He'd learned his craft in Rome, but his sly humor was British.

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Completed only four years ago, the Banca d'Italia's provincial head-offices on Rome's Via XX Settembre have, besides lots of marble, a huge echo around its 29 tills as well.

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If Bersani fails, Napolitano could tap someone else, a fresh face to politics, like newly chosen Senate President Piero Grasso, a widely respected former anti-Mafia prosecutor, said D'Alimonte, a professor at LUISS university in Rome.

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Built in 124 A.D. as a temple to all the gods of Rome, the Pantheon remains today as a Catholic church and a tomb for Italian luminaries, such as the artist Raphael and King Vittorio Emmanuelle II.

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D'Emilio and AP Fashion Writer Daniela Petroff contributed from Rome.

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