rome blog

It doesn’t matter how many days you’re travelling for, the preparations are always stressing, especially packing your suitcase, because there are thousands of decisions to make depending on the time of year and the chosen destination. To help you organize better your luggage if you’re travelling to Rome this winter, so that nothing’s left outside, here are some tips that will help you.

The first thing is the choice of the luggage. If you’re travelling by plane, we recommend that you go for hard suitcases due to the treatments that they receive in airports. If you’re travelling by train or bus, you can carry soft suitcases, rucksacks or more light and moldable luggage.

Remember that to travel by plane you have to take into account that metallic items aren’t allowed in the hand-luggage and that there are limits on carrying liquids, so try not to put in your perfume, toning waters or other beauty elements that are considered liquids for hand-luggage.

Because in February it’s pretty cold in Rome and you have to take a considerable amount of thick clothes to wear, we recommend that you make a list of what you’d like to take, so then you see the space in your suitcase and the kilos that you can carry so you can sort yourself out.

Once you know what clothes you want to take, put them in order by size. The biggest and thickest ones go in the lower part. Between the spaces that are left, put in the smaller items and press them so that the air comes out. I recommend that you don’t take clear-colour clothes, because they get very dirty and you have to take a lot of luggage.

Shoes always occupy a lot of space, so wear some that are for all surfaces and then pack another for special occasions during the trip.

Don’t forget to close all the perfume or aftershave bottles properly because there’s no worse mistake than leaving them open and then smelling it everywhere. Look out for all the cream jars are also closed properly so that they don’t spill out and stain your clothes.

Remember that, if it’s cold, you have to wear gloves and a hat, additional scarves that combine well with the clothes so that they don’t look out of place and various pairs of socks in case they get wet and you have to use more than one pair per day. Feet have to always be protected from the cold, because it’s a sensitive part of the body to low temperatures.

Now that we’ve finished the suitcase, let’s start with the hand-luggage. It’s advisable to use a small suitcase with wheels or a good but small rucksack. There you just have to put all that you’ll need for your trip between your house and the destination place. Also, you have to put in the camera, the valuable objects and everyday remedy items.

We recommend that you put the passports, credit cards and money in a bag that’s stuck to your body.

Nancy Guzman

What a great idea it is to spend some of these winter days in one of the apartments in Rome Rent now and go and live the dolce vita!

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When we travel, we normally want to see and photograph all the best places we see to keep them in our memories, but sometimes we miss the panoramic view, because we simply can’t find it. With that in mind and remembering Rome, perhaps because its urban construction makes it ideal to look at from a panoramic view, we wanted to find the best views of the city ton advise you on your next trip. So take note.

One of the most spectacular panoramic views of Rome is the one that can be seen from the dome of the Vatican. You just have to have the good fortune of getting inside (there are days when it is closed for maintenance) and climb the 500 steps. But there’s more, you’ll need to have spare time, as there are long lines of visitors who go after the photography and the chance to know all parts of the Vatican. The dress code to enter is formal: pants, skirts below the knees and shoulders covered.

When you’re up there and you see the beauty jewel that is Rome, everything will worth, because if the weather is good you will even see the sea. The ticket price is € 7 including lift and € 5 without lift, the elevator only goes halfway, so the 320 remaining steps should be climb on foot.

La Terraza del Vittoriano has a privileged view over the Roman Forum, Colosseum, and Via del Corso. Since 2007 this has two lifts that start from the upper colonnade, to the terrace. The tickets prices are 7 € and 3.5 € for children under 18 years and people over 65 years. From 0 to 10 years is free.

The Janiculum Hill offers an extraordinary view of Rome, with the backdrop of the Alban Hills. The large terrace where the monument to Giuseppe Garibaldi is located is a great vantage point that is fully signalized, so you can walk and appreciate the panoramic views of the city with its domes.

The Quirinal is one of the seven hills on the northeast of Rome; from its terrace you can see the most beautiful sunsets over the dome of the Vatican with the city background. It is a view of Rome that will stay in your retina for a long time; you can also take advantage and visit the Quirinal Palace.

