8 March

NEW - Walter Chiari - actor

Talented star with taste for high life

The actor Walter Chiari, whose passionate affair with the American superstar Ava Gardner in 1950s Rome is said to have influenced Federico Fellini in the making of his landmark movie La dolce vita, was born on this day in 1924 in Verona.  Chiari was an accomplished stage and film actor when he met Gardner on the set of The Little Hut, a 1957 romantic comedy that was British made and with a Canadian director but was filmed largely at Cinecittà in Rome.  Gardner was still married to Frank Sinatra at the time but the pair were estranged and she was open to romance. She developed a taste for the Rome nightlife around the Via Veneto and her relationship with Chiari soon began to dominate the gossip columns. They were constantly harassed by photographers, some of whom felt the rough edge of Chiari’s temper.  Fellini supposedly based Paparazzo, the photographer who relentlessly pursues Anita Ekberg’s character in La dolce vita, on the antics of some of the real-life snappers who followed Chiari and Gardner’s every move.   Chiari, who enjoyed much success on screen and in theatre, mostly in comedy roles, was already a familiar face around Rome’s glitzier clubs and bars, often stepping out with glamorous partners.  Read more… 

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Carlo Gesualdo – composer

Madrigal writer was also a murderer

Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa, who composed highly experimental music for his time, was born on this day in 1566 in the principality of Venosa, then part of the Kingdom of Naples.  He was to become known both for his extraordinary music and for the brutal killing of his first wife and her aristocratic lover after he caught them together.  Gesualdo was the nephew of Carlo Borromeo, who later became Saint Charles Borromeo. His mother, Geronima Borromeo, was the niece of Pope Pius IV.  Although Gesualdo was sent to Rome to begin an ecclesiastical career, he became heir to the principality after his older brother died. He married his cousin, Donna Maria D’Avalos, and they had a son, Emanuele.  Gesualdo was devoted to music from an early age and mixed with musicians and composers, learning to play the lute, harpsichord and guitar.  Donna Maria began an affair with Fabrizio Carafa, Duke of Andria and Count of Ruova, and one night in 1590 Gesualdo caught them in flagrante at the Palazzo San Severo in Naples. He killed them both on the spot.  A delegation of officials from Naples inspected the room where they were killed and found the corpses were mutilated.  Read more…

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La Festa della Donna – Women’s Day

Bright fragrant mimosa signals respect

La Festa della Donna - Women’s Day - is celebrated in Italy on this day every year and is an occasion for men to show their appreciation for the women in their lives.  In many parts of Italy today, men will be seen carrying bunches of prettily wrapped mimosa to give to women who are special to them.  The flowers might be for their wives, girlfriends, mothers, friends or even employees and are meant as a sign of respect for womanhood.  The custom of men giving mimosa to their ladies began in the 1940s after the date 8 March was chosen as the Festa della Donna in Italy.  The date, which coincides with International Women's Day, has a political significance for campaigners for women's rights in Italy, marking the anniversary of a strike by female textile workers in New York in 1857 and the so-called 'bread and peace' strike by women in Russia in 1917, but has more recently become a celebration similar to Mothering Sunday or St Valentine's Day.  Yellow mimosa was chosen as the flower to give because it is in bloom at the beginning of March, it is relatively inexpensive, and the scent of it in the atmosphere is a sign that primavera (spring) is near.  Read more…

Antonello Venditti - enduring music star

Roman singer-songwriter's career spans 50 years

Singer-songwriter Antonello Venditti, one of Italy's most popular and enduring stars of contemporary music, was born on this day in 1949 in Rome.   Famous in the 1970s for the strong political and social content of many of his songs, Venditti can look back on a career spanning half a century, in which he has sold more than 30 million records.  Taking into account singles, studio and live albums and compilations, Venditti has released more than 100 recordings.  His biggest success came with the 1988 album In questo mondo di ladri (In This World of Thieves) - which sold 1.5 million copies, making it jointly the eighth best-selling album in Italian music history.  Venditti's music ranges from folk to soft rock, often with classical overtones. He enjoyed sustained success in the 1980s and 90s, when Cuore (Heart), Benvenuti in Paradiso (Welcome to Paradise) and Prendilo tu questo frutto amaro (Take this Bitter Fruit) all sold well.  His versatility as a singer was demonstrated with the 1979 album Buona Domenica, which contained several ballads including one, Modena, which was regarded as among his finest songs.  Read more…

