Princìpi con le ali at Parco Dominique Green, December 5, 2026

Princìpi con le ali, Le avventure di zio Coniglio e zio Coyote, is a free puppet show for children aged 3 to 8 scheduled for Saturday, December 5, 2026, at 10:00 at Parco Dominique Green, at Via Sant'Igino Papa 89, in Primavalle, in Municipio XIV. It's staged by the company Chùmbala Cachùmbala, presented by Cantieri dello Spettacolo, as part of the project We Have a Dream. Entry is free, no ticket needed. The park can be reached with Metro A to Cornelia or with the FL3 train to Gemelli, and then with buses 46, 49, 146, 907, 907L, 908, 916, 983 and 985, according to the organizers' directions. For information the organizers answer at 338 3707076 and at cantieri.dello.spettacolo96@gmail.com.

Language: a performance based on dance, music or visual acts; no English version is announced, any spoken parts are in Italian.

Princìpi con le ali: the December 5 show

On December 5 at 10:00 the small mobile stage of Princìpi con le ali turns into a puppet booth, at Parco Dominique Green in Primavalle. It's a show designed for girls and boys aged three to eight, free, outdoors, and it closes the series of events with which the theater cart has toured the neighborhood since the start of the fall.

The story

Tio Coniglio and Tio Coyote, hungry and bumbling, decide to steal watermelons from Dona Federica's field. Between gags and squabbles they pull off the theft, but the audience notices and helps Federica catch them. Caught red-handed, the two fear the police. Dona Federica, however, chooses a different punishment and puts them to work in the field to make up for the harvest. Between hard work and laughter, Coyote and Coniglio learn the value of work and respect, and the audience celebrates the victory of cooperation.

The audience as a character

The most important detail of the plot is that it's the children who discover the theft. In the puppet tradition, the audience shouting to the character what's happening behind their back is part of the show, and here it becomes the engine of the story. For a four-year-old, being the one who saves the harvest is something to tell at home.

A punishment that repairs

Dona Federica's final choice is the educational heart of the show: instead of punishment, work that repairs the damage. In a project dedicated to the values of the Constitution, the message is clear and told with a light touch. It's the right way to talk about rules with young children: with a story, and with a laugh.

Princìpi con le ali, a small Thespis cart

Princìpi con le ali is a series of meetings and pop-up performances brought on a mini mobile stage, which the organizers call a small Thespis cart. The cart of Thespis is the ancient image of traveling theater: according to tradition, the first Greek actor toured the villages on a cart that was both his means of transport and his stage.

Theater that goes to the audience

The idea of the cart is simple: instead of asking families to go to the theater, the theater goes to courtyards, parks, the neighborhood's health facilities. During the fall the mini stage has already visited the courtyard of the ASL Roma 1 Vaccination Center on Via Jacobini and the courtyard of the Casa di Comunità on Via San Zaccaria Papa.

The previous episodes

On September 11 the cart opened the series with Storie dell'Africa, a musical reading built on the sounds of the tama, a small talking drum. On September 14 it was the turn of Il diritto di essere persone piccole, a game reading. On September 19 Seminare inclusione, accoglienza, in which a sarcastic puppet led the audience in a reflection on hospitality and refugees. On December 5 the cart becomes a puppet booth.

Why Princìpi with the accent

The title plays on the accent: princìpi, principles, not prìncipi, princes. It's the principles of the Constitution, not the sons of kings, that grow wings. It's a pun adults pick up on and children learn, and it's the thread that ties all the events in the series together.

Chùmbala Cachùmbala: the puppet company

Chùmbala Cachùmbala is a puppet company born in Guatemala, formally established in 2005 by Carolina Cifuentes Dominguez, known as Teca, and Paolo Iorio. She's Guatemalan. He's an Italian who lived in Guatemala for a long time. Their work is based on popular education and on the desire to tell, with puppets, the social and cultural problems of the area where they work.