The Monte Mario is one of the highest hills surrounding Rome. From there, you can partially see the city, but it’s a beautiful view. At the top, there is an observatory that can be visited on request.

The viewpoint of the Roman Forum, the Campidoglio, is one of the best places to take pictures of the columns of the Saturn’s Temple and the Coliseum.

The Pincio terrace, which stands on the Piazza del Popolo, is a traditional place to watch the sunset over the baroque city. According to history, the Roman aristocracy of the nineteenth century visited this great terrace to see the sunset, so you can’t miss it.

Nancy Guzman

Come and see these and many other places of the city, while staying at apartments in Rome from there, you’ll have the best views of the city.

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For Romans food is a ritual that involves infinite pleasure, for this reason they are demanding when it comes to flavors and aromas that flow from meals. Hence Italian cuisine is an export product and one of the attractions that touists love.

For those who prepare a trip to Rome and expect to enjoy this pleasure but in an affordable way, we’ve compiled a list of bars and good restaurants that are nice and cheap.

Since there is so much to see, we recommend that you try to eat taglio pizza, sold and cut into squares where you can try several flavors at a very cheap price, 2 € per serving. Even right next to the Trevi Fountain there is a pizzeria that sells pizza by weight.

Surely you will be attracted to the Trastevere Who is not?  Its narrow, winding medieval streets are a magnet for anyone. There you find Carlo Menta, a typical restaurant that has quality food at a very affordable price. You can eat very cheap pizzas, delicious gnocchi or order of the menu an entry, a main course and the dessert of your choice  for just € 9.50. It is located in via Lungaretta 101.

The Monte Carlo, located in Vicolo Sabelli 13, is one of those typically Roman places, where the owner walks around the tables greeting diners and asking if everything is ok , so it is well known and the quality of their meals are just perfect. The food is delicious and plentiful, and at minimum prices, the only problem is to find a table at lunch and dinner. The average price ??per person is 10 €.

But  food is not all in Rome, you must go out and enjoy nightlife and the best idea to do this is to go to the bars, we have searched for  good, fun and inexpensive places. We let you know you that in Rome’s nightlife ends at 2:00 am.

Bar San Calisto is the cheapest place in all of Rome, it is in the Piazza di San Calisto in Trastevere, and opens every day at 18:00 hours. Top sellers are the classic cold Peroni beer, which costs only 2.5 € and the famous Campari with soda or spritz.

Drome Bar, located in Via dei Latini 49/51, at the university area of ??San Lorenzo district, an alternative place where you can eat vegetarian food , see film screenings, concerts, plays or have a delicious cocktail or just chill to a cold beer, all at student prices.

If after eating and delicious cocktails you want to lose a  little weight , we suggest you to go to the Testaccio area, where music, drinks and flirting are part of the night life.  Dance and mingle in this area where clubs are open until 5:00 AM, we recommend Akab in Via di Monte Testaccio 68, it has a plant at street level and an underground cellar and local a DJ billboard.

Nancy Guzman

There is nothing more beautiful than Rome the winter, so I advise you to rent apartments in Rome in advance time follow our tips to give yourself a few days of infinite joy.

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Until the 29th of April, the MAXXI Museum in Rome exhibits the interesting exhibition ’RE-CYCLE. Strategie per l’architettura, la città e il planeta’, which translates as ‘Strategies for architecture, the city and the planet’, and it deals with the issue of recycling in architecture, to minimize the impact on nature by making the most of environmental factors in a harmonic way.

The exhibition is made up around drawings, photographs, witnesses and videos that give account of the sustainable projects in architecture, urbanism and landscapes. In the same exhibition there are works by artists, photographers and media producers.

To give a global image, the museum exhibits new projects and historical ones, such as the ones by Peter Eisemann and videos on recycling of abandoned works by Frank O. Gahry & Venturi and Scott Brown and Associates.

Peter Eisemann is an American architect of Jewish origin that worked with Walter Gropius, director of the Bauhaus. Known for his avant-garde and provocative vision, he’s the author of enormous constructions such as the Wexner Center for the arts of Ohio State University.

