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THE HEART OF NERO

THE HEART OF NERO

Rome

Cuore di Nerone - Piazza San Pietro, 00120 Vatican City

In Saint Peter’s Square there is a sampietrini stone that stands out from the rest: it is the Heart of Nero, named after the emperor for no particular reason by a group of children that discovered it while playing ball. A hear is drawn on the stone, maybe the heart Bernini had searched for all his life, or the one always unrequited for Michelangelo. Maybe one of Garibaldi’s Red Shirts painted it the day of his departure for war, or likewise the wife of a husband sentenced to death. To find the Heart of Nero among the 2 million stones named after the piazza they first touched, one must move following the Mediterranean libeccio indicated by the wind rose. Or simply towards your true love.
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