The workshops in the villages

In Guatemala the company runs workshops in indigenous villages, building puppets and stories with the residents on topics like environmental education, domestic violence, alcoholism and youth gangs. It's a use of puppet theater as a community tool, far from the idea of the puppet as simple entertainment for children.

The Titiritlan festival

Since 2006 Chùmbala Cachùmbala has organized the Titiritlan Guatemala International Puppet Festival, held in the towns where the group works during the year, which has passed its 10th edition. Titiritlan is also the name under which the company appears at European festivals.

The shows

The best-known title in the repertoire is Il mostro della spazzatura, a booth puppet show directed and designed by Carolina Cifuentes Dominguez: in a town with bad habits a monster is born that feeds on garbage and, with the help of his mother, the witch Piruja, tries to conquer the world. With this show the company has taken part in festivals in Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. Other titles include San Giorgio e il drago, Giovannina senza paura and La leggenda del Xocomil. The company also brings lambe lambe theater, miniature shows of a minute and a half inside magic boxes, for one, two or three spectators at a time.

The Italian festivals

In Italy Chùmbala Cachùmbala has taken part in, among others, the traveling series Figuriamoci, Europuppet Valsesia, the festival I Teatri del Mondo in Porto Sant'Elpidio, Figuratevi in Perugia, Mapu Festival in Piazzola sul Brenta and Parappappero in Guardiagrele. It has also returned to Burattini alle Serre, in Grugliasco. In Latin America it has been a guest of, among others, Monifest in Mexico.

Why Tio and Dona

The characters' names, Tio Coniglio, Tio Coyote and Dona Federica, bear the mark of Spanish, the language of Guatemala where the company was born. The coyote is an animal of the American continent: if you see the show in Primavalle, you'll meet a bestiary that comes from far away, told with a language and rhythm Roman children understand right away.

A curious fact about Princìpi con le ali at Parco Dominique Green, December 5, 2026

The park where the show takes place is named after a young American who never saw Rome. Dominique Green was sentenced to death in Texas when he was just over 18, accused of a murder committed during a robbery, and spent 14 years on death row before being executed on October 27, 2004. During his imprisonment he had built up a long correspondence with friends from the Community of Sant'Egidio, and in 1996 he wrote verses from his cell dedicated to that friendship.

On November 27, 2007, the Community of Sant'Egidio and what was then Municipio XIX dedicated to him the garden between Via Sant'Igino Papa and Via Borgia, with a travertine plaque remembering him as a victim of the death penalty in Texas. 500 students from the area's high schools attended the ceremony. It was the day Sant'Egidio presented the international Cities for Life, Cities against the Death Penalty day.

There's a subtle consistency in the fact that a show about the principles of the Constitution, ending with a punishment that repairs instead of striking, is staged right here. The children won't know it. The adults bringing them will.

We Have a Dream: the project behind Princìpi con le ali

We Have a Dream is a multidisciplinary project by Cantieri dello Spettacolo that from September 11 to December 5, 2026, crosses Rome's northwestern outskirts, from Primavalle to Bastogi, with 32 free events including shows, readings and workshops for young people. The December 5 puppet show is one of the last in the program.

80 years since the Constituent Assembly

The stated aim is to rediscover, through beauty and inclusion, the values of the Constitution 80 years after the Constituent Assembly took office. Special attention goes to the Mothers of the Constitution, the women who sat in the Assembly and helped write the Charter. The artistic director is Federica Mancini.

A neighborhood network

The project networks public institutions and the nonprofit sector: ASL Roma 1, Biblioteca Cornelia, ATER, the association Intersos Lab with the Ottavia youth center, Teatro La Casetta, the Comitato Bastogi and the association Sunu Africa Oumy. The events take place in different places in Municipi XIII and XIV.

The workshop and the choral work

The core is a widespread workshop for girls and boys aged 10 to 17, who through a community playwriting process build the choral work of visual and puppet theater We have a dream, premiering in early December. The workshops include Le figure della Costituzione at Teatro La Casetta, Dentro la scena at Intersos Lab, Immaginario at the Comitato Bastogi and Percussioni la colonna sonora, again at the Casetta.