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Gianni Baget Bozzo – priest and politician

Theologian moved from party to party

Prolific writer, ordained Catholic priest and political activist Gianni Baget Bozzo - often referred to as Don Gianni - was born on this day in 1925 in Savona in the northern Italian region of Liguria.  He took the name Baget from his mother, who was of Catalan origin but died when he was five, and Bozzo from the two uncles who raised him.  Baget Bozzo was known for supporting parties from both ends of the political spectrum at different times.  At one time a Christian Democrat activist, Baget Bozzo was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for the Italian Socialist party in 1984, which led to him being suspended from the priesthood. He was a member of Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia party from 1994.  He wrote many books about Christianity and as a theologian was a follower of the theories of Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.  Baget Bozzo was raised in Genoa where he graduated in law. He studied at the Pontificia Universita Gregoriana in Rome, which was established by Ignatius Loyola in 1551 as a school of grammar, humanity and Christian doctrine. It was more generally referred to as the Roman College. After graduating Baget Bozzo was ordained as a priest in 1949.  Over the years he contributed to many newspapers, in particular La Repubblica and he wrote dozens of books.  Read more…

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Book of the Day:  Dolce Vita Confidential: Fellini, Loren, Pucci, Paparazzi and the Swinging High Life of 1950s Rome, by Shawn Levy

1950s Rome. From the ashes of war, the Eternal City is reborn as the epicentre of film, style, boldfaced libertinism and titillating journalism. It's the heyday of fashion icons such as Pucci and Brioni, and the height of 'Hollywood on the Tiber', when a dizzying array of stars flock to Cinecittà, the huge movie studio on the outskirts of Rome. At the bars on Via Veneto the likes of Ingrid Bergman, Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor mix with blue bloods and bohemians, while behind them trail street photographers in pursuit of the most unflattering and dramatic portraits of fame.  In a fast-paced, kaleidoscopic narrative, Shawn Levy shows how all roads lead to Federico Fellini's world-conquering movie La dolce vita, starring Marcello Mastroianni and the Swedish bombshell Anita Ekberg. He recreates Rome's stunning ascent with vivid and compelling tales of its glitterati and artists, down to every last outrageous detail of the city's magnificent transformation.  Dolce Vita Confidential exalts the intoxicating, beguiling dreaminess of Rome in its celluloid heyday.

Shawn Levy has written many books, including Rat Pack Confidential, Paul Newman: A Life and The Castle on Sunset.  He is a former film critic of The Oregonian and KGW-TV, a former senior editor of American Film and a former associate editor of Box Office. He has written for numerous magazines and newspapers in the United States and England. 

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Walter Chiari - actor

Talented star with taste for high life

Walter Chiari had the bonus of 
good looks on top of acting talent

The actor Walter Chiari, whose passionate affair with the American superstar Ava Gardner in 1950s Rome is said to have influenced Federico Fellini in the making of his landmark movie La dolce vita, was born on this day in 1924 in Verona.

Chiari was an accomplished stage and film actor when he met Gardner on the set of The Little Hut, a 1957 romantic comedy that was British made and with a Canadian director but was filmed largely at Cinecittà in Rome.

Gardner was still married to Frank Sinatra at the time but the pair were estranged and she was open to romance. She developed a taste for the Rome nightlife around the Via Vittorio Veneto and her relationship with the handsome Chiari soon began to dominate the gossip columns. They were constantly harassed by photographers, some of whom felt the rough edge of Chiari’s temper.

Fellini supposedly based Paparazzo, the photographer who relentlessly pursues Anita Ekberg’s character in La dolce vita, on the antics of some of the real-life snappers who followed Chiari and Gardner’s every move.

Chiari, who enjoyed much success on screen and in theatre, mostly in comedy roles, was already a high-profile figure in Rome’s glitzier clubs and bars, often stepping out with glamorous partners. Among those with whom he was romantically linked were actresses Elsa Martinelli, Silvana Pampanini and Lucia Bosè, and the pop star Mina. He reportedly had a brief fling with Ekberg herself.

In his professional life, he was best known for his film roles in the aforementioned The Little Hut (1957), Bonjour Tristesse (1958), Chimes at Midnight (1966) and The Valachi Papers (1972), which brought him international acclaim. 

