Della Palma says it has 150 flavors. I can only vouch for the chocolate section, which takes up half the counter: Nutella, Rocher, orange, strawberry, and a Dubai chocolate, because the internet got in here too. Choosing takes longer than eating. RR
Leila has wheels, a pink nameplate and two escorts. Nobody is in a hurry; the dog sets the pace. Rome treats its dogs the way it treats its children: waved through, fussed over, and handed the whole street. Hers is the only vehicle on this road with its name on
The Swiss Guard arrived in 1506: 150 mercenaries hired by Pope Julius II because Swiss soldiers were considered among the best in Europe. The striped uniform is often credited to Michelangelo, but that's a myth. It dates to the early 1900s, in the colors of the Della Rovere
Rome has been Italy's capital only since 1871, after Turin and then Florence had a turn. The city's official name now carries the job title: Roma Capitale, stenciled onto a crowd barrier. Behind it, S.P.Q.R. — Senatus Populusque Romanus, "the Senate and People
The Carabinieri were founded in 1814, older than Italy itself, and they still keep the plumed bicorne and full-dress uniform for parades. Park patrol is a different dress code: navy polo shirts, riding helmets, two bay horses. Two centuries of tradition, in casual mode. RR
Cursive neon, a shelf of fake ferns, and a sentence someone clearly believed in enough to wire into a wall. Least Roman thing I've photographed all week, and somehow the one that feels most honest. RR
A traffic mirror bends the whole street into a coin, right under a sign pointing to the police. What catches the eye, though, is the icon itself — a tiny black bicorne with a red-and-blue crest, the Carabinieri's ceremonial hat shrunk down to a wayfinding symbol. Somewhere,
Ordinary shutters, ordinary building, nothing going on — until you clock what's parked behind it. St. Peter's dome does this to everything in range: turns a plain apartment block into a postcard, no renovation required. Best backdrop in the city, and it works for free. RR
Sixteen marble discs are set into the pavement around the obelisk in St. Peter's Square, each naming a wind — Tramontana, Levante, Ostro, Ponente and the rest of the old eight-wind compass, laid in 1817 by a Vatican astronomer. SUD is just plain Italian for south; OSTRO is
This is the travertine of the Vatican walls — same stone type the colonnade and half of ancient Rome were built from. The hand belongs to a child testing whether it feels as rough as it looks. It does. RR
A red handprint, two overflowing glasses, a phone number, all in marker. Enoteca Cul de Sac didn't hire an agency for this — somebody just had a Sharpie and a sense of humor, and it's doing more work than most billboards in this city. RR
Piazza Navona is shaped like a Roman running track because it is one — Domitian built the stadium here in the 1st century, and the oval never changed. Eighteen centuries later that shape is propping up a Max Mara ad the size of a church, and a gull's claimed