The library readings

A special focus is on the library events, including Resistenza sostantivo femminile at Biblioteca Cornelia, a reconstruction by Silvia Corsi, and Storie di magia, amore e libertà on November 19. The project is supported by the Ministry of Culture and is a winner of Roma Capitale's public call Lo spettacolo dal vivo fuori dal Centro 2026, in collaboration with SIAE.

Cantieri dello Spettacolo and Teatro La Casetta

Cantieri dello Spettacolo is the association, now a nonprofit organization, that runs We Have a Dream and manages Teatro La Casetta in Primavalle, at Via Federico Borromeo 75. It was founded in 1996 by writers and professionals with experience in film, TV and theater production.

A neighborhood theater since 2001

In 2001 the association opened Teatro La Casetta, a multipurpose space for training and performance aimed at an openly broad audience, from kids up to 90-year-olds. It's a tiny hall that changes face during the day: the workshop tables and the papier-mâché give way to the audience benches.

Puppet theater

La Casetta has built its identity on puppet and object theater, a genre that in Italy tends to be relegated to childhood and that here is treated as an adult language. The program features companies from all over Europe alongside shows by the school's young students. The presence of a Guatemalan puppet company in the We Have a Dream program fits this line.

Paolo Iorio in Primavalle

The name of Paolo Iorio, cofounder of Chùmbala Cachùmbala, also appears in the We Have a Dream program among the leaders of the workshop Le figure della Costituzione at Teatro La Casetta, alongside Federica Mancini. The puppeteer who brings the booth to life at Parco Dominique Green on December 5 is therefore already a familiar figure to the neighborhood's kids.

Parco Dominique Green in Primavalle

Parco Dominique Green is a green area of about 9,600 square meters on Via Sant'Igino Papa, in the Primavalle neighborhood, about eight kilometers northwest of central Rome. It's owned by ATER, the regional public housing agency, and it's the garden of a public housing neighborhood.

From dump to garden

In 1996 the Borromeo rehabilitation day center of the ASL's mental health department and the social cooperative Magazzino proposed to the City of Rome turning into a public park an abandoned area, reduced to a dump, owned by what was then IACP. The City approved the project at the end of 1996. Work began in April 1997 and the park was inaugurated at the end of July that same year, in the presence of Mayor Francesco Rutelli.

A rose nursery

From May 2000 the cooperative installed a greenhouse in the park, the Profumo di Rosa nursery, specializing in about 300 varieties of old and modern roses, where disadvantaged members worked and students from the day center trained. In 2007 the nursery received the Premio Grandi Giardini Italiani in Castel Giuliano as best rose grower.

The 2020 redevelopment

After difficult years, with vandalism and a long dispute between the cooperative and the owner, in September 2020 ATER completed the park's redevelopment with an investment of 600,000 euros. Garbage was removed, paths were fixed, benches replaced, new trees planted. The play area has three swings, one of them inclusive, two slides and two spring riders. There are more than 80 LED light poles, two picnic tables and four bike racks. The park was then entrusted to residents' care through a collaboration agreement.

A park for families

For a puppet show for young children the setup is ideal: a play area steps away, benches, open spaces. Arrive a bit early and let the kids burn off energy on the swings before the show: they'll pay more attention afterward.

Something nobody tells you about Princìpi con le ali at Parco Dominique Green, December 5, 2026

Parco Dominique Green already has a history with Estate Romana. In summer 1998, a year after it opened, the cooperative running it took part in the festival with a project of events held between the park and the Santa Maria della Pietà complex. In those years the garden hosted concerts, theater shows, film clubs, exhibitions, dance nights, markets and workshops for children, and for years environmental education courses for the neighborhood's elementary schools were held there.

The second thing few know is how much it cost to keep it open. The cooperative that had wanted it bore its running costs for years, even giving up part of its members' wages, amid vandalism, tool thefts and a dispute with the owner. In December 2013 it handed the area back. Only in 2020 did ATER's redevelopment give it back to the neighborhood.