He appeared opposite Anna Magnani in Luchino Visconti's film Bellissima (1951), won much praise for the quality of his performances in the commedia all’italiana genre and worked with some of Italy’s leading directors, including Mario Soldati, Mario Monicelli, Luigi Comencini, Ettore Scola, Dino Risi, Alessandro Blasetti and Damiano Damiani.

Chiari's relationship with the American star
Ava Gardner (left) dominated the gossip columns

Fluent in English and as comfortable acting on stage as he was in front of the camera, he was an accomplished performer in musical comedy and enjoyed a long run on Broadway in The Gay Life, with lyrics by Howard Dietz and music by Arthur Schwartz. 

He starred in an Italian production of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple and, towards the end of his career, won critical approval for his performances in more serious stage roles, in plays such as Marc Terrier’s Six Heures au Plus Tard, Samuel Beckett’s Endgame and Richard Sheridan’s The Critic.

Born Walter Michele Armando Annicchiarico, Chiari spent the early part of his childhood in Via Quattro Spade in the heart of historic Verona, where his father, Carmelo, originally from Puglia, worked as a security officer for the local authority.

On finishing school he took a job as a warehouseman at a car factory in Milan, where the family had moved when he was nine. He subsequently found work as a radio technician and a bank, where - already showing a talent for acting - he was sacked after imitating Adolf Hitler while standing on a desk.

His break in acting came on a night out at the Teatro Olimpia in Milan, when the revue he had gone to see with a group of friends was on the point of being cancelled because one of the actors was absent. Urged to volunteer as a stand-in by his friends, he so impressed the director that he was invited to join the company.

Chiari had a brief marriage to the actress
Alida Chelli between 1969 and 1972

It opened the door into a career in revue theatre that flourished after he moved to Rome. He demonstrated his versatility by taking more serious roles, too, which in turn created opportunities to transfer his talents to the screen. In fact, his debut movie, in which he played the lead role in Giorgio Pastina’s Vanità (1947), won him a Nastro d’Argento award as best new actor.

Apart from his regular appearances in the gossip pages, Chiari was at the centre of other scandals. In 1970 he spent 98 days in the Regina Coeli prison in Rome after being arrested on charges of cocaine use and cocaine trafficking. He was released on payment of three million lire bail and acquitted of all but the possession charge at trial in 1971.

He received a suspended sentence for possession, but even though he had been cleared of the more serious charges the scandal severely damaged his career. The national TV channel Rai dropped him from a number of shows in which he had participated and until the late stages of his career his only television work was for minor, regional channels.

After his death, it was revealed that he had served for part of World War Two in the German army, who posted him to northern France with an anti-aircraft unit. He was captured by the Allies after being wounded soon after the D-Day landings and sent to an American prisoner of war camp in Tuscany.

Chiari was married - once and for just three years - to the singer and actress Alida Chelli. They had a son, Simone Annicchiarico, who became a TV presenter.  Chiari died from a heart attack in Milan in 1991, at the age of 67. His funeral, attended by more than 3,000 people, took place at the church of San Pietro in Sala, near Milan’s Teatro Nazionale.

His tombstone in Milan’s monumental cemetery famously is inscribed with the words: "Don't worry, I'm merely catching up with sleep".

The Via Quattro Spade in Verona,
where Walter Chiari was born

Travel tip:

Verona, where Walter Chiari was born, is the third largest city in the northeast of Italy, with a population across its whole urban area of more than 700,000. Among its wealth of tourist attractions is the Roman amphitheatre known as L’Arena di Verona, which dates back to AD30. Just a five-minute walk from Chiari’s home in Via Quattro Spade, the arena has a seating capacity of 22,000, often selling out for open air opera performances and pop concerts. Verona was chosen as the setting for three plays by William Shakespeare – Romeo and Juliet, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and The Taming of the Shrew - although it is unknown whether the English playwright ever actually set foot in the city.  Each year, thousands of tourists visit a 13th century house in Verona where Juliet is said to have lived, even though there is no evidence that Juliet and Romeo actually existed and the balcony said to have inspired Shakespeare’s imagination was not added until the early 20th century.

