“A Roma tutto si sa.”
In Rome, everything is known.
Welcome to the Thursday, May 21 edition of Rome Observer. The city is enjoying a beautiful late-spring day with partly cloudy skies and a high of 24°C — perfect weather for exploring the capital. Tonight, the Auditorium Parco della Musica hosts a stellar concert by the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia under Semyon Bychkov with pianist Emanuel Ax, performing Mozart and Strauss. And this Saturday, Rome's beloved Notte dei Musei returns for its 16th edition, with 70 cultural spaces open until 2am. Let's dive into what's happening across the Eternal City.
The 16th edition of Rome's Notte dei Musei (Night of Museums) will take place on Saturday 23 May, with 70 cultural spaces open from 8pm to 2am and more than 150 events including concerts, dance performances, guided tours, and theatre. Organized by Roma Capitale in conjunction with the Nuit Européenne des Musées, the event offers residents entry for just €1, while non-residents pay €2. Free entry for MIC Card holders.
Participating venues include the Capitoline Museums, Ara Pacis, Centrale Montemartini, Trajan's Markets, Museo di Roma, Villa Torlonia, and the Galleria d'Arte Moderna. Special events include a jazz concert by Sticky Bones at the Capitoline Museums, the Balletto di Roma performing Paradox at Centrale Montemartini, and guided night tours of the underground spaces at the Baths of Caracalla. Palazzo Madama, home of the Italian Senate, will also open its doors with the exhibition 'Il volto delle donne' featuring works from Artemisia Gentileschi and other female artists from the 15th to 19th centuries.
Mayor Roberto Gualtieri presided over the groundbreaking ceremony for Rome's new waste-to-energy incinerator at the Santa Palomba industrial site on Friday, marking a milestone in the city's long-running waste management crisis. The €1 billion facility, developed by the RenewRome consortium, will process 600,000 tonnes of non-recyclable residual waste per year and generate 65 MW of thermal and electrical energy — enough to power approximately 200,000 households.
Gualtieri called it 'a historic day' and hailed the plant as 'the most modern and advanced in Europe,' insisting it would be 'ultra-safe' and no more polluting than a congested Roman road. The site will include a Circular Resources Park with greenhouses, co-working spaces, public gardens, and a 70-metre panoramic tower. Waste will arrive by rail on two overnight freight trains to minimise disruption. First waste deliveries are expected in November 2029.
The project has faced fierce opposition from local residents and environmental groups, who gathered to protest during the ceremony. Critics have raised concerns about health impacts and harm to surrounding agricultural land. The plant is a centrepiece of Rome's 2023 waste management plan, which aims to achieve 70% separate waste collection and eliminate reliance on landfills.
Video footage showing a mechanical digger working just centimetres away from the Fontana delle Api — a 17th-century fountain designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini — has sparked outrage in Rome. The footage, captured at Piazza Barberini at the entrance to Via Veneto, shows the excavator's iron-toothed bucket operating with no protective barriers or padding around the Baroque monument.
The fountain, commissioned by Pope Urban VIII, features bees — the heraldic symbol of the Barberini family. It was dismantled in 1865 for traffic reasons and reassembled in its current position between 1915 and 1916. Only fragments of the central bee and shell are original to Bernini's work. The fountain was fully restored in 2017 thanks to funding from Dutch patrons following the vandalism of the Fontana della Barcaccia by Feyenoord supporters in 2015.
The incident has raised serious questions about the protection of Rome's cultural heritage during public works. The Fontana delle Api sits just a short walk from Palazzo Barberini, which is currently hosting a major Bernini exhibition.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni held wide-ranging talks in Rome this week, upgrading bilateral ties to a 'Special Strategic Partnership' and agreeing on a defence industrial roadmap for co-development of military hardware including helicopters and naval platforms. The two leaders set an ambitious target of €20 billion in annual bilateral trade by 2029.
Modi arrived in Rome on the final leg of his European tour. The two sides also agreed to accelerate implementation of the India-EU Free Trade Agreement concluded in January, and to deepen cooperation on the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC). A joint declaration on facilitating mobility of Indian nurses to Italy was also finalised. The upgraded partnership reflects the growing geopolitical alignment between Rome and New Delhi amidst global uncertainties.