Synopsis

Venturing through these ten stories is like crossing baroque and neoclassical squares, pausing beside fountains, resting in the shade of palms and pines, losing oneself in the quiet alleys nestled beneath the Pincio and Trinità dei Monti, entering courtyards and spying on life in artists' studios. With light, suffused tones, Valeria Della Valle recomposes the colors of a seductive and long-lost city, and entrusts the story to a web of destinies: that of Livia, a disoriented and melancholic girl who discovers in art the key to freeing herself from her unloving, lower-middle-class family; then that of Giulio, the silent and enigmatic man who will become her husband; and that of Adele, their daughter, who finds in the study of words a help in facing life. And finally, that of all those with whom their story is intertwined: the community of painters, antique dealers and artisans, passing strangers and intellectuals who once inhabited Rome's most beautiful streets. Until Adele, growing up in that timeless world, amid paintings to be sold and those yet to be painted, up and down stairways and moss-scented corridors, realizes she is the last one left to remember the street Livia dreamed of: "narrow and long, still and silent, immobile in the works and films of those who loved her.".