The House Before the House
When I first stepped into this early twentieth-century home, I had a clear, almost physical sensation: it was not asking to be changed, it was asking to be listened to.
There was silence, but not neglect.
The walls, the floors, the traces of time, each spoke in their own way, quietly yet insistently.
Some rooms had been mistreated by makeshift lofts built to “gain space”, but they had taken away the one thing I value most, the breath of high ceilings.
They felt like rooms that had lost their voice, waiting patiently to be seen again.
They did not cry out, they simply waited.
Rome, Scene Open
Right now, the city is hosting the 20th edition of the Rome Film Fest (15–26 October).
If you’re here for a few days, wandering, visiting, simply letting yourself get lost, you might have already felt it.
Reflections from the Tiber
There exists a parallel Rome, one that isn’t measured in monuments, but in suspended moments.
It’s not made of marathons from one landmark to another, but of patient pauses and sidelong glances.
It’s the city of dawn reflections on the river, of alleyways that guard their silence, of cloisters drawn in quiet geometry.
The Roman Ottobrata
There is a word Romans use that has no real translation: Ottobrata. Literally, it means “the October days”, but in truth it describes something far more elusive: the lingering warmth after summer has gone, the golden afternoons when the sun hangs low, the way people stretch themselves out into the light as if storing it up before November closes in. It is not just climate. It is a shared state of mind that belongs entirely to this city and to this season.
Inside La Grande Bellezza
There is a moment in Sorrentino’s film when Jep Gambardella says:
“The most significant discovery I made after turning sixty-five is that I can’t waste any more time doing things I don’t want to do.”
Roman stories
Not every journey begins in the same way. Some are measured in miles, others in museum tickets or snapshots collected along the way. But there are journeys that begin between the pages of a book.