Confessions from the Velvet Ropes: Rome & AltaRomAltaModa, July 2013. By Glenn Belverio

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Dear randy Romanistas and funky monks,

Last month, I was in the glorious city of Rome--back after a 3-year absence--to cover the Alta Roma fashion week for A Shaded View on Fashion and partake of the city's myriad earthly and heavenly delights. Live! Live! Live! as Mame Dennis was fond of saying. Here is a round-up of my stories from the Eternal City on Diane Pernet's site:

1. The Jean Paul Gaultier couture show at Santo Spirito in Sassia

2. The Jean Paul Gaultier dinner at the Galleria Borghese hosted by Italian Vogue

3. Sarli Couture show and retrospective at a 19th-century Roman slaughterhouse

4. Laura Urbinati's fashion & art installation "My Room in Rome" at the Art Nouveau gem Hotel Locarno

5. Sinister leather masks, chic turbans, skulls & centuries-old tomes at the Artisanal Intelligence exhibit at the world's oldest lending library, founded in the 17th century

6. Asia Argento promotes her CD "Total Entropy" at the opening of Ermanno Scervino's new boutique

7. "Nature: A Little Less Conversation": an unusual jewelry exhibition in the historically left-wing district of San Lorenzo

8. Secrets of the Circus Maximus: a subterranean temple of Mithras and the top-secret costume & set ateliers for Rome's Opera

9. Medieval basilicas, feisty nuns & Catholic torture porn during a bespoke tour of Rome

10. Festive fashions designed by Italians and Africans and produced ethically in Africa

11. Italy's bloody history of unification and fabulous ostrich-feather-tufted chandeliers: My stay at Leon's Place Hotel