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 ...

Every Thursday evening Rome-based maths teacher Andrew Marmion from Scotland organises an event called Extreme Language Exchange to foster communication between Italian and English speakers. The initiative is designed in a casual yet structured fashion where participants enjoy an aperitivo while ...

Hindi cinema, commonly referred to as Bollywood, is currently enjoying a love-affair with Italy that started two years ago when the film Bachna Ae Haseeno (Beware, O Beautiful Ones) was released featuring scenes shot in Gargano, Salento, Capri, Rome and Venice. A crew of around 100 people with pr...

In early December passengers leaving the metro at Tiburtina station in northeast Rome had a surprise. In addition to exiting directly into a tunnel leading to the railway station or, via a long underpass, onto the busy Circonvallazione Nomentana, they could emerge onto a stylish square below grou...