There is a sotto-passagio that starts at the top of the Via Veneto and twists and turns underground. It is lit with flattering pink lights in a long strip on the ceiling. The passage goes past the train connections and the Roman Sports Club. Ultimately it arrives at the bottom of the Spanish Steps, saving you the cautious walk down the slippery, uneven Steps themselves. And out you go, into a different, darker Rome. Dark Rome and Other Stories is a four-part collection of twenty-three fantastical stories takes you on journeys of unforeseen resolution. Dark Rome offers tales of an alternate Eternal City where an ancient serpent rules a crumbling palazzo and ones fate can be decided by a single misstep. The Day People is an unfinished novel set in the near future, where one woman forever changes the face of humanity and bold intentions end in devastating consequences. In Between shares stories of the present seen through a looking glass, where ordinary things have extraordinary qualities and the female obsession with handbags is revealed as a dark quest for power. Far Kingdoms tells tales of other lands, populated by mysterious insect-like beings who imagine themselves to be human.

The idea that with the decline of the Roman Empire Europe entered into some immense ‘dark age’ has long been viewed as inadequate by many historians. How could a world still so profoundly shaped by Rome and which encompassed such remarkable societies as the Byzantine, Carolingian and Ottonian empires, be anything other than central to the development of European history? How could a world of so many peoples, whether expanding, moving or stable, of Goths, Franks, Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, whose genetic and linguistic inheritors we all are, not lie at the heart of how we understand ourselves? The Inheritance of Rome is a work of remarkable scope and ambition. Drawing on a wealth of new material, it is a book which will transform its many readers’ ideas about the crucible in which Europe would in the end be created. From the collapse of the Roman imperial system to the establishment of the new European dynastic states, perhaps this book’s most striking achievement is to make sense of an immensely long period of time, experienced by many generations of Europeans, and which, while it certainly included catastrophic invasions and turbulence, also contained long periods of continuity and achievement. From Ireland to Constantinople, from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, this is a genuinely Europe-wide history of a new kind, with something surprising or arresting on every page.

An alt-history account of the founding of America, as a lost fleet of Roman soldiers arrives a thousand years before Columbus. In AD 323, a fleet of Roman ships is lost in a storm, and they find themselves on the shores of the New World, one thousand years before Columbus. Unable to return home, they establish a new colony, Roma Occidens, radically altering the timeline of America and subsequent world events as seen through the eyes of one family. An exploration in alternative history from Brian Wood, Justin Giampaoli, and Andrea Mutti.

On 9 April 1953 an attractive twenty-one-year-old woman went missing from her family home in Rome. Thirty-six hours later her body was found washed up on a neglected beach. Some said it was suicide; others, a tragic accident. But as the police tried to close the case, darker rumours bubbled to the surface. Could it be that the mysterious death of this quiet, conservative girl was linked to a drug-fuelled orgy, involving some of the richest and most powerful men in Italy?

When in Rome, do as the Romans do—enjoy life! Take in the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel. The Coliseum, where you can walk a subterranean corridor that was once the passageway for gladiators and animals. Incredible museums, art, and sculpture. Rome enshrines centuries of history amid an atmosphere of modern vitality. From ancient ruins to nightlife hot spots, this friendly guide helps you experience it all, with information on: Figuring out the neighborhoods and getting around Shopping department stores, the market, or neighborhood specialty shops Great souvenirs, ranging from antique prints to cardinal socks Optional, more specialized itineraries, including Rome for Architecture Lovers and Rome for Michelangelo Lovers Five day trips, including Tivoli with its villas and The Castelli Romani and their Italian wines Like every For Dummies travel guide, Rome For Dummies includes: Down-to-earth trip-planning advice What you shouldn’t miss—and what you can skip The best hotels and restaurants for every budget Handy Post-it Flags to mark your favorite pages

Rome, the greatest empire the world has ever known, limitless in breadth and power, magnificent in its glory! But something evil, ancient and unknowable gnaws at the heart of the empire. Dark gods, trapped for centuries in thrice-warded tombs, have been disturbed by Roman plunderers. A secret war is fought daily between those who would harness this strange power for themselves, and those who fear it signals the very end of the empire. Across the sea, roused from eternal slumber by a world awash with war, by omens and pagan slaughter, a Great Old One waits for the way to be opened. A cosmic terror that man was not meant to know. Those who know its name tremble, and only the very brave-or very foolish-incant it for their own ends. They whisper it in darkness; they cry it from atop blasted hills; they scream it to the raging oceans. “Cthulhu...”