A rare masterpiece and a wonderful example of Italian cinema starring two European film icons, Simone Signoret and Marcello Mastroianni, Adua and her friends tells the story of four prostitutes forced to fend for themselves when a new law closes the bordellos of Rome. They pool their savings to open a trattoria, but find they cannot get a license. A prominent fixer with connections obtains the license for them, on the condition that they conduct their...

In 1858, a German princess, recently inducted into the convent of Sant'Ambrogio in Rome, wrote a frantic letter to her cousin, a confidant of the Pope, claiming that she was being abused and feared for her life. The subsequent investigation by the Church's Inquisition uncovered illicit behavior of the convent's beautiful young mistress, Maria Luisa. Having convinced those under her charge that she was having regular visions and heavenly visitations,...

The author describes the year he spent in Rome after winning the Rome Prize, including his adventures around the city, life in a foreign but welcoming country, and parenthood as it applies to his newborn twins.

The story of Jack McCall, an American expatriate in Rome, who has been scarred by tragedy and betrayal. His desperate desire to find peace after his wife's suicide draws him into a painful, intimate search for the one haunting secret in his family's past that can heal his anguished heart. Spanning three generations and two continents, from the contemporary ruins of the American South to the ancient ruins of Rome, from the unutterable horrors of the...

It's spring and Dani is going to Rome for her father's wedding. But Ella is not invited; Dad said no. What will Ella think when she learns she hasn't been invited to her best friend's dad's wedding?

Theologian and papal biographer George Weigel, art historian Elizabeth Lev, and photographer Stephen Weigel explore the annual Lenten pilgrimage to dozens of Rome's most striking churches, which for many faithful is a sacred tradition dating back almost two millennia, to the earliest days of Christianity. Along this historic spiritual pathway, today's pilgrims confront the mysteries of the Christian faith through a program of biblical and early Christian...

Like all boys growing up in Rome during the 1930s and 1940s, the author was expected to join the Balilla--Italy's fascist Youth Organization. With political divisions running deep in the families within his palazzo, he and his motley group of friends were recruited into the underground Resistance. Racing around Rome on bicycles, they smuggled messages and weapons for the partisans. Later, the author fled to the Italian countryside and narrowly avoided...

The theater in Rome's Rebibbia Prison. A performance of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar has just ended amidst much applause. The lights dim on the actors and they become prisoners once again as they are accompanied back to their cells. Six months earlier, The warden and a theater director speak to the inmates about a new project, the staging of Julius Caesar in the prison. The first step is casting, a process both vivid and energetic. The second step...

On 11 July 1982, Elisa Sordi was beautiful. Commissario Michele Balistreri was fearless. Italy was victorious. A killer was waiting. On 9 July 2006, with Sordi's case 24 years cold, and Balistreri haunted by guilt and regret, Italian victory returned. And so did Sordi's killer. But this time Michele Balistreri would be ready. This time he would fear no evil.

"From a bold new historian comes a vibrant history of Rome as seen through its most influential persona throughout the centuries: the pope. Rome is a city of echoes, where the voice of the people has chimed and clashed with the words of princes, emperors, and insurgents across the centuries. In this authoritative new history, Jessica Wärnberg tells the story of Rome's longest standing figurehead and interlocutor--the pope--revealing how his presence...