SSomeone in Rome has swapped the Playboy bunny for a muscular statue holding up a column capital, and stamped it DISMESSO: retired, out of service. I read it as satire on the decline of traditional masculine ideals. Rome had the original playboys, rich men who ignored the mos maiorum, the
At sunset Rome turned the whole sky orange. Italians call a sky like this "a pecorelle," little sheep, and say rain is on its way: cielo a pecorelle, pioggia a catinelle. I'll take the rain, as long as the sheep keep coming. RR
In Italian, riso means both rice and laughter. They come from two different Latin words that ended up spelled the same (Risotto = riso + -otto; riso "laughter" from Latin risus, rice from oryza). So a risotto isn't a little smile, whatever your face does when it arrives.
The Order of Malta's door on the Aventine has a famous keyhole. Through it you see the Order's gardens, then Rome, then St. Peter's dome in the Vatican, so three sovereign subjects in one view. The plaque says this is the Order's
A French saint in a Roman garden: Joan of Arc, at the stake, between Sant'Alessio and Santa Sabina on the Aventine. A French sculptor gave her to Rome in 1935, but the war got in the way and she only reached this garden in 1954. Even a saint
A stone wedge at the foot of a corner. Stones like this mostly kept cart wheels off the walls, though in some cities they also discouraged people from peeing there. I can't tell you which job this one had. Either way, it is still on duty. RR
These cypress doors on the Aventine were carved around 430. One small panel is often cited as the earliest surviving public image of the Crucifixion, and it has no cross, just three figures with their arms out. Fifteen centuries on, they're still hanging in the same church, and
Cars squeeze through an arch in the walls near Porta Portese. The gate itself dates from 1644, replacing a Roman one, but the wall around it has been patched for centuries. The Smart made it. We are still sleuthing. RR
A sentry box next to Palazzo Madama, named for Margherita d'Austria, "la Madama", who received it in usufruct after Alessandro de' Medici died in 1537 and where the Senate has sat since 1871. The gold S on the panel is the Senate’s emblem, a
Rome’s police have been a civilian force since 1981, when the Polizia di Stato was demilitarized. The Carabinieri and the Guardia di Finanza are still military. The trousers still look ready for a parade. Three officers stand at the counter, where Italians take their espresso: standing up, quickly, and
The square is named for Lauro de Bosis, the poet who in 1931 flew over Rome dropping 400,000 anti-Fascist leaflets. A fine name for a place built as a Fascist academy of physical education, now home to the Italian Olympic Committee, hence the rings. Berlin's 1936
Monte dei Paschi began in 1472 as a charity pawn shop: you left a coat, got a loan, paid a little interest, and if the coat was sold for more than you owed, you got the difference. Commercial lenders charged 40% or more. In 2026 it is fighting off a