Another of the exhibitors is Lacaton & Vassal with the transformation project of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. The architects Anne Lacaton and Jean Philippe Vassal created an office in Bordeaux to produce single-family houses using, rationally, new materials that allowed them to design in an ingenious way rooming solution. Their architectonic concept is avant-gardist by using polycarbonate from industrial greenhouses that allows them to build bigger spaces and make better use of light, as well as their modern shapes incorporating nature. Their designs allow the co-existance of nature and mankind, respecting the trees by integrating them in the construction.

To show that recycling is related with architectonic work, they have set up works that show interesting proposals of creative recycling, such as the EcoArk structure in Taipei, made with 1.5 million used bottles by the Far Eastern Group. it’s 130 metres wide and 26 metres tall, and it was donated to the city’s council.

To make any sense from the architecture of recycling, there are two installations by the artists Fernando and Humberto Campana outside the museum. The work titled ‘Maloca’, referring to the home of the indians in the Amazon, is made with wood and synthetic raffia to re-interpret indian houses that the public are received in.

One of the most creative works in the exhibition is the section with the faces of Jimi Hendrix and other rock stars, engraved on X-rays of a fractured skull or a broken leg due to the cold of Russia in wartime.

Today there are many techniques to design new shapes with waste materials and the architects have taken this possibility very seriously, especially when minimalist architecture allows them to work with simple elements that also give them good conditions to isolate and preserve cold in winter and heat in summer, handling light to live with less energy use, etc.

For more information: http://www.fondazionemaxxi.it/2011/12/01/recycle/

Nancy Guzman

Take a few days rest by renting apartments in Rome and get to know all the wonders of recycling in the exhibition at the MAXXI Museum.

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For those who like to visit illustrious cemeteries on their travels, the non-Catholic cemetery in Rome should be in their plans. Also known as the Protestant Cemetery or the ‘English Cemetery’, this place was born in late-18th century, when great changes in funerary customs in Europe were taking place. At the same time, in Rome, the need to create a space for eternal rest for foreigners and non-Catholics was growing.

The chosen location was between the ancient monuments of the Pyramid of Caius Cestius, of the 12th century, and the Aurelian Wall. Originally, it was conceived for Protestants and Orthodox but, since 1953, it began to be called Non-Catholic Cemetery to allow the access to people from other religions. Each religion has its own area.

For more than two centuries, it has given a place to rest to a varied and rich population, painters, sculptors, historians, writers, diplomats, poets and important international celebrities, although perhaps its most emblematic guests are the English poets John Keats and Percy Shelly and one of Goethe’s sons.

Some graves that are especially interesting are:

- The family pantheon of the writer Henrik Andersen, friend of Henry James, which was designed by himself.

- The grave of Gregory Corso, an American beat generation poet, lies here since 2001. He expressed his desire of being buried close to Percy Shelley.

-Thomas Jefferson Page, the American explorer, lies in an elegant family pantheon formed by an obelisk, a statue, a sarcophagus and two columns, created by the Italian sculptor Ettore Ximenes.

- The grave of William Wetmore Story, an American writer of whom Henry James wrote a biography of, possesses the most beautiful sculpture in the cemetery, the Angel of Grief, created by himself as a posthumous tribute to his wife, with who he shares his grave with.

-The grave of Rosa Bathrust, designed by the sculptor Richard Westmarcott Jr. Her early death at the age of 16, due to drowning in the river Tiber, shocked Rome in 1824. It has a refined monument that shows an angel of death putting out the touch of life, and the soul of the girl rising from the waters to the sky accompanied by an angel.

The cemetery is managed privately and entry is free, but they ask for a donation of 3 euros to plan your visit better. On its webpage http://www.protestantcemetery.it/press/newsletter.html you can check out its tri-monthly bulletin, with a programme of their activities.

