What happens to the coins tossed into Rome’s Trevi Fountain?
Rome, Italy Reuters As visitors’ coins splash into Rome’s majestic Trevi Fountain carrying wishes for love, good health or a return to the Eternal City, they provide practical help to people the tourists will never meet. For hundreds of years, when in Rome, visitors have flocked to the fountain to make a wish, following a […]
Pope urges Catholics to swap social media for reflection as Lent begins
Rome, Italy Reuters Pope Francis urged Catholics to forgo worldly trappings and focus on essentials as he opened the season of Lent with a traditional Ash Wednesday Mass on one of Rome’s historic seven hills. He criticised people’s tendency to lay bare their lives on social media, deploring “a world in which everything, including our […]
Celebration of lay Catholics of Sant’Egidio highlights group’s growing influence
Vatican City RNS A crowd that included both Vatican dignitaries and the disabled and vulnerable gathered in Rome’s Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls on Thursday to celebrate the 56th anniversary of the lay Catholic movement of Sant’Egidio, considered Pope Francis’ favorite movement and a key player in the pontiff’s foreign diplomacy efforts. Beneath the massive […]
Gigantic replica of Emperor Constantine looks out over Rome as 3D technology brings past to life
Rome, Italy AP Emperor Constantine, the 4th century ruler whose embrace of Christianity helped spread the Christian faith throughout the Roman Empire, now has a reconstructed statue befitting his larger-than-life role in history. Rome authorities on Tuesday unveiled a massive, 13-metre tall replica of the statue Constantine commissioned for himself after 312 AD. It was […]
Postcards: Rome buses recount story of a Jewish boy who avoided Nazi deportation by riding tram. He’s now 92
FRANCES D’EMILIO, of Associated Press, reports on the story of Emanuele Di Porto amid commemorations pof the 80 anniversary of the Nazi deportation of Rome’s Jewish community…
Survivors march to Rome to demand “zero tolerance” on church abuse
Vatican City Reuters A group of Catholic Church abuse survivors and their advocates on Wednesday called on Pope Francis to enforce “zero tolerance” against clerical sex abuse, after completing a six-day pilgrimage to Rome carrying a large wooden cross. The 10 men and women walked 130 kilometres along the last stretch of the Via Francigena, […]
Wreck of ancient Roman cargo ship found off the coast near Rome
Rome, Italy Reuters The wreck of an ancient Roman cargo ship from more than 2,000 years ago has been found off the coast near Rome, the arts squad of Italy’s Carabinieri police said on Friday. A view of amphorae found by Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage in a wreck of an ancient […]
Heatwaves set records, trigger health warnings in US and Europe
New York, USReuters Heatwaves intensified across southern and eastern Europe, Asia, and much of the United States on Tuesday as the World Meteorological Organization warned of an increased risk of deaths due to the extreme weather. Across the United States, Americans grappled with a medley of extreme weather, from blazing heat to wildfire smoke-choked air […]
Rome to open ancient square where Julius Caesar was killed
Rome, ItalyReuters History buffs will be able to stroll close to the spot where legend says Julius Caesar met his bloody end, when Rome authorities open a new walkway on the ancient site on Tuesday. Accounts, embellished by William Shakespeare, tell how the Roman dictator was stabbed to death by a group of aggrieved senators […]
Postcards: Village bin man helped unearth ancient bronze statues in Tuscany
ALVISE ARMELLINI, of Reuters, reports on a new exhibition opening in Rome’s Quirinale Palace later this month…