If you bring your kids to see the puppets on December 5, you're entering a garden that exists because someone, for almost 30 years, insisted. It's worth knowing, and telling the children simply: this park belongs to everyone because someone took care of it.

How to get to Parco Dominique Green

Parco Dominique Green can be reached with Metro A to Cornelia, with the FL3 train to Gemelli and with buses 46, 49, 146, 907, 907L, 908, 916, 983 and 985, according to the organizers' directions. The address is Via Sant'Igino Papa 89.

By metro

The Cornelia stop on line A is the most convenient if you're coming from the center, Termini or Ottaviano. From Cornelia continue by bus toward Primavalle. Plan the route with the ATAC app: on Saturday mornings frequencies are different from weekdays.

By train

Gemelli station on the FL3 line is the alternative if you're coming along that line, for example from the San Pietro area. From here too, the last stretch is by bus.

By bus

The lines listed are many: 46, 49, 146, 907, 907L, 908, 916, 983 and 985. Before leaving, check the stop closest to Via Sant'Igino Papa.

By car

Primavalle isn't a limited traffic zone and on Saturday morning parking on the residential streets around the park is usually possible. With a small child and a stroller, the car is still the most convenient choice if you're coming from outside the neighborhood.

My tip for Princìpi con le ali at Parco Dominique Green, December 5, 2026

The show is outdoors, at 10:00 in the morning, on December 5. So my first tip is practical: dress the kids in layers, with a hat and gloves, and bring a blanket or a cushion if you plan to sit on the ground. In Rome December mornings are often clear and cool, but in the shade of the trees the temperature drops.

The second tip is about age. The show is designed for children aged three to eight: for the youngest, having an adult close by is important, because the story calls for audience participation, and a three-year-old needs to feel safe to shout to the puppet what's happening. Sit in the front rows, next to them.

The third is to make the morning into a small outing. After the puppets, the park's play area is available. If you want to stay in the area, at 17:30 in the same park there's La valigia di Charlot, a show paying tribute to Charlie Chaplin, also free, as part of We Have a Dream. A whole day of outdoor theater, at no cost, in Primavalle: it rarely happens.

Finally: the program may change, as the organizers warn. With an outdoor show in December, a phone call to the number listed on the morning itself, in case of bad weather, saves you a wasted trip.

Practical tips for families

Princìpi con le ali is free, outdoors and with no booking indicated: just show up at Parco Dominique Green shortly before 10:00. For large groups, like a class or a day camp, let the organizers know.

What to bring

A water bottle, a snack, something to sit on, a spare pair of gloves. The park has benches and picnic tables, but on a show morning seats run out quickly.

With a stroller

The park's paths were fixed up in the 2020 redevelopment. With a stroller the park is easy to get around. To find out which entrance to use and where the booth will be set up, ask the organizers.

Length and attention

The length of the show hasn't been announced. A puppet show for children aged three to eight is usually short, built for the attention span of the youngest: afterward, the play area does the rest.

For parents

Taking your kids to the puppets is also a way to get to know the We Have a Dream project and the neighborhood organizations behind it. If you have children between 10 and 17, you can ask about next season's workshops at Teatro La Casetta.

Another well-known fact, yet rarely mentioned

Everyone knows puppets are a show for children. Less often do people remember that around the world puppet theater is also a tool for popular education and social work. Chùmbala Cachùmbala is an example: in the indigenous villages of Guatemala the company builds puppets and stories with the residents to talk about the environment, domestic violence, alcoholism, youth gangs. The puppet lets you say difficult things from the right distance.

The same goes for the December 5 show. Behind a story of stolen watermelons there's a precise message about two principles: work as the foundation of living together and punishment as repair. If you know the Constitution, you'll recognize the first article and the 27th, the one that wants punishments aimed at rehabilitation. The children laugh at the gags. The meaning stays.

The third fact is about the word puppet. In Italy burattini and marionette are often confused, but they're different things: the burattino slips onto the hand and moves from below, inside a booth. The marionette moves from above, with strings. The December 5 show is, explicitly, a hand puppet show in a booth.

