The Most Sought After Woman In Rome

Fillide Melandroni was labelled 'Scandalous Courtesan' by the Vatican. Papal Guards were sent out onto the streets to discourage women like her. All of Rome was in uproar but this was a climate where she flourished together with artists like Caravaggio, Rubens and the architect of Rome's renaissance Bernini. She knew her beauty and skills could take her a certain distance. But she demanded more. Fillide wanted respect, position and power - without having to marry some 'ugly old man' as one of her friends put it.

There were ways and means, she mixed with supremely gifted men like Caravaggio and Rubens. Others were rotten and corrupt like the Borgia Pope and Cesare Borgia himself. Fillide could outwit them all when she needed to. "No, I won't repent," she told priests. "I can help you," she told a leader of the College of Cardinals. "Together we will be rich and happy," she told her lover Sandro - because she had an idea. An idea that would make money for both of them. But it could also help the poor, protect the vulnerable on the streets they came from. Over the years her idea has gone down dark and dangerous roads but it still survives today... known as Cosa Nostra, or Mafia.

Look closely into the hidden depths of that organisation and four centuries later you can still see the hand of Fillide Melandroni.