My wife and I went to Italy last month, visiting both Rome and Venice, and had the most wonderful time. Rome and Venice are cities drenched with fascinating history that can be seen and, in many cases, even touched. There is one church (San Clemente) where you can walk down a flight of stairs and go back centuries in time. Doing so was a breathtaking and fascinating experience for us both.
But the best thing for me? The one thing that I was most looking forward to doing? The place that we headed to the moment after we had dropped off our luggage at our hotel?
Dario Argento's Profondo Rosso store.
The very first place any life long fan of horror, science-fiction, and fantasy would want to go to while in Rome.
At the store I got the (possibly once in a lifetime) chance to not only geek out in an almost embarrassingly childish manner, but also to meet and speak with Luigi Cozzi, the writer/director of Star Crash, Alien Contamination, Lou Ferrigno's two Hercules movies
, and several other entertaining pieces of joy filled cinematic geekiness.
Once I got over the shock of him being in the store (I had thought he would be retired by now and someone else would be working the counter) I gushed about how much I enjoyed all of his films and what a huge fan of Star Crash I was (am) and so on and so forth. He chuckled and said thank you, then he chatted with my wife while I went down the spiral staircase, into the dark basement, and paid a visit to The Museum of Horrors. Which is a small collection of props from some of Argento's films, as well as some of the genre memorabilia that Cozzi has collected over the years. (Cozzi could, and should, be considered Italy's version of Forrest J. Ackerman.)
Here are two pictures of the entrance to the exhibits.
I took a lot of pictures, many of which did not come out all that well, and I do not want to post them all (although it is very tempting to do so). So here are my three favorites:
The deformed killer from Phenomena.
And two items that will be very familiar to anyone that has seen Profondo Rosso (Deep Red).
A mirror...
and a painting...
I had hoped that Argento's Dracula 3D would have been released by the time we were in Rome, but the film is still in post production. Cozzi told me that the final sound mix had just been finished and they were now focusing their work on converting the 3D effects.
He also told me that Dario Argento was planning on making an appearance, for a media interview, at the store in about two days. He encouraged me to call and confirm the time so I could come to the store and meet Dario Argento.
That, I am sad to say, did not happen. I did not get around to calling the store to verify times because, just to be blunt, there was so much else to do and see while we were in Rome. I had made my pilgrimage to the store and met Luigi Cozzi, which is all that I had wanted to do. Meeting Argento, and the possibility of getting a pic with him, could have been a nice feather in my fanboy cap, but it did not work out that way. I just could not motivate myself to break away from the other sights and sounds and get back to the store.
Now I know that could get my Team Argento card revoked in certain circles of fandom, so it goes. I remain quite content with having met Luigi Cozzi, having bought a somewhat sizable bag of goodies, and having taken my pictures. My visit to the store was as close to being a perfect fan experience as it ever could possibly be. I have no regrets, only fond memories.
The only other thing about the Rome leg of our trip that falls within the spectrum of horror, science-fiction, and fantasy interest was our visit to the Capuchin Crypt. Where, for a small donation, you can view several deliciously creepy (and goose bump inducing) mosaics made from human bones. That place gave me the willies.
As far the Venice leg of our trip goes. The only real science-fiction, fantasy, and horror highlight that I can share is whem my wife and I strolled around the Piazza San Marco, and tried to figure out the route Roger Moore had driven in his Gondola:
It was quite easy to figure out, actually.

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