This is the home of the Spring 2025 AUR Transmedia Storytelling class at The American University of Rome. This page has elements of our world that may be useful as our mystery unfolds.
AUR Transmedia Storytelling Blog
Our shared blog makes it easy to check in on our characters, ask them questions, and see what’s on their minds.
Our Music Playlist
Listen on Spotify
Some songs are personal favorites of the characters, while others go with different parts of the story.
Recipes & Food Culture
Lucky’s Nonna’s “Whisper Cake”
Dish Name: Torta del Sussurro (“Whisper Cake”)
Recipe Origin: This delicious recipe was passed down to Malfatti “Lucky” Fortuna by his Nonna. She claimed it
came from a mysterious traveler who paid in riddles and strange stories rather than with money. She only
baked it “when the city began to stir.”
Now, Lucky begs one of his friends to bake the recipe when things start to feel weird or when his coin “doesn’t seem like it wants to flip” because he knows the recipe by heart, but he can’t make it like his Nonna- he’d rather someone else not make it like his Nonna, than for him not to.
Ingredients:
• Almond flour (to ward off evil)
• Lemon zest (to honor the past)
• Espresso drizzle (to awaken the hidden)
• Dusting of powdered sugar in the shape of a key or ancient symbol
*More Recipes
Legends, Folklore & Artifacts
The Legend of the Catacombs
Rome has one of the biggest and largest networks of catacombs underneath the town and its outskirts. Some of them are open to the public for visits, while others are strictly managed by the municipality and are off-limits for locals and tourists alike.
These forbidden paths find themselves at the center of spooky ghost stories and legends about golden treasures hiding right beneath the locals’ noses.
Can any of these tales be true? Are the catacombs guarding a secret treasure that begs to be found? And if so, who will dare to venture beneath the Eternal City and fight with ghosts and demons in hopes of coming back victorious?
*More Legends, Folklore & Artifacts
Characters: Blogs, Diaries & Found Items
Character List and their Personal Blogs:
Nonna Angela
Professor Harold Hawkins
Malfatti “Lucky” Fortuna
Valentina
Minerva Russo
Phil Crema