Address: Via Caio Cestio, 00153, Rome
Timetable: From Monday to Saturday from 9am until 5pm (access until 4.30pm). Sundays and holidays from 9am until 1pm (access until 12.30pm). 
Metro: B Line, Piramide

Elena Alvarez

To visit this romantic cemetery full of history and other many interesting places that are hidden in the eternal city, nothing better than renting one of our apartments in Rome

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During 2012 (until 27th of September) the MAXXI Museum of Rome displays the works of Marisa Merz, winner of the 2001 Venice Biennale, and other contemporary artists in the exhibition A proposito di Marina Merz. Through this exhibition, the Curatorial Department of MAXXI explores the boundaries of contemporary Italian art of the 90s and the influence artists from previous generations have.

In one of the  installations (Senza Titolo) , Merz uses all familiar materials that are proper of her own feminine dimension which is a constant sign that marks her work. She takes the plasticity of clay, the ductility of copper and the fragility of paper, all warm materials that give the idea of ??the feminine, home, of protection.

The character that the artist prints throughout he work, is what MAXXI has taken into account for their research, as Merz aesthetic view has influenced a posterior generation.

Marisa Merz was born in Turin, Italy in 1931. Her work was marked by Arte Povera, a trend that emerged in Turin in 1967 and dominated the creation of art in Italy. It was characterized by the use of simple, everyday materials, to reject traditional art using marble, bronze and other fine materials. It was argued that a work of art had to be eternal, however, it was also associated to the cycles of life and therefore should be temporary.

Merz’s works will be marked by these arguments, so she will use simple daily and closely materials associated with femininity such as tissues. In her beginning she used woven fiber and copper wires. She uses the resource of fabric to mark the territory of female art  rejecting male culture in all spheres of life. In her works a printed radical critique of society is presents, because it breaks with the relationship of the tissue or the craftsmanship and feminine domesticity used to express abstractions of art.

She has maintained an artistic practice that goes hand in hand with her life so it is well recognized that her feminism has been expressed throughout her work and through the forms and materials she used. Her creation are marked by the delicate and harmonious curved shapes, but always have small dents or casual or signs of bumps and imperfections.

Her work consists of drawings and sculptures that reflect the complex patterns of thought, marked by a period that  look on art and the artist’s role in society, with his own existential dimension.

It is precisely this existential dimension that marks a difference with other artists of Arte Povera, enriching her jobs and surpassing the timing of an artistic movement through a new generation following her footsteps, such as Ketty La Roca, Paola Pivi, Claudia Losi, Rosa Barba, Kara Walker, Elisabetta Benassi, among others.

For more information: http://www.fondazionemaxxi.it/2012/01/26/maxxi-artecollezione-a-proposito-di-marisa-merz/

Nancy Guzman

If you decided to rent apartments in Rome and enjoy pleasant moments, do not forget to go to the Museum MAXXI and see the wonderful work of Maria Merz.

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If, as dictionaries say, a monument is, among other things, any structure that has artistic, archaeological, historical or similar value, probably nowhere else in the world you will find too many monuments per square kilometer, as in Rome, most of which will go necessarily unnoticed.

One of them is undoubtedly the Carcere Mamertino (Clivio Argentario, 1), located in the ever daunting forums, specifically between the Roman Forum and Via dei Fori Imperiali, at the fingertips of the staircase that leads to the Capitol, where despite the harmonic classic look of its beautiful facade were thrown, all those whom the authorities considered were threaten the state security. There is also a curious, little known Christian pilgrimage place, that according to the legend, St. Peter’s features were printed in one of its walls when he hit his head against it before creating the miraculous of a well of water to baptize the guards escorting him. Those who don’t believe this story, maybe can find interesting the infamous hole in the ground where the prisoners were pulled to the dungeon and once dead, throw their bodies to a great drain.

To move from this truculent underworld, to other substantially brighter places in appearance like the small, but captivating marble Baroque, pale pink church of Sant ‘Andrea al Quirinale (Via del Quirinale, 29). Perhaps this isn’t the best-known work by Bernini, who built it without charging anything in return, but as a gift to the Jesuits congregation. Miraculously clever spatial design, which has the ability to multiply its space, and a statue representing San Andres making his way on his journey to heaven through a broken pediment, are both truly memorable.

