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December story in The New York Times focused on one-of the great, old-money families of Italy, the Pamphilis. The Times described them as "one of the most august of Rome's princely lineages," which includes the Colonna, Barberini, Orsini, Borghese, de Medici and Farnese families whose legacies are rich in art and architecture and at least one pope.
A few weeks ago the Pamphilis threw a party for 600 in honor of Prince Rainier III of Monaco at the Palazzo Doria Pamphili in Rome. The bill, however, was covered by Fendi, the Italian fashion house, which also paid the Pamphilis a fee for using the palace.
Such are the choices faced these days, says The Times, by old-money Italian families like the Pamphilis, who still own palaces in Rome and Genoa, several large country estates and one of the most important private art collections in Europe, with works by Caravaggio, Titian and Raphael, and a portrait by Velazquez of Pope Innocent X, the family's...