Riccardo Corbucci's “Smart Roma” tells the story of the capital city that is also growing in its suburbs
'I was moved listening to Marzio, a student at the Einstein-Bachelet Institute, as he talked about Aria: an air pollution detector built from recycled materials, including wood from an old bench he had at home. It wasn't a glossy showcase item, but a real thing, handmade with his head and heart. He and his classmates designed it to measure air quality in schools and raise awareness about what we breathe every day. And when he spoke, Marzio didn't use the words of a technician or salesperson: he spoke as a citizen. About the environment, social justice, the future. At that moment, I realised that the real task of institutions is to create the conditions for these talents to stay. Because the future is already here, only sometimes no one is listening to it.
It is from this story, collected in the chapter “The importance of education for all”, that one of the most intense sections of Riccardo Corbucci's new book, Smart Roma. Stories of innovation, people and cities (Giulio Perrone Editore, 2025), begins.
A diary-like book that reads like a live account: between projects, people and administrative decisions, it paints a picture of a lively, contradictory Rome, capable of renewing itself from the bottom up. Corbucci's voice – passionate, civil, free of rhetoric – accompanies the reader along the streets of a city that is changing every day, sometimes silently.
The pages dedicated to digital training and inclusion highlight experiences that the Fondazione Mondo Digitale shares with the city administration: the Palestre dell'Innovazione (Innovation Gyms), the Smart & Heart Rome programme and the network of Centri di facilitazione digitale (Digital Facilitation Centres).
Corbucci describes them as real places, where “the hum of 3D printers shapes possibilities” and “you enter with a question and leave with a project”.
Created within schools, in neighbourhoods where the future seems more distant - Tufello, Tor Bella Monaca, Casal Monastero, Torpignattara, Corviale, Primavalle, Ostia and Corviale - these spaces for learning and participation offer young people and adults the opportunity to train in digital skills, experiment and build. This is the vision that drives Smart & Heart Rome: a smart city model that puts people and territories at the centre, intertwining technological innovation and social cohesion.
The book also devotes ample space to the network of 45 digital facilitation centres, created with the contribution of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale. These are local places where people can learn to use SPID, book a medical appointment online and manage public administration digital services. ‘A silent, patient, but fundamental task,’ writes Corbucci, ‘because after creating the digital infrastructure, we now have to train digital citizens.’
Smart Roma is, after all, an act of love for the city: an invitation to look at it not only for what it is, but for what it can become when technology meets the community.
A book that talks about administration and innovation, but above all about people. Of those who, like Marzio, imagine a more just, sustainable and shared Rome.
