My Rome, in beauty

This is Raffaello's School of Athens, can you spot the angel and tell me why it is there?

This dirty Rome is not my Rome! My heart aches when, during my silent walks in the sweet golden slumber of a september morning, I go to my morning mass in the white church of Santa Caterina, that overlooks the Magnanapoli aquare, right beside the Quirinal. Today, for instance, the Madonna dei Monti square was full of bottles, but not the happy ten green bottles of the Nursery Rhymes...oh no, bottles, bottles everywhere, left overs from a mad night of alcohol and what else I do not know nor want to know. So I close my eyes and walk by, and down I go, in little steps, along the Madonna dei Monti street that is dark and pretty and has, as a gate, the Augustus Forum. I walk and walk, singing to myself, while all around me Rome cries in utter abandonment. How can it e possible? When did all this start? I wonder. I might have been asleep or elswhere. But all the same, in the blue bag that I always carry with me, I pick up bottles here and there and Rome, my darling, sweet Rome, seems to smile in bliss and thankful salutes me to my happy day... 

If you want me to guide you in my beautiful Rome, please send me a mail:
bennidv@libero.it
Bennedetta 

An amazing adventure with you and thank you so much

It was super inspiring and we will see you again I feel 

Peter 

Peter walked with me and this is what he wrote to me and I was delighted...

Tour of Rome with me

If in Rome, join me on a three hours walk in the Eternal City for a deep insight into the spiritual and everyday life of the ancient Romans and a plunge in the holiness of Christian life and mystic. Join me for a reading of the symbols and signs of the unseen that can open your eyes, hearts and souls.
For more info: bennidv@libero.it
 What people said after the tour:

"Vicki (Sydney): "Just wanted to take the time to say a big thankyou for the wonderful tour you gave us in Rome.  It was one of the highlights from our European tour.  Just back at work this week, but still feeling the glow of the holiday.

You were inspirational, very informative and showed a great love for your city".

Chris and Angela (New Zealand): ".I just wanted to say thank you again for the wonderful tour you took us on. Your stories were so interesting. Yesterday we went to The Vatican and also had the tour of St. Peter's Tomb. The guide was telling us various stories and Angela and I smiled at each other on more than three occasions remembering the lessons we had from you. We knew the stories and the history because of you".

In the bliss of Filippo

bennibag the colour of a spring Roman sky, to buy it (15 euros) send me a mail!

On march the 16th, every year that God sends to us in this strange world in its topsy turvy ways, in rain or shine, the beautiful Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne, masterpiece of Baldassarre Peruzzi, that looks on the savoiard street of Corso Vittorio Emanuele, opens its doors, with valets dressed up, to the Romans who want to visit the baroque chapel dedicated to the great Roman Saint Filippo Neri. He, Filippo (Pippo for us Romans…) was the darlingest and loveliest of saints, simple, beloved, loving, he lived in the XVI century and dedicated his whole life to the young children that roamed the Sacred Eternal City in dire poverty. But all the little ones, abandoned and unloved, found in Pippo a friend and a father. Also Paolo Massimo, the little prince who lived in the beautiful Palazzo alle Colonne…

One sad day, one very sad day, on the 16^th of march of 1584, the little prince laid in his deathbed. Pippo was summoned, but could not come in time. The child, a fourteen year old, died and when the dear priest arrived, it was too late… Yes, but not too late for a man of God. Pippo sat beside the little dead boy and asked him to come back to him. And Paolo did! He talked to the priest, received his Sacraments and eventually said that he rather be in Paradise with his dead mother and went away again. So the story goes. The room where this wondrous facts took place is now a beautiful baroque chapel. And this year, walking through the dark rooms of the Palace and up the stairs to reach the second floor and the chapel, I was there too, to remember the miracle of a great Saint, to pray where it took place and to live an ancient Roman tradition that I brought back home tied to my heart, together with Filippo's bliss.

Like a Barbie doll

My brave ibiscus in prayer...