The church of San Pietro in Sala in the Wagner
district of Milan, which held Chiari's funeral

Travel tip:

The church of San Pietro in Sala is in the well-heeled Wagner district of Milan, which has some expensive apartments and upmarket shops but is also seen as a trendy neighbourhood. The main shopping streets, Corso Vercelli and Via Belfiore, are lined with quirky boutiques and shoe shops, while the area has a lively vibe in the evening. One attraction is the indoor food market in Piazza Riccardo Wagner, directly opposite the church. The largest food market in Milan, it stocks all manner of gourmet treats and is not to be missed by food-loving visitors to the city. Situated about 3km (1.9 miles) west of the centre of Milan, a 15-minute Metro ride from the station in Piazza Duomo.

Also on this day:

La Festa della Donna - International Women’s Day

1566: The birth of composer Carlo Gesualdo

1925: The birth of priest and politician Gianni Baget Bozzo

1949: The birth of singer-songwriter Antonello Venditti

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7 March

Alessandro Manzoni – novelist

Writer who produced the greatest novel in Italian literature

Italy’s most famous novelist, Alessandro Manzoni, was born on this day in 1785 in Milan.  Manzoni was the author of I promessi sposi (The Betrothed), the first novel to be written in modern Italian, a language that could be understood by everyone.  The novel caused a sensation when it was first published in 1825. It looked at Italian history through the eyes of the ordinary citizen and sparked pro-unification feelings in many Italians who read it, becoming a symbol of the Risorgimento movement.  I promessi sposi is now considered to be the most important novel in Italian literature and is still required reading for many Italian schoolchildren.  Manzoni spent a lot of his childhood in Lecco, on Lago di Lecco, where his father’s family originated, and he chose to set his great work there.  Lago di Lecco is an arm of Lago di Como and is surrounded by dramatic mountain scenery that is so stunning it is said to have inspired Leonardo da Vinci for settings for his paintings.   More than two centuries later, fans of Manzoni’s novel continue to visit Lecco to see the places he described and the buildings featured in the book that remain.  Read more…

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Saint Thomas Aquinas - philosopher

Theologian who synthesised Aristotle’s ideas with principles of Christianity

Saint Thomas Aquinas, known in Italian as Tommaso d’Aquino, died on this day in 1274 at Fossanova near Terracina in Lazio.  A Dominican friar who became a respected theologian and philosopher, D’Aquino was canonised in 1323, less than 50 years after his death.  He was responsible for two masterpieces of theology, Summa theologiae and Summa contra gentiles. The first sought to explain the Christian faith to students setting out to study theology, the second to explain the Christian faith and defend it in the face of hostile attacks.  As a poet, D'Aquino wrote some of the most beautiful hymns in the church’s liturgy, which are still sung today.  D’Aquino is recognised by the Roman Catholic Church as its foremost philosopher and theologian and he had a considerable influence on the development of Western thought and ideas. His commentaries on Scripture and on Aristotle are an important part of his legacy and he is still regarded as the model teacher for those studying for the priesthood.  D’Aquino was born in Roccasecca in the province of Frosinone in about 1225 in the castle owned by his father, who was Count of Aquino.  Read more…

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Luciano Spalletti - football manager

National coach has long record of success

The football manager Luciano Spalletti, who led Napoli to their first Serie A title since the Diego Maradona era before being appointed head coach to Italy’s national team, was born on this day in 1959 in the Tuscan town of Certaldo, just under 50km (31 miles) southwest of Florence.  A late starter as a professional player, at 64 Spalletti became the oldest winning coach in the history of the Italian championship when Napoli won the 2022-23 scudetto.  The achievement turned him into a hero in Naples, where fans celebrated in scenes not witnessed in the southern Italian city since Napoli won two titles in four years with the late Maradona as captain and talisman, the second of which was 33 years earlier in the 1989-90 campaign.  Having hinted before the season finished that he was thinking about taking time out of football, Spalletti confirmed ahead of the final fixture that he would be leaving the club to take a year’s sabbatical.  In the event, his break from the game lasted only three months. Following Roberto Mancini’s resignation, Spalletti was appointed head coach of the Italian national team, officially taking charge on September 1, 2023.  Read more…

