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. | Dark Rome by Brenda Paske, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters