Rome has often been described as an open-air museum but its picturesque majesty and theatricality also lend themselves to providing an excellent film set. Be it ancient Roman splendour, baroque decadence or neo-realistic squalor, its appearance, unchanged through the ages, makes it a natural choi...

Two days before Christmas 2009, 350 people gathered in Piazza Vittorio in the Esquilino district of Rome for a community photo. The group was diverse in nationality, age, gender, social status, religion and occupation. It was to be a moment in the life of the community; not a demonstration agains...

On 1 March foreigners in Italy are organising a 24-hour strike to underline their role in the country and to protest against recent episodes of racism and discrimination. Inspired by a similar protest in France on the same day, the event is being coordinated by a network of local committees with ...

The Six Nations rugby championship returns to Rome in February and tickets are sold out for the two home matches in the capital: Italy against England on 14 February at 15.30, and against Scotland on 27 February at 14.30. Despite football remaining the number one sport in Italy, in the past few y...

Attracting up to 2,000 visitors a day, the Scala Santa, or Holy Stairway, adjacent to the basilica of S. Giovanni in Laterano, is one of Rome’s oldest and, for Roman Catholics, most venerated sites. Many pilgrims climb the staircase on their knees, reciting a prayer at every step, because the Sta...

The buzzword in Italy at the moment is “reform”, an issue that comes and goes in politics and has the consistency of clouds. For most of this parliament, which began in 2008, all sides have agreed that political reforms are necessary and most of them even agree on the general headings of what nee...

There’s a new foreign food fad in Rome, and it looks like it’s here to stay: sushi. When it comes to food, Romans tend to be rather orthodox; even the trendiest wine bars and restaurants serve dishes that anyone’s grandmother would eat. Yet the distinct flavour of raw fish and vinegared rice has ...