A sentry box next to Palazzo Madama, named for Margherita d'Austria, "la Madama", who received it in usufruct after Alessandro de' Medici died in 1537 and where the Senate has sat since 1871. The gold S on the panel is the Senate’s emblem, a registered trademark. I assume two carabinieri take turns and the one inside is winning. RR
SSomeone in Rome has swapped the Playboy bunny for a muscular statue holding up a column capital, and stamped it DISMESSO: retired, out of service. I read it as satire on the decline of traditional masculine ideals. Rome had the original playboys, rich men who ignored the mos maiorum, the
At sunset Rome turned the whole sky orange. Italians call a sky like this "a pecorelle," little sheep, and say rain is on its way: cielo a pecorelle, pioggia a catinelle. I'll take the rain, as long as the sheep keep coming. RR
In Italian, riso means both rice and laughter. They come from two different Latin words that ended up spelled the same (Risotto = riso + -otto; riso "laughter" from Latin risus, rice from oryza). So a risotto isn't a little smile, whatever your face does when it arrives.
The Order of Malta's door on the Aventine has a famous keyhole. Through it you see the Order's gardens, then Rome, then St. Peter's dome in the Vatican, so three sovereign subjects in one view. The plaque says this is the Order's