth Club of Rome ccrome08@gmail.com

Daughters of the American Revolution Pax Romana Chapter NSDAR paxromana@daritaly.com, www.daritaly.com

Books

The following bookshops and libraries have books in English and other languages as specified.

Almost Corner Bookshop Via del Moro 45, tel. 065836942

Anglo American Bookshop Via delle Vite 27, tel. 066795222

Bibliothèque Centre Culturel Saint-Louis de France (French) Largo Toniolo 20-22, tel. 066802637 www.saintlouisdefrance.it

La librerie Française de Rome La Procure (French) Piazza S. Luigi dei Francesi 23, tel. 0668307598, www.libreriefrancaiserome.com Libreria Feltrinelli International Via V.E. Orlando 84, tel. 064827878, www.lafeltrinelli.it

Religious

All Saints’ Anglican Church

Via del Babuino 153/b tel. 0636001881 Sunday service 08.30 and 10.30

Anglican Centre

Piazza del Collegio Romano 2, tel. 066780302, www.anglicancentreinrome.com

Beth Hillel (Jewish Progressive Community) tel. 3899691486, www.bethhillelroma.org

Bible Baptist Church

Via di Castel di Leva 326, tel. 3342934593, www.bbcroma.org, Sunday 11.00

Christian Science Services

Via Stresa 41, tel. 063014425

Church of All Nations Lungotevere Michelangelo 7, tel. 069870464 Church of Sweden

Via A. Beroli 1/e, tel. 068080474, Sunday service 11.15 (Swedish)

International Women’s Club of Rome tel. 0633267490, www.iwcofrome.it Irish Club of Rome irishclubofrome@gmail.com, www.irishclubofrome.org Luncheon Club of Rome tel. 3338466820

Patrons of Arts in the Vatican Museums tel. 0669881814, www.vatican-patrons.org Professional Woman’s Association www.pwarome.org

United Nations Women’s Guild tel. 0657053628, unwg@fao.org, www.unwgrome.multiply.com Welcome Neighbor tel. 3479313040, dearprome@tele2.it, www.wntome-homepage.blogspot.com

Libreria Quattro Fontane (international) Via delle Quattro Fontane 20/a, tel. 064814484 Libreria Spagnola Sorgente (Spanish) Piazza navona 90, tel. 0668806950, www.libreriaspagnola.it

Open Door Bookshop (second hand books English, French, German, Italian) Via della Lungaretta 23, tel. 065896478, www.books-in-italy.com Otherwise Via del Governo Vecchio, tel. 066879825, www.otherwisebookshop.com

Footsteps Inter-Denominational Christian South Rome, tel. 0650917621, 3332284093, North Rome, tel. 0630894371, akfsmes.styles@tiscali.it

International Central Gospel Church Via XX Settembre 88, tel. 0655282695

International Christian Fellowship Via Guido Castelnuovo 28, tel. 065594266, Sunday service 11.00 Jewish Community Tempio Maggiore, Lungotevere Cenci, tel. 066840061 Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas Largo della Sanità Militare 60, tel. 067726761

Lutheran Church

Via Toscana 7, corner Via Sicilia 70, tel. 064817519, Sunday service 10.00 (German) Ponte S. Angelo Methodist Church Piazza Ponte S. Angelo, tel. 066868314, Sunday Service 10.30

Pontifical Irish College (Roman Catholic)

Via dei SS. Quattro 1, tel. 06772631. Sunday service 10.00

Roma Baptist Church

Piazza S. Lorenzo in Lucina 35, tel. 066876652, 066876211, Suday service 10.30, 13.00 (Filipino), 16.00 (Chinese)

Roma Buddhist Centre Vihara Via Mandas 2, tel. 0622460091

Rome International Church Via Cassia km 16, www.romeinternational.org

Rome Mosque (Centro Islamico) Via della Moschea, tel. 068082167, 068082258

St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church Via XX Settembre 7, tel. 064827627, Sunday service 11.00

St Francis Xavier del Caravita (Roman Catholic) Via Caravita 7, www.caravita.org, Sunday service 11.00

Support groups

Alcoholics Anonymous tel. 064742913, www.aarome.com

Archè

(HIV+children and their families) tel. 0677250350, www.arche.it

Associazione Centro Astalli (Jesuit refugee centre) Via degli Astalli 14/a, tel. 0669700306

Associazione Ryder Italia (Support for cancer patients and their families) tel. 065349622/06582045580, www.ryderitalia.it

Astra (Anti-stalking risk assessment) tel. 066535499, www.differenzadonna.it

Caritas soup kitchen (Mensa Giovanni Paolo II) Via delle Sette Sale 30, tel. 0647821098, 11.00-13.30 daily

Caritas foreigners’ support centre Via delle Zoccolette 19, tel. 066875228, 06681554

Caritas hostel

Via Marsala 109, tel. 064457235

Caritas legal assistance Piazza S. Giovanni in Laterano 6/a, tel. 0669886369

Celebrate Recovery Christian group tel. 3381675680

Transport

• Atac (Rome bus, metro and tram) tel. 800431784, www.atac.roma.it

• Ciampino airport tel.06794941, www.adr.it

• Fiumicino airport tel. 0665951, www.adr.it

• Taxi tel. 060609-065551-063570-068822-064157066645-064994

• Traffic info tel. 1518

• Trenitalia (national railways) tel. 892021, www.trenitalia.it

St Isidore College (Roman Catholic)

Via degli Artisti 41, tel. 064885359, Sunday service 10.00

St Patrick’s Church (Roman Catholic), Via Boncompagni 31, tel. 068881827, www.stpatricksamericaninrome.org

Weekday Masses in English 18.00, Saturday Vigil 18.00, Sunday 09.00 and 10.30

St Paul’s within-the-Walls (Anglican Episcopal)

Via Nazionale, corner Via Napoli, tel. 064883339, Sunday service 08.30, 10.30 (English), 13.00 (Spanish)

St Silvestro Church (Roman Catholic)

Piazza S. Silvestro 1, tel. 066977121, Sunday service 10.00 and 17.30

Venerable English College (Roman Catholic), Via di Monserrato 45, tel. 066868546, Sunday service 10.00

Comunità di S. Egidio Piazza di S. Egidio 3/a, tel. 068992234

Comunità di S. Egidio soup kitchen Via Dandolo 10, tel. 065894327, 17.00-19.30 Wed, Fri, Sat Information line for disabled tel. 800271027

Joel Nafuma Refugee Centre St Paul’s within-the-Walls Via Nazionale, corner Via Napoli, tel. 064883339

Mason Perkins Deafness Fund (Support for deaf and deaf-blind children), tel. 06444234511, masonperkins@gmail.com, www.mpds.it

Overeaters Anonymous tel. 064743772

Salvation Army (Esercito della Salvezza) Centro Sociale di Roma “Virgilio Paglieri” Via degli Apuli 41, tel. 064451351

Support for elderly victims of crime (Italian only) Largo E. Fioritto 2, tel. 0657305104

The Samaritans Onlus (Confidential telephone helpline for the distressed) tel. 800860022

Chiamaroma

24-hour, multilingual information line for services in Rome, run by the city council, tel. 060606

Emergency numbers

• Ambulance tel. 118

• Carabinieri tel. 112

• Electricity and water faults (Acea) tel. 800130336

• Fire brigade tel. 115

• Gas leaks (Italgas-Eni) tel. 800900999

• Police tel. 113

• Rubbish (Ama) tel. 8008670355