Interview with Ilaria Beltramme
101 things to do in Rome at least once in your life

If you buy Ilaria Beltramme’s debut book don’t ever lend it to anyone – you can be sure you’ll never get it back. Unless the borrower has managed to enjoy all 101 things.

By Aniko Horvath
january 2009

It’s immediately obvious that the young author Ilaria Beltramme is also an active sportswoman. She covered hundreds of kilometers throughout Rome as part of research for her first book which has proved a surprise bestseller in Roman bookstores.
Beltramme insists the book was “written with her legs”, she covered every one of the 101 itineraries across the capital in their entirety for her quirky – and hugely successful – guidebook: “101 things to do in Rome at least once in your life” which was first published by Newton Compton in 2007.
We’re both slightly late for the interview. Beltramme because of a problem with her pet cat (can you imagine a Roman authoress who doesn’t have a cat?), me because on the way I had been re-reading her book and lost all track of time. “101 things” affords a double pleasure: it’s gratifying to find out that those parts of Rome you know and love are also enjoyed by others; and it’s a joy to set off towards as yet undiscovered destinations across the Eternal City in search of new locations, colours, tastes and experiences (how about carrying out some experiments in alchemy at the “Magic Gate” in piazza Vittorio?)

How did you get the idea of capturing Rome through 101 different itineraries?
The basic idea was suggested by the publisher, but he left me absolute freedom to choose the locations. It gave me a tremendous opportunity to rediscover so many places I hadn’t seen since I was a child. My father was an art historian and practically from the time I could walk he would take me around Rome and show me the places that he loved so that I would love them too.

By no means all the 101 itineraries are new, but even in the better known walks you always manage to find something fresh and unusual.
The idea was to produce a guidebook that would be useful to visitors to Rome and Romans themselves. Many of us who were born here love the city – but all too often tourists know the place better than we do! Visitors come here with their ‘things to see and do’ list on their limited time schedule and they go to it with energy and passion. Many Romans take the attitude that the monuments and all the other treasures are here, are not going anywhere and that they’ve got a lifetime to see them ... I wanted to give my fellow Romans some useful tips on where they could take friends visiting the city or perhaps just simply to help them look at their hometown in a new light and to explore it with renewed interest – as if it were the first time.

It’s not just a book to read, but to experience.
I hope so; with passion.

Perhaps one of the reasons for the book’s huge success is not just all the unusual information with which it’s crammed but your obvious love for your home city.
I adore it. I feel completely in tune with its rhythms, its myriad marvels and all its imperfections. I’m delighted by the rebirth to the city’s cultural life that has happened in recent years. When I came back here in 2000 after a couple of years living abroad I discovered Rome was once again a city I could choose to live in. I’ve never regretted it.

A whole chapter in the book is dedicated to the Tiber. Many Romans never seem even to notice the river unless it threatens to burst its banks and flood the city as it did last December.
I love rivers, they give added life to a city. It’s always seemed a great pity to me that the Tiber is now confined between those huge stone embankments; it’s too isolated and cut off from the city. If you look at historical paintings, you can see Rome was a city of water and light. Now there is just light. In the past it was common to take a boat ride down to the sea. I used to spend a lot of time canoeing on the Tiber. I met so many people whose lives were inextricably bound up with the river, they lived and worked there. They’re a dying race.
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Our Top Ten for all tastes

1.
For the curious
Try a piping hot mouthful of bruscolini (a traditional Roman snack of toasted pumpkin seeds) at Bakery Boccione, via del Portico d'Ottavia 1

2.
For believers:
see the frescoes depicting the conversion of Emperor Constantine in the Basilica dei Santi Quattro Coronati, via SS. Quattro 20

3.
For non-believers:
read poetry to the cats in the Protestant cemetery, via Caio Cestio 6

4.
For the sporty:
skateboarding in piazzale Adenauer, EUR

5.
For lovers of the macabre:
see a display of the vital organs of dead Popes, inside the Church of SS Vincenzo and Anastasio, near the Trevi Fountain.

6.
For lovers of retro clothing:
MAS, in via dello Statuto 11

7.
For film buffs:
a stroll through the old working-class neighbourhood of Pigneto, where scenes from “Rome: Open City” and many other classic Italian movies were set.


8.
For art lovers:
visit the birthplace of the Baroque: the facade of the Church of Santa Susanna, via XX Settembre 14

9.
For residents:
pay your utility bills in the post office at via Marmorata 4

10.
For extremists:
ride the number 19 tram, which trundles all the way across town from piazza dei Gerani in Prenestino (on Rome’s eastern outer limits) to piazza Risorgimento (the gates of the Vatican)