Che la Madonna t’accompagni (May Our Lady Be with You) is a photographic project exploring Rome’s sacred street shrines, known as Madonnelle, and their place within the city’s ever-changing urban landscape.

Born from my return to Rome after eleven years in London, the work reflects on memory, belonging and rediscovery. Through long exposures and direct flash, I photograph these small devotional images in relation to the surrounding streets, where faith and everyday life, beauty and decay, permanence and movement coexist.

The project is deeply connected to my personal history. Despite growing up in a respectable, well-to-do area of Rome, I was drawn from an early age to street life, its relationships, contradictions and risks. Some of the choices I made led me into situations beyond my control and ultimately to the loss of my freedom. Looking back, I often wonder what allowed me to change direction and find another path. In the Madonnelle, I find a reflection of that question: the possibility of protection, compassion and redemption, even when we lose our way.

Rather than offering answers, the photographs explore the idea that being protected does not necessarily mean being spared hardship, but finding the strength to move through it and begin again. The Madonnelle become silent witnesses to both Rome’s transformations and my own journey towards a different understanding of myself.

In dialogue with Beehives, my long-term project documenting London’s council estates, this work continues my investigation into the relationship between architecture, memory and human experience, finding meaning in the overlooked details that shape our cities and ourselves.

Rome, Italy