Visiting this bookshop after a rich Italian meal is not recommended, if ‘visiting’ is the right word when talking about this tiny Roman treasure trove. The owner sits wedged right in the middle, cushioned by books of all sorts, from poetry and art to science and languages, not to mention a collection of  sixteenth- to eighteenth-century volumes. 

Ringing the shop before you go is recommended. Although regular(ish) opening hours are posted on a sheet of paper outside the entrance, you might be unlucky and find it closed. Still, if that is the case you will not have wasted a journey there, as right opposite this most intriguing of bookshops, in the Chiesa di Sant’Agostino, hangs one of the most beautiful Caravaggio paintings ever produced, the Madonna di Loreto, as well as a Guercino and a Raphael. 

All images courtesy of Stefania Signorello