Primavalle and the area around the park

Primavalle is a neighborhood on Rome's northwestern outskirts, in Municipio XIV, about eight kilometers from the center. It's a public housing neighborhood, where ATER owns many buildings and green areas, including Parco Dominique Green itself.

Teatro La Casetta

A short distance from the park, at Via Federico Borromeo 75, is Teatro La Casetta, the heart of the We Have a Dream project and home of the youth workshops. It's the neighborhood's cultural reference point for puppet theater.

The green spaces around

The area is rich in green spaces. In the northwest quadrant are Parco del Pineto and, closer to the Tiber, the Monte Mario Nature Reserve. For a family that wants to spend the day outdoors, there's no shortage of options.

Toward St. Peter's

If you're visiting Rome and want to combine the show with sightseeing, you can continue to St. Peter's Basilica in the afternoon, maybe coming back for La valigia di Charlot at 17:30.

The right photo to take at Princìpi con le ali at Parco Dominique Green, December 5, 2026

The right photo of this morning isn't of the puppets but of the audience. Stand to one side, a few meters from the booth, and wait for the moment when the children discover Tio Coniglio and Tio Coyote with the watermelons in hand and shout to warn Dona Federica: the faces of a group of children taking part in a story are the truest image of puppet theater. Before taking photos that include other people's children, though, ask their parents' permission, and don't post faces of children who aren't yours.

A second possible photo is of the booth with the park behind it: the small mobile theater set up among the trees, with the swings in the background, tells the meaning of the project, theater that goes where people live.

The third is a photo of remembrance. Somewhere in the park is the travertine plaque dedicated to Dominique Green in 2007. Photographing it, and reading it with a child old enough to understand, is a small act of civic education, in line with the spirit of a project dedicated to the Constitution.

Some important events that happened here in history

The history of Parco Dominique Green begins with an abandoned area. In 1996, in a Primavalle without an equipped park, the ASL's Borromeo day center and the social cooperative Magazzino presented to the City the redevelopment project for the green area on Via Sant'Igino Papa, which then looked like a dump. The city government approved it on December 30, 1996. Work started in April 1997 and at the end of July the park was inaugurated with a public party in the presence of Mayor Rutelli.

In the following years the park hosted concerts, shows, film clubs and workshops, and in summer 1998 it took part in Estate Romana. In May 2000 the Profumo di Rosa greenhouse was born, which in 2007 won the Premio Grandi Giardini Italiani as best rose nursery. On November 27, 2007, the Community of Sant'Egidio and the Municipio dedicated the garden to Dominique Green, executed in Texas in 2004, with a ceremony attended by 500 students from the neighborhood's high schools.

Difficult years followed: vandalism, thefts, the demolition of two side walls of the cavea in 2013, a dispute between the cooperative and ATER, the return of the area in December 2013. In September 2020 ATER's redevelopment, with an investment of 600,000 euros, gave the park back to the neighborhood, entrusting it to residents' care. In September 2026 the park became one of the venues of We Have a Dream, with an interactive game on rights and a dance workshop, Articolo 3: confini in movimento.

Accessibility and practical information

The show at Parco Dominique Green is outdoors and free. The park was redeveloped in 2020 with new paths and a play area with an inclusive swing. For particular needs, contact the organizers in advance at 338 3707076.

Reduced mobility

The improved paths make the park easy to get around, but the exact position of the booth and the type of ground haven't been announced. A phone call to the organizers clarifies where to go to see well with a wheelchair or a stroller.

Services

For a coffee or a hot snack after the show, count on the neighborhood bars along Primavalle's main streets.

Bad weather

The show is outdoors and the organizers warn that the program may change. In case of rain, check before you leave.

Who has passed through Princìpi con le ali at Parco Dominique Green, December 5, 2026

Above all, the residents of Primavalle have passed through Parco Dominique Green: children, teenagers, the elderly, families from the public housing around it. For years it was used by the students of the Borromeo day center's gardening course and by the worker members of the Magazzino cooperative, who grew roses there and looked after the greenery. In the Profumo di Rosa greenhouse 17 traineeships took place between 2001 and 2013, for people supported by mental health and social services.

