A different tour of Rome. Civis Romanus sum

"Giovedì 26. Festa di S. Anna, ed alle 12 cadde pioggia impetuosa. Siamo nell'anno del Signore 1731. Francesco Valesio". Our story starts with the words of a narrator of the XVII Century, who describes a famous event. "Thursday 26. Holy day of S. Anna and since noon it was raining a lot. We are in the year of Lord 1731. Francesco Valesio". This is the portraying of a rainy day in Rome, in particular we are in the jail of Palazzo Senatorio, near the Campidoglio. A busboy of a barber was arrested because of a rough-and-tumble and he was put in this prison. He was in his cell when he noticed that he wasn't alone: with him infact there was an old man, with a long white beard, in full dress. The young boy asked the reason why he was in this place and the man started to tell his story: he was a senator who lived during the age of Giulius Cesar. The young boy was so gentle that the other man decided to give him a golden coin. The boy surprised from his generosity (moreover he didn't believe the senator was a ghost) asked him other money. The senator said that before doing it, he wanted to put flats out of the cell so the guardian won't get hungry and that he will be back for the ispection time. Anyway the guardian went near the cell of the busboy sooner and when he found the flats outside, he tought that the young man was escaped; but when he went into the cell he found him here. He was surprised, but the prisoner told him about his mate. The guardian obviously told him that he had no mate in this cell, so the both of them was surpised and a little of bit scared. When the senator came back, told to the boy that by telling everything to the guardian he just lost the opportunity to become rich; he said that he had 3 boxes full of money for him and then he showed them; the boy was petrified and he was just looking the boxes on the floor and then he saw the senator living the cell. So he screamed, but when the guardian arrived the senator was disappeared and on the floor there were just 3 bricks. The ghost of this senator appeared again to other prisoners, living, the most of times, just the bricks. For more, post me. Dblk

Romans call "madonnelle" (little Madonnas) those icons put in a wall of a street; you can find more than 500 icons in Rome, especially in the old town centre, but once they were thousands. Most of them are dedicate to the Mother Mary; this custom derives from the usance of the acient romans to build "lares compitales", altars dedicated to a pagan deity. Romans are very wedded to them because those icons made a lot of miracles during years. The most famous miracle happened in the 1796: from July 9 for 3 weeks these pictures of Mary started to move their eyes. During this time, french troops were close to invade the city, so romans thought that it was a very bad omen (infact 2 years after this event, Rome was attacked from France). Now you can think that is just a legend, but during these facts the Church made a serious enquiry to prove the miracle (infact not all the icons were recognized as living miracles). According to the descriptions of the inquiry started from the religious authorities, in some cases the movement of the eyes happened from right on the left, in others was vertical; in the same days in which the above-mentioned icons continued to move their eyes, another one situated in via Baccina (behind the area of the Imperial Holes) made revive a flowers bucket. For more, post me. Dblk

If you come in Rome and you want to eat (especially if you are guest in a house), it's good to you to know what you can do or not when yuo are eating. First you don't have to cross culteries because it's very ill-omened: that's because it remembers the death of Jesus. If you make fall the salt it's a bad thing: infact a legend tells that when you will die you'll spend 7 years in purgatory (to avoid it, pick up the salt or dump it behind your shoulders). When you sit down near the table to eat with friends, you must be more or less than 13, because if you don't, during the year, the littlest or another one of those that ate with you will die. When you are a guest you don't have, at the end of the meal, fold the napkin because if you do it, you won't come back in that house again. A last thing: keep in your mind that when the table is set, you can't play any game, because on a set table soldiers played with the dress of Jesus. For more, post me. Dblk