Presidenza della Republica

The Quirinale Palace is the official residence of the Italian President.  It faces the Piazza del Quirinale. It is a relatively modern construction in the context of the history of Rome.

It is believed the Emperor Vespasian's house (founder of the Flavian Dynasty) may have stood there.

The Theory of Everything (2015)

Eddie Redmayne stars as Stephen Hawking in the film based on his life, on the book by his wife.

Mortdecai (2015)

Mortdecai is a film released in January 2015.

The cast includes Johnny Depp as Mortdecai and Gwyneth Paltrow and Ewan McGregor in supporting roles.

It is released by the movie studio Lion's Gate. It was filmed at a budget of $60m. Johnny Depp's production company Infinitum Nihil was involved in the film. The director was American David Koepp, born in the "North Central" American state of Wisconsin and educated at UCLA.

Mortdecai is based on the novels by Kyril Bonfiglioli, an English art dealer and comic novelist, born in Eastbourne. Mortdecai's voice is described by the New Yorker as "arch and insufferably, authoritatively snobbish".

What is a Filibuster?

A filibuster is a parliamentary procedure involving extending a debate in order to delay or prevent a vote. It was a device utilised by the Roman statesman, Cato the Younger.

What is an Embargo?

An embargo is the partial or complete prohibition of commerce with a country of group of countries. A famous embargo from history is the Continental System, the foreign policy of Napoleon I against Britain during the Napoleonic Wars, brought about in 1806.

Pale Rider (1985)

Pale Rider is a 1985 Western starring Clint Eastwood, and also produced and directed by him. It was filmed partly in Sun Valley, Idaho (to the West of Montana and Wyoming). It was the highest grossing Western of the 1980s.

The Legendary Bosphorus

The Bosphorus forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia and runs through the City of Istanbul. (Geographically speaking, it is a strait - a narrow, navigable waterway connecting two large bodies of water). It is part of the sovereign sea territory of Turkey and forms part of the Turkish Straits. Greek mythology is filled with references to the Straits. The Symplegades, or "Clashing Rocks" were meant to be rocks that crashed randomly together in the Bosphorus, defeated by Jason and the Argonauts. The Argonauts got their name from being sailors on the Argo, the ship whose name translated means "swift". The ship in turn got its name from its builder, Argus.