Rome: The Ruyi

by Alberto Toso Fei

The mysteries and legends of the Eternal City are unveiled through the interactive pages of the WhaiWhai guidebook: an unconventional guide for tourists and travelers who are looking for an out-of-the-ordinary experience. In the WhaiWhai guidebook series, readers will experience an interactive treasure hunt through six cities, unlocking their mysteries and discovering their most charming corners. To play, all you need is the WhaiWhai guide and a mobile phone. Send a text message to WhaiWhai that includes a special code and immediately receive your first clue. As you travel to each new location throughout the city, a new clue is revealed. Each city has a different treasure, and finding it will be an exciting experience. WhaiWhai combines history and fantasy, allowing readers to step into a story that plays out inside the city, sparking their curiosity and making them the hero of an adventure. In Rome: The Ruyi, discover what’s hiding behind the history of the Eternal City. The story of the magical sword Marco Polo stole from China continues in another city, a city at least as exceptional as Venice. It appears that over the centuries, the Ruyi changed hands many times, from popes to artists, from necromancers to prostitutes, from lords to commoners; each learned the history of this magical object and each hid it in a different place for a different reason. The Ruyi reached Rome centuries ago; the city now bears so many signs of its passage that traditional Roman legends can be read in light of this incredible story. Carlo Dolfin, the old professor who learned of the affair in Venice, believes that the scepter came to Rome, but can no longer be recognized in its original form. That's not all. Some documents he hastily recovered suggest that even the Roman Empire was rooted in the power of a magical object and that the strength of the Caesars declined when they lost track of it. He therefore suspects that the Chinese Ruyi could be a variation of that magical object from ancient Rome.

124 pages, Paperback

First published May 31, 2011

About the author

Alberto Toso Fei descends from an ancient family of glassmasters in Murano, and is an expert on the history and the mysteries of Venice. He is a journalist and has written a series of books that constitute an anthology of mystery in Venice and the lagoon.
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Alberto Toso Fei è discendente di una antica famiglia di vetrai di Murano, ed è un esperto di storia veneziana e di misteri. Giornalista, ha scritto alcuni libri che costituiscono una sorta di antologia del mistero su Venezia e sulla laguna.