Baldassare Peruzzi - architect and painter

Pupil of Bramante who left mark on Rome

The architect and painter Baldassare Peruzzi, who trained under Donato Bramante and was a contemporary of Raphael, was born on this day in 1481 in a small town near Siena.   Peruzzi worked in his home city and in Rome, where he spent many years as one of the architects of the St Peter’s Basilica project but where he was also responsible for two outstanding buildings in his own right - the Villa Farnesina and the Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne.  The Villa Farnesina, a summer house commissioned by the Sienese banker Agostino Chigi in the Trastevere district, is unusual for its U-shaped floor plan, with a five-bay loggia between the arms.  Raphael and Sebastiano del Piombo were among those who helped decorate the villa with frescoes, but Peruzzi is acknowledged as the chief designer, possibly aided by Giuliano da Sangallo. Some of the frescoed paintings on the walls of the interior rooms are also by Peruzzi. One example is the Sala delle Prospettive, in which the walls are painted to create the illusion of standing in an open-air terrace, lined by pillars, looking out over a continuous landscape.  Read more…

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Filippo Juvarra – architect

Baroque designer influenced the look of ‘royal Turin’

Architect and stage set designer Filippo Juvarra was born on this day in 1678 in Messina in Sicily.  Some of his best work can be seen in Turin today as he worked for Victor Amadeus II of Savoy from 1714 onwards. The buildings Juvarra designed for Turin made him famous and he was subsequently invited to work in Portugal, Spain, London and Paris.  Juvarra was born into a family of goldsmiths and engravers but moved to Rome in 1704 to study architecture with Carlo and Francesco Fontana.  He was commissioned to design stage sets to begin with, but in 1706 he won a contest to design the new sacristy at St Peter’s Basilica.  He then designed the small Antamoro Chapel for the church of San Girolamo della Carità with his friend, the French sculptor, Pierre Le Gros. He was later to design the main altar for the Duomo in Bergamo in Lombardy.   One of his masterpieces was the Basilica of Superga, built in 1731 on a mountain overlooking the city of Turin, which later became a mausoleum for the Savoy family.  It was said to have taken 14 years to flatten the mountain top.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Betrothed: I Promessi Sposi (Penguin Classics), by Alessandro Manzoni. Introduced and translated by Bruce Penman

Set in Lombardy during the Spanish occupation of the late 1620s, The Betrothed tells the story of two young lovers, Renzo and Lucia, prevented from marrying by the petty tyrant Don Rodrigo, who desires Lucia for himself. Forced to flee, they are then cruelly separated, and must face many dangers including plague, famine and imprisonment, and confront a variety of strange characters - the mysterious Nun of Monza, the fiery Father Cristoforo and the sinister 'Unnamed' - in their struggle to be reunited. A vigorous portrayal of enduring passion, The Betrothed's exploration of love, power and faith presents a whirling panorama of seventeenth-century Italian life and is one of the greatest European historical novels.

Alessandro Manzoni was born in 1785. He wrote throughout his life, but suffered from a nervous disorder which grew progressively worse through his lifetime. He died in 1873.  The late Bruce Penman was a versatile linguist who had a good reading knowledge of 10 languages, four of which he spoke fluently. His translations from Italian won him a number of prizes and awards.

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6 March

Giovanni Battista Bugatti - executioner

‘Mastro Titta’ ended 516 lives in long career

Giovanni Battista Bugatti, who served as the official executioner for the Papal States from 1796 to 1864, was born on this day in 1779 in Senigallia, a port town on the Adriatic coast about 30km (19 miles) northwest of the city of Ancona.  Bugatti, who became known by the nickname Mastro Titta - a corruption of the Italian maestro di giustizia - master of justice - in Roman dialect, carried out 516 executions in his 68-year career.  He was the longest-serving executioner in the history of the Papal States.  The circumstances of him being granted such an important role in Roman life at the age of just 17 are not known.  What is documented is that while not carrying out his grim official duties he kept a shop selling painted umbrellas and other souvenirs next to his home in the Borgo district, in Vicolo del Campanile, a short distance from Castel Sant’Angelo, which served as a prison during the time of the Papal States.  It seemed an incongruous day job for someone whose very name struck a chill among Rome’s criminal fraternity. Yet he treated his responsibilities with the utmost solemnity, leaving his home early in the morning on the days an execution was to take place, dressed in his scarlet executioner’s coat.  Read more…

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Francesco Guicciardini - writer and diplomat

Friend of Machiavelli among first to record history in context

The historian and statesman Francesco Guicciardini, best known for writing Storia d'Italia, a book that came to be regarded as a classic history of Italy, was born on this day in 1483 in Florence.  Along with his contemporary Niccolò Machiavelli, Guicciardini is considered one of the major political writers of the Italian Renaissance.  Guicciardini was an adviser and confidant to three popes, the governor of several central Italian states, ambassador, administrator and military captain.  He had a long association with the Medici family, rulers of Florence.  Storia d'Italia - originally titled 'La historia di Italia' - was notable for Guicciardini's skilful analysis of interrelating political movements in different states and his ability to set in context and with objectivity events in which sometimes he was a direct participant.  Born into a prominent Florentine family who were influential in politics and long-standing supporters of the Medici, Giucciardini was educated in the classics before being sent to study law at a number of universities, including Padua, Ferrara and Pisa.  He was interested in pursuing a career in the priesthood but his father, Piero, considered the church to have become decadent.  Read more…

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La traviata - the world's favourite opera

Verdi's masterpiece performed for the first time

Giuseppe Verdi's opera, La traviata, was performed in front of a paying audience for the first time on this day in 1853.  The premiere took place at Teatro La Fenice, the opera house in Venice with which Verdi had a long relationship, one that saw him establish his fame as a composer.  La traviata would ultimately cement his reputation as a master of opera after the success of Rigoletto and Il trovatore.  La traviata has become the world's favourite opera, inasmuch as no work has been performed more often, yet the reception for the opening performance was mixed, to say the least.  Reportedly there was applause and cheering at the end of the first act but a much changed atmosphere in the theatre in the second act, during which some members of the audience jeered.  Their displeasure was said to be aimed in part at the two male principals, the baritone Felice Varesi and the tenor Lodovico Graziani, neither of whom was at his best.  There was also criticism of the soprano Fanny Salvini-Donatelli, the first to be given the role of Violetta, the opera's heroine.   Although an acclaimed singer, Salvini-Donatelli was 38 years old and somewhat overweight.  Read more…

Augusto Odone – medical pioneer

Father who invented ‘Lorenzo’s Oil’ for sick son

Augusto Odone, the father who invented a medicine to treat his incurably ill son despite having no medical training, was born on this day in 1933 in Rome.  Odone’s son, Lorenzo, was diagnosed with the rare metabolic condition ALD (Adrenoleukodystrophy) at the age of six. Augusto and his American-born wife, Michaela, were told that little could be done and that Lorenzo would suffer from increasing paralysis and probably die within two years.  Refusing simply to do nothing, the Odones, who lived in Washington, where Augusto was an economist working for the World Bank, threw themselves into discovering everything that was known about the condition and the biochemistry of the nervous system, contacting every doctor, biologist and researcher they could find who had researched the condition and assembled them for a symposium.  Drawing on this pooled knowledge, and with the help of Hugo Moser, a Swiss-born professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, they eventually came up with the idea of combining extracts of olive oil and rapeseed oil in a medicine that would break down the long-chain fatty acids in the human body that were considered a major cause of the nerve damage suffered by people with ALD.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: City of Echoes: A New History of Rome, its Popes and its People, by Jessica Wärnberg

In Rome the echoes of the past resound clearly in its palaces and monuments, and in the remains of the ancient imperial city. But another presence has dominated Rome for 2,000 years - the pope, whose actions and influence echo down the ages. In this epic tale, historian Jessica Wärnberg tells, for the first time, the story of Rome through the lens of its popes, illuminating how these remarkable (and unremarkable) men have transformed lives and played a crucial role in deciding the fate of the city.  Emerging as the anonymous leader of a marginal cult in the humblest quarters of the city, less than 300 years later the pope sat enthroned in a gilt basilica, endorsed by the emperor himself. Eventually, the Roman pontiff would supplant even the emperors, becoming the de facto ruler of Rome and preeminent leader of the Christian world.  Shifting elegantly between the panoramic and the personal, the spiritual and the profane, City of Echoes is a fresh and often surprising take on a city, a people and an institution that is at once familiar and elusive.

Jessica Wärnberg is a historian of the religious and political history of Europe, with a background in the history of art. She has written for academic journals and popular magazines. In Rome, the city she knows best, she has worked extensively in the archives of the Vatican and the Jesuits. 

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