If you think you know Fettuccine Alfredo, you may want to think again. Recently I sat down inside one of Rome's most historic restaurants, Il Vero Alfredo, to talk about the true story behind this iconic dish. My guest was Chiara Cuomo, the fourth generation of the family behind the restaurant. What I discovered is that the real Fettuccine Alfredo is far simpler, more elegant, and far more meaningful than most people realize.
Tune in for the rest of this magnificent story!

In the heart of Rome's Jewish Ghetto, just opposite the Portico d'Ottavia and steps from the Teatro di Marcello, there is a staircase that leads down into history.

That staircase belongs to Leone Limentani Rome, one of the oldest family-run shops in the city — founded in 1820 and still operated by the same family, now in its seventh generation.

I first discovered Leone Limentani Rome decades ago when I lived on Via Giulia. I would walk along the Tiber and into the Ghetto, descend those stairs, and find myself in what felt like an Aladdin's cave of porcelain, crystal, and silver. Shelves stretched in every direction. Ginori plates. Limoges porcelain. Christofle cutlery. Baccarat crystal. Everything touchable. Everything real.

And that tactile immediacy is still part of what makes Leone Limentani Rome so special today.

Sitting among the ruins near the Terme di Caracalla, with ancient stones underfoot and Roman roads radiating outward beneath us, I spoke with Tom Brughmans, an archaeologist whose work is reshaping how we understand movement, connection, food, and daily life in the ancient Roman world.

Tom is the director of an ambitious international research project that has produced the first spatially detailed digital atlas of the Roman road system. Not just the famous roads, and not just Italy, but the entire Roman Empire—stretching across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. These are the roads people actually used, reconstructed through years of careful scholarship and made visible in a way that has never existed before.