AN INTRODUCTION TO ROME, ITALY
Rome’s early history is shrouded in legend. According to Roman tradition, the city was founded by Romulus on 21
April 753 BC. Through more than 2,700 years of history, it was the capital city of the Roman Kingdom, then of
the Roman Republic and finally of the Roman Empire, which was the dominant power in Western Europe and the
lands bordering the Mediterranean for over seven hundred years. Since the 1st century AD, Rome has been the seat
of the Papacy and in the 8th century it became the capital of the Papal States, which lasted until 1870. In 1871 Rome
became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic.
Located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula (same latitude as the New York state), on the Tiber
River within the Lazio region, Rome has grown into a city of almost three million people, covering 580 square miles.
Its population has an average age of 43 and is composed for approximately 9.5% of non-Italians. European
immigrants mainly come from Romania, Poland and Albania, while the most represented non-Europeans are
Filipinos, Peruvians and Chinese. From a religious standpoint, the Catholic Church and the independent state of the
Vatican City are based in Rome, but there is also a lively Jewish community with the charming district of the former
Ghetto and its Synagogue, and finally a growing Muslim community served by the largest Mosque in Europe, built
in 1995.
As capital city of Italy, Rome hosts all the principal institutions of the nation, such as the Presidency of the Republic,
the government (and its ministries), the Parliament, the main judicial Courts. Many international organizations are
also located in Rome: UN agencies (FAO, International Fund for Agricultural Development, World Food
Programme), and cultural and scientific institutions for scholarship in the Eternal City (e.g. the American Academy,
the British School, the French Academy, the Scandinavian Institutes, the German Archaeological Institute).
Rome’s economy is characterized by the absence of heavy industry and is largely dominated by services, hightechnology companies (IT, aerospace, defense, telecommunications), research, construction, and commercial activities
(especially banking). The city hosts the head offices of the vast majority of the major Italian companies, as well as the
headquarters of three of the world’s 100 largest companies: Enel, Eni, and Telecom Italia. Other important parts of
the economy include universities, public radio and television and the movie industry (Rome is the hub of the Italian
movie industry, thanks to the Cinecittà studios, working since the 1930s).
Tourism cannot be overlooked, as Rome is the 11th-most-visited city in the world, the 3rd most visited in
the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. The city is one of Europe’s and the world’s most
successful city “brands”, both in terms of reputation and assets. Its historic center is listed by UNESCO as a World
Heritage Site. The Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are amongst the world’s 50 most visited tourist destinations.
An aspect of Rome that both tourists and residents enjoy is that it has one of the largest areas of green space amongst
European capitals.
ROME, ITALY
Hotel
Albergo Santa Chiara
Via di Santa Chiara 21
00186 Rome
Tel: +39 06 6872979
City Coordinator
Flavia Liberati
The Council for the United States and Italy
E: consiusa@tin.it
M: +39 333 3550285
Tel: +39 06 3222546 (office)
Monday, March 19
Afternoon
Arrival
Take a taxi to the hotel when you arrive.
7:30 pm
Dress: Business
Meet Flavia Liberati in Hotel Lobby
Walk to the restaurant
8:00 pm
Dinner with Italians Fellows
Hosted by Riccardo Perissich, Executive Vice Chairman, The Council for the
United States and Italy, and Dennis Redmont, Head of communications, The
Council for the United States and Italy
Restaurant Sant’Eustachio
Piazza dei Caprettari 63
Tuesday, March 20
9:30 am
Dress: Casual
Meet in the Hotel Lobby
We will take a minibus to the meeting
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Casale Marchese Winery
Guided tour of estate and wine tasting
Via di Vermicino 68 - Frascati
Casale Marchese was built over two ancient Roman cisterns. In the 16th century, it was home to Marquis Emilio de’ Cavalieri,
and in the 19th century, it appeared on the Papal Land Surveyor’s Office records. The Carletti family has owned the estate for two
centuries. The estate manager Alessandro and the agronomist Ferdinando are the fifth generation of winemakers.
All the vinification, bottling and packaging is performed on premises, with state-of-the-art equipment installed a few years ago.
Casale Marchese’s mission is to produce only quality wines, consequently all grapes are hand-picked, and harvest is begun only
when the grapes are deemed perfectly ripe.
The more than 50 hectare estate is situated in the heart of the Frascati DOC zone (certified origin) and overlooks one of the most
charming landscapes of Rome and of the hills around Rome, an area known as “Castelli Romani”, where vineyards interweave
with ancient olive groves. The volcanic soil of the hills is ideal for growing grapes - as the Romans
understood already in 230 BC. In fact, this was certainly one of the first places in the world where wine was produced.
12:30 pm
Minibus back to the hotel
1:00 – 6:00 pm
Individual Appointments / Leisure Time on Your Own
6:00 pm
Dress: Business Casual
Meet in the Hotel Lobby
Public transportation to the meeting
7:00 – 9:30 pm
La7 TV
Lilli Gruber, Anchor of the daily interview talk show “Otto e mezzo”
Via Umberto Novaro 32
Dietlinde Gruber (known as Lilli Gruber) was born in Bolzano and is an Italian and German native speaker. In 1987 she became
the first female anchor to present TG1, the major network news program of Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI), the public
broadcasting company. In 1988 she became international political correspondent for RAI, covering events such as the collapse of
the Soviet Union, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war in the former Yugoslavia, situation in the United States after the terrorist
attacks of September 11, 2001, and the Iraqi war.
In April 2004 Lilli Gruber resigned from her position at RAI and the same year was elected at the European Parliament in
Strasbourg with the Olive Tree center-left coalition, and sat with the socialist group. She served in the Committee on Civil
Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs until September 2008, when she returned to journalism anchoring “Otto e mezzo”, the daily
interview talk show on La7 TV.
Fellows will take a taxi to the hotel
Wednesday, March 21
Please bring your passport!
9:45 am
Dress: Business
Meet in the Hotel Lobby
Walk to the meeting
10:30 am – 12:30 pm
The Bank of Italy
Antonio Bassanetti (MMF 2004)
Maura Francese (MMF 2009)
Economists of the Research Department
Via Nazionale 91
It is official that Italy, the euro zone's third-richest economy, slid into recession in the last quarter of 2011. Thus 2012 will be a
"year of recession", with a year-on-year decline in gross domestic product of about 1,5 per cent.
Economist and former EU Commissioner Mario Monti, who was tapped as premier last November, has been trying to keep Italy
from being the latest victim of Europe's sovereign debt crisis. He is pressing ahead with a formula of spending cuts and
structural reform with the aim of spurring growth.
The Governor of the Bank of Italy, Ignazio Visco, says that it will be possible to stabilize economic activity already by the second
half of 2012 and return to growth next year. Visco also described Italian banks as being sound in terms of having adequate
capital, despite being hard hit by the debt crisis. Italy did not suffer a mortgage crisis like Spain or the United States.
12:30 – 5:30 pm
Individual Appointments / Leisure time on Your Own
5:30 pm
Dress: Business
Meet in the Hotel Lobby
Walk to the meeting
6:00 – 7:30 pm
Meeting with Staffan de Mistura, Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
Italian Fellows and Alumni of the Council’s Young Leaders Program will attend
in Rome and be connected via videoconference with Washington, DC
c/o Assonime, Piazza Venezia 11
Staffan de Mistura, Italy’s Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs in Premier Mario Monti’s government has served as Special
Representative for Afghanistan for the United Nations. Before taking the position in Kabul, de Mistura served as the Deputy
Executive Director at the World Food Programme (WFP) in Rome. Previously as the UN’s Special Representative in Iraq, his
team of 1,000 staff helped oversee successful elections, as well as reconstruction, development and humanitarian assistance.
De Mistura began his career in the UN in 1971 as a WFP project officer in Sudan. Over the years, he led food aid and relief
operations in Ethiopia, the Balkans and Rwanda. As an emergency relief officer in Chad in 1973, he organized the first-ever UN
airdrop operation. He served in the Food and Agriculture Organization for 14 years before returning to WFP in 1987 as Director
of Operations in Sudan. A former Director of Fundraising and External Relations of the UN Office of the Coordinator for
Afghanistan (1989-1991), he has also held a variety of posts with UNICEF, including Director of the Division of Public Affairs.
Evening
Dinner and leisure time on your own
Thursday, March 22
9:30 am
Dress: Casual
Meet in the Hotel Lobby
10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Scuderie del Quirinale
Guided tour of the exhibition
Salita di Monte Cavallo 12
Jacopo Robusti, better known as Tintoretto, the Italian 16th century painter, has not been the subject of an exhibit since 1937.
One good reason is that shifting the large canvases he painted in Venice is simply impossible.
This deliberately small exhibition comprises some 40 paintings, all of the highest quality and on loan from leading international
museums and collections, offering visitors a tight but extremely significant overview of the artistic career of Jacopo Tintoretto.
The focus is on the three main themes that distinguish his work: portraiture, religion, and mythology.
The exhibition at the Scuderie del Quirinale begins and ends with his two celebrated self-portraits of himself as a young man,
from the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and as an old man, from the Louvre. Even though he was in competition with
Titian, his contemporaries still recognized his “utterly exquisite eye in portraiture”, and some of his most famous portraits from
leading international collections are on display.
His spectacular Miracle of the Slave, painted in 1548 for the Scuola Grande di San Marco, allowed him to grab the limelight as
one of leading lights of the Venetian art scene, while The Deposition (1594) from the Monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore, is the
last work where the hand of the master is identifiable.
12:00 – 4:30 pm
Individual Appointments / Leisure time on Your Own
Business attire
5:00 – 6:00 pm
4:30 pm
Please bring your passport!
Walk to the meeting
Meet in the Hotel Lobby
Meeting with Emma Bonino, Vice President of the Italian Senate
Corso Rinascimento 11
Emma Bonino is the Vice President of the Italian Senate and a leading member of the Italian Radical party, which supports
economic and social libertarianism, and human rights. She previously served as Minister for International Trade.
In December 2001, she moved to Cairo to learn Arabic. Then she started a daily review of the Arab press on her widely-listened
“Radio Radicale” and in 2004 she organized the “Regional Conference on Democracy, Human Rights and the role of the
International Penal Court”, the first for an Arab country. She is currently a Board member of the Arab Democracy Foundation.
Bonino was elected several times to the European Parliament, and from 1994 to 1999 she served as European Commissioner
responsible for Consumer Policy, Fisheries and the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO).
Along with Marco Pannella, another member of the Radical Party, she has fought numerous battles for civil rights and
individual liberties, bringing the legalization of divorce, of abortion (under certain circumstances), the liberalization of light
recreational drugs, and for sexual and religious freedoms. She has fought to end capital punishment, against female genital
mutilation, and for the eradication of world hunger.
6:00 – 7:00 pm
Guided Tour of the Italian Senate
8:30 pm
Home dinner at Mattia Cavanna’s (MMF 2008) and Giovanni Luongo’s (MMF 2010)
Take a taxi to dinner
Friday, March 23
Departures
Please refer to the group flight manifest to coordinate transport to the airport with other Fellows.
PLEASE COMPLETE THE EVALUATION FOR THIS CITY!
Do you want to write about your experience for the MMF newsletter?
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES ON ITALY
History of Italy

