Linea C

Linea C is a two-host interview show recorded live, structured around a recurring 'metro stop' (fermata) conceit that frames each episode as a station on a fictional Roman metro line. Franco Cimei and Marcello Conti co-host nearly every episode, opening with informal banter before bringing on a single guest for an extended one-on-one conversation. Guests are drawn from Italian literary and cultural circles: scholars and translators discussing modernist women writers, cultural critics unpacking Roman neighborhood history and urbanism, essayists and novelists on the economics of writing, and memoirists tracing personal history through music and place. Recurring themes include literary biography and the use of letters, diaries, and private correspondence as sources; Rome's urban geography, particularly its eastern and outer neighborhoods versus the historic center; and the material conditions of cultural work, including editorial pay and access. The show favors depth over breadth, letting single topics unfold across long, digressive conversations rather than covering current events. Production is unpolished and conversational, consistent with its live, in-person recording format at venues like bookshops. Listeners interested in Italian literary culture, Rome's social and urban history, and the practical realities of creative and editorial labor make up the natural audience. The show does not appear to follow a news cycle or topical hook; instead episodes function as extended portraits of a guest's intellectual and biographical trajectory. No narrator-only or panel-format episodes appear in the sample; all are two-host-plus-guest interviews.