Rome, in august, is a lady in prayer, empty of men and full of charms. I like to roam, in the first hours of the morning when the sun is still in his pijamas, in the streets that are silver and white, in the absence of people, through the deep silence of thought. I like to roam, here and there, nd slip in one of the church that I love. This morning, just for the joy of bare facts, I was  in Santa Prassede, a beautiful church that stands, deep in solitude, behind Santa Maria Maggiore and that keeps in its holy womb so many beauties that I can hardly talk about them in this short note. All the angels of Paradise gather on its sidewalls and they are so solemn and tall and beautiful that if you listen carefully you might hear the flapping of their wings or the whispers of heaven…

There is a masterpiece bust of Gian Lorenzo Bernini that looks at you through his marble, empty eyes. But of all, in glory of gold, the Chapel of Saint Zenone where the loveliest Madonna, a Barbie doll of the Middle ages, smiles at you from up above, with her dear eyes twinkling in joy and the lovely veil the colour of zapphires. And peace, in the sprinkling of waters, is all around while the heart melts and dances in the cosmos regained.

Power in Rome

Wherever you live, whoever you are, one day or other, you are called to visit the Eternal City. Not only because of the beauty it contains, in the mash of different cultures and lives, but also – and most of all – because it is in Rome, in between these seven hills, the she wolf and the twins, that our western world was born and bloomed in centuries; here and nowhere else, the language of law (not the one of philosophy, which always belonged to the greeks) was spoken since the start. The Romans had four words to eplain power but only one word, the “imperium” was the real power, the power to rule and to punish put together. The power that Augusts avoked to himself to save the Romans and Rome from the decline and fall that was yet to come…

All this and more in my tours for you. I am here, feel free to contact me!

A message from Chris and Angela who walked with me last sunday, a lovely day!: Hello Benedetta.....I just wanted to say thank you again for the wonderful tour you took us on.  Your stories were so interesting. Yesterday we went to The Vatican and also had the tour of St. Peter's Tomb.  The guide was telling us various stories and Angela and I smiled at each other on more than three occasions remembering the lessons we had from you.  We knew the stories and the history because of you.  Thank you again, I will report back to Phil the lovely day spent with you.  Lots of love Chris and Angela xxx

Many tours, Roman walking tours for you

This is me under a greek moon, with my very first bennibag (see shop!)...
I am a journalist, a writer, a blogger, deep in Roman culture and history and art, and everyday life.
Spiritual tour: 4 hours together (from the Trajan Column to Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza) to see and understand with new eyes the silent flow of life that is hidden and obscure to all that run around with blind eyes and closed ears. Join me, have a unique experience in Rome!
I organize many other tours: food tours in the Esquilino, Church tours in the Monti area, shopping tours and whatever suits you best. I will be more than happy to make you happy, please give me a call, see you in Rome
Benedetta

Today, yesterday, always in Rome

Flowers in Sardinia

In the Suburra, where I live (being the first Rione of Rome)0, once upon a time Julius Caesar lived. Yes, the great general the dictator, the man who changed everything in the Eternal City used to live in the middle of the Rome of the people. Not in the Palatine (where August will later build his palace), not in the Aventine (Remo’s hill, the hill of the birds, which is nowadays one of the best places to live in Rome…). No: Caesar, being of a simple equestrian family (not a senatorial one) lived in the Suburra, meaning Sub (under) and Urbs (the City), a place where the crowds lived, where mishaps happened and everyday life just lingered in dark corners…

I happened to guide some people in the Suburra, just a few days and, oh, so many things to see that, living there, I had never,  so to speak, noticed!The Suburra, the Rione Monti, is home of the last Roman artisans, mostly carpenters and, on the 19^th of march, day of Saint Joseph, the ancient spirit of Catholicism rises and the Rione is crossed by a procession of people devoted to the earthly father of Christ. A little piece of tradition that starts its way through the Rione from the Chuurch of San Lorenzo in Fonte, a church so small a cosy one would like to live in it... A church that was nothing more than the house of the centurion who arrested Lorenzo and then became converted and a Christian…After the mass, at eleven o’clock, the snake of people following the holy statue of Joseph and the Child, twists and twirls through the little streets of the ancient Rione. Something a visitor should not miss: today, like yesterday and always.

Please contact me if you happen to come to Rome an would like a very special tour guide! Feel free to write to me t this address: mbennidv@gmail.com I will be happy to answer and very happy to make the best for your stay in Rome...