Website ancient history (Bronze Age-WWII): http://www.mapsofworld.com/italy/history.html

Website modern/contemporary history (1915-today):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/1065897.stm

Book: “The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, Its Regions, and Their Peoples” by David Gilmour
http://www.amazon.com/Pursuit-Italy-History-RegionsPeoples/dp/0374283168/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326379309&sr=8-1

Book: “The Italians” by Luigi Barzini http://www.amazon.com/Italians-Luigi-Barzini/dp/0684825007

Book: “A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics, 1943-1988” by Paul Ginsborg
http://www.amazon.com/History-Contemporary-Italy-Politics-19431988/dp/1403961530/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2

Blog: http://italpolblog.blogspot.com/

Blog: http://italychronicles.com/
History of Rome

Website: http://www.aboutroma.com/Rome-history.html

Book: (just printed!) “Rome” by Robert Hughes http://www.amazon.com/Rome-Cultural-Visual-PersonalHistory/dp/0307268446/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326364840&sr=8-1

Blog: http://www.romethesecondtime.blogspot.com/

Podcasts on ancient Rome history: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ancient-rome-refocused/id350056531,
http://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/the_history_of_rome/2008/11/index.html
Memoirs or Biographies of Famous Italians

Biography: “Cavour and Garibaldi 1860: A Study in Political Conflict” by Denis Mack Smith
http://www.amazon.com/Cavour-Garibaldi-1860-Political-Conflict/dp/0521316375

Memoir: “The Mussolini Memoirs: 1942-1943” by Benito Mussolini http://www.amazon.com/MussoliniMemoirs-1942-1943-Dictators-1920-1945/dp/1842120255
Classic Literature from Italy

“The Leopard” by Giuseppe di Lampedusa http://www.amazon.com/Leopard-GiuseppeLampedusa/dp/0679731210

“The Prince” by Niccolò Machiavelli http://www.amazon.com/Prince-Penguin-GreatIdeas/dp/0143036335/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326377420&sr=1-1
Contemporary Literature from Italy

“Gomorrah” by Roberto Saviano http://www.amazon.com/Gomorrah-Roberto-Saviano/dp/0374165270

“The Solitude of Prime Numbers” by Paolo Giordano http://www.amazon.com/Solitude-Prime-NumbersNovel/dp/0670021482
Classic Feature Films from Italy

“La Dolce Vita” by Federico Fellini http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053779/

“Roma” by Federico Fellini http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069191/

“Il marchese del Grillo” by Mario Monicelli http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082714/

“Roman Holiday” by William Wyler http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046250/
Contemporary Feature Films from Italy
 “Habemus Papam” by Nanni Moretti http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1456472/reviews
 “Mid-August Lunch” by Gianni Di Gregorio http://www.amazon.com/Mid-August-Pranzo-FerragostoGianni-Gregorio/dp/B003U4H0CE
News in Italy
 Newspapers:
1) http://www.corriere.it/english/
2) http://www.ilsole24ore.com/notizie/english.shtml
3) http://www3.lastampa.it/lastampa-in-english/

Other:
1) http://www.italianinsider.it/
2) http://italpolblog.blogspot.com/
3) http://italychronicles.com/
4) http://www.theamericanmag.com/index.php