You know those little alleys you’ve always wanted to visit, away from the crowds, where you would walk just by yourself? Well, Via dei Cappellari is exactly one of those – a little side street that connects the famous Campo de’ Fiori square to another historically important street, Via del Pellegrino. It’s far away from the crowd that storms the market of the nearby square every day, because you can’t even drive down this little passage in a car – so narrow is this street, a jewel of the old city of Rome that still resists all the commercialization of the area. Also probably because it’s used by vendors daily to bring their goods from warehouses to the market, which makes this street a real lived street that escapes the logic of profit.

But that’s not all. Via dei Cappellari is so special because of the atmosphere it radiates; it almost makes you feel as if you were in a painting, taking you back to another year in time. Its walls with their scratched colors, the series of sequential lanterns, the arch that connects the buildings, and, the low light that with effort tries to intromit itself through these walls create a suggestive atmosphere that carries your senses away for a few moments, as you are strolling along.

Via dei Cappellari is a street where I would say a part of Rome that you can only find books still survives.