The diary of Walter Veltroni's days as mayor of Rome, succeeding Francesco Rutelli. A live account of a government experience and a season when Rome grew, in GDP and employment, three times more than the rest of the country.

"An architect and a mayor have many things in common. First of all, the city. The architect thinks about its spaces, but it is the mayor who loads them with values."- Renzo Piano

"As I finished reading, I wondered: but then what happened? Everything stopped, but when was that? Will it be possible to start again?" - Gigi Proietti

This is the diary of the days that Walter Veltroni lived as mayor of Rome, succeeding Francesco Rutelli who had determined the capital's recovery. It is a live account of that experience of government, of the fundamental days of a season in which Rome grew, in GDP and employment, three times more than the rest of the country, in which a social and inclusionary policy was initiated that involved novel ideas and new means. In which the central theme of the "rewiring" of Rome was addressed, putting the suburbs first. The suburbs that then rewarded, with consensus, that experience of government. It is the city that international newspapers spoke of in terms of the "Renaissance of Rome." These pages tell of the master plan approved in the city council after a hundred years and of the social master plan, an innovative experience of practices for stitching up the city. It tells of the great works and the search for a contemporary architectural sign, of the school policy, of the real financial situation of the municipality and of the environmental choices, of the fight against illegal building and of culture as a flywheel of human and economic growth. As in all adventures, there are moments of joy and moments of sorrow, exhilarating experiences and moving episodes: the great torchlight procession of peace on Via dei Fori Imperiali in the aftermath of the attack on the Twin Towers, the collapse of the apartment building on Via Ventotene following a gas leak, the opening night of the new Auditorium designed by Renzo Piano, which Romans had been waiting for since 1936, and the act of courage of a homeless man who saves five girls from two robbers. Veltroni's program stems from the "awareness that a city grows only if it does so together, without separations between the center and the suburbs, if it is a united community." And it is precisely the sense of community that emerges from every line of this first-person narrative. Along with the author's love for Rome and its people-a love that knows no discrimination of gender, age, social status or skin color.