At the end of July 1997, Mayor Francesco Rutelli was at the opening party. On November 27, 2007, at the dedication to Dominique Green, representatives of local and city institutions, witnesses from the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty and 500 students from the area's high schools. In 2020, at the ribbon cutting for the redevelopment, regional housing councilor Massimiliano Valeriani and ATER general manager Andrea Napoletano.

In fall 2026 the park welcomed the kids from the We Have a Dream workshops, with the game Giochiamo con i diritti on September 12 and the dance workshop Articolo 3: confini in movimento. On December 5 Carolina Cifuentes Dominguez and Paolo Iorio arrive with their puppets, from Guatemala to Primavalle, and in the afternoon La valigia di Charlot.

December in Rome for families

December 5 is the Saturday that opens the Immaculate Conception long weekend, when Rome enters the holiday mood. For families it's the time of nativity scenes, lights and the first markets.

The weather

December mornings in Rome are often clear and cold. For an outdoor show at 10:00, dress the kids as you would for a walk in a park in winter.

The holidays

The holiday calendar in the city is in the guide to Christmas in Rome. A free puppet show in a neighborhood park is a different start to the season, far from the crowds of the center.

Frequently asked questions about Princìpi con le ali

When and where is the show Princìpi con le ali?

Princìpi con le ali, Le avventure di zio Coniglio e zio Coyote, is scheduled for Saturday, December 5, 2026, at 10:00 at Parco Dominique Green, at Via Sant'Igino Papa 89, in Primavalle, in Rome's Municipio XIV. It's an outdoor puppet show by the company Chùmbala Cachùmbala.

Is the show Princìpi con le ali free?

Yes, the show Princìpi con le ali is free, with open entry, like all 32 events of the We Have a Dream project. No mandatory booking is indicated. For large groups, contact the organizers at 338 3707076.

What age is Princìpi con le ali suitable for?

The puppet show Princìpi con le ali is aimed at girls and boys aged 3 to 8. The story calls for audience participation, as the audience helps Dona Federica discover the watermelon theft: for the youngest it's good to have an adult close by.

How do you get to Parco Dominique Green by public transportation?

Parco Dominique Green can be reached with Metro A to Cornelia or with the FL3 train to Gemelli, and then with the buses listed by the organizers: 46, 49, 146, 907, 907L, 908, 916, 983 and 985. The park entrance is on Via Sant'Igino Papa.

Who are Chùmbala Cachùmbala?

Chùmbala Cachùmbala is a puppet company born in Guatemala and established in 2005 by Carolina Cifuentes Dominguez and Paolo Iorio. It works in popular education, has organized the Titiritlan festival since 2006 and has taken its shows to Latin America and to many Italian festivals.

Why is the park called Dominique Green?

Parco Dominique Green is dedicated to a young African American man executed in Texas in 2004 after 14 years on death row. The Community of Sant'Egidio, with whom he had long corresponded, and the Municipio named the garden after him on November 27, 2007, with a travertine plaque.

Are there other shows on December 5 at Parco Dominique Green?

Yes, on December 5 at Parco Dominique Green at 17:30 there's La valigia di Charlot, a show paying tribute to Charlie Chaplin, free, also as part of We Have a Dream. If you want, you can spend the day in the area and see both.

Final advice

Some of the best mornings for children are in outlying parks, in front of a puppet booth. Princìpi con le ali has everything it needs: a company that has been doing this work for 20 years between Guatemala and Italy, a simple story with a precise meaning, a park the neighborhood won back. Dress the kids warmly, arrive a quarter of an hour early and sit in front. For families and schools who want to build a sightseeing route around Rome designed for the youngest, the professionals at Tour Leader Pro know how to do it.

Article written by the editorial team of Tour Leader Pro, contact them for Private/Corporate/V.I.P. Tours and Experiences.

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