Wanna Marchi and Stefania Nobile receive culture award at Rome City Hall

Rome— Wanna Marchi and her daughter Stefania Nobile were presented with the International Culture Award at Rome’s Campidoglio on 23 September, bringing together celebration, personal redemption and a renewed debate over the place of public recognition in an institutional setting.

Mother and daughter received the honours during a cultural event organised by publisher Alessandro Gian Maria Ferri in the Sala della Protomoteca, one of the historic rooms of Rome’s City Hall. They later shared their recognition on social media, where Marchi reflected openly on the distance between her troubled past and the reception she received in the Campidoglio.

“Life is really strange,” Marchi wrote. “From a prison cell, you find yourself in the Campidoglio, praised, receiving compliments, applause and embraces. The Campidoglio is not for everyone.”

Her words quickly drew attention to the criminal convictions that have long marked the story of Marchi and Nobile, as well as to their appearance at an event held inside one of Rome’s most recognisable institutional buildings.

The reaction online was divided. Some users criticised the decision to honour the two women, with comments including “there are no limits to decency” and “we have reached rock bottom, a slap in the face to honest people”. Others took a more forgiving view, arguing that people can change after acknowledging their mistakes.

The controversy also prompted a response from Dario Nanni, a councillor with the Mixed Group of Roma Capitale, who said he had personally requested the use of the Protomoteca for the award ceremony.

“I personally take responsibility for having requested, as a city councillor, the use of the Protomoteca for the award organised by the publishing house Edizioni Cento,” Nanni said in a statement, explaining that councillors from both the majority and opposition have often used the procedure to request the room for events.

He said, however, that he had not known Marchi and Nobile would be among those receiving awards.

“Obviously, I had absolutely no knowledge of the presence of Wanna Marchi and Stefania Nobile among the people being honoured. If I had known, clearly I would never have supported the request to use the room,” he said.

Nanni also apologised for what he described as the embarrassment caused to Roma Capitale, stressing his pride in having served as a councillor for more than 15 years.

“The Protomoteca is a room belonging to all Romans and deserves the utmost respect, especially when deciding which initiatives it hosts,” he said.

For Marchi and Nobile, the ceremony was presented as a moment of recognition after years in which their names became closely associated with one of Italy’s most controversial television and legal scandals. For others, however, the setting of the award has raised questions about how far personal redemption should extend into the symbolic spaces of public institutions.

The episode has therefore become more than a ceremony. It has reopened a familiar and deeply human question: whether a person’s past should permanently define how they are seen, or whether there can be room for a different chapter after mistakes, punishment and the passage of time.

PS