Although significantly different, another notable building is the not-sufficiently-known art-nouveau splendid palace that served as a studio and home of the artist and Norwegian-American writer Hendrik Christian Andersen http://www.museoandersen.beniculturali.it/ index.php? en/1/home perhaps less famous for its sculptures and megalomaniac plans for a modern city ideal for his homoerotic relationship with Henry James. You have to pay a visit to the bar on the rooftop bar of the Palace and its magnificent views; it can be accessed without having to visit the museum.

Less well known than the one of Trajan, which imitates the spiral relief historians, perhaps the closest to the cinema that had the Romans, the column of Marcus Aurelius, built between 180 and 196 and located in the Piazza Colonna, which served as inspiration for numerous statues of the Renaissance, a time when tragically a statue of St. Paul replaced the philosopher emperor at the top of the monument.

Paul Oilzum

From today’s perspective, this is a bittersweet reminder of a time where the governors could be great cultural figures. Hard not to think about it when renting apartments in Rome

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Between the 21st and 26th of February, the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma presents the opera ‘Madama Butterfly’ by Giacomo Puccini, with the libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. The opera is directed by Pinchas Steimberg, who was an outstanding director of the Symphonic Orchestra of Radio Vienna and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. As the star and playing Madama Butterfly there’s Daniela Dessi, the most popular Italian soprano, in and outside Italy. After winning in 1980 the first International Competition of RAI, she’s explored different repertoires, from baroque to heroes in operas from Verdi and Mozart.

The maiden Zuzuki will be played by the mezzosoprano Anna Malavasi. Officer B. F. Pinkerton will be played by the tenor Alexey Dolgov. It also has the participation of the Orchesta e Coro dell’Opera.

‘Madama Butterfly’ is a three-act opera that is based on the story of the same name written by John Luther Long and in Pierre Loti’s novel ‘Madame Chrysanthème’. Despite the opera was originally written in two acts, its premiere at La Scala in Milan in 1904 was a disaster. Both the critics and the public considered it unfinished, despite that the performers were the outstanding tenor Giovani Zenatello and the soprano Rosina Storchio. According to the comments of the time, this was due that the work was finished late and there was no time for rehearsals. Finally, Puccini took the show off the programme and re-wrote it, making changes among which he divided the second act in two.

In 1906 it premiered in the most important cities in the world but, in 1907, Puccini made new changes that resulted in the end version that is known as the standard one today.

The plot is based on the drama brought by the deception caused by the officer of the American Navy B. F. Pinkerton to the young 15 year old Cio-Cio San, who he marries in Nagasaki while his ship, the USS Abraham Lincoln, is anchored in the bay. The play opens up when Pinkerton rents a house in the hills of Nagasaki to live with Cio-Cio San, nicknamed Madama Butterfly. While for her marriage is a life commitment, for Pinkerton it’s a temporary adventure, that will culminate when he finds an American girl suitable for his condition.

The second act is the anxious wait of Madama Butterfly for Pinkerton to return, who left after the wedding. The arrival of the consul Sharpless with a letter from her lover fills her with emotion and, before she finishes reading it, she confesses that she’s expecting Pinkerton’s baby.

The third and final act is the arrival of Pinkerton, his wife Kate and the American consul to ask Madama Buttefly to give the baby so he can be educated by Pinkerton and Kate. Pinkerton decides that he can’t ask for this and cowardly sends Zuzuki, the consul and Kate to ask for the child to be handed over. Madama Butterfly doesn’t oppose and gives her child, as she kills herself with her father’s knife.

For more information: http://www.operaroma.it/stagione/stagione_2011_2012/madama_butterfly

Nancy Guzman

Going to the opera is a great alternative for this winter, so rent apartments in Rome and don’t miss out on it!

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During February and until the 2^nd of March, the Auditorium Parco de la Musica in Rome presents the interesting dance performance Equilibrio. Festival della Nuova Danza, corresponding to the seventh edition of this festival, which shows the current trends of contemporary dance in the world.

During a month, it will be possible to see on stage, new representatives of this art form, along with the greatest dance masters. This year, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui will be in charge of the artistic direction of event.

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui is a dancer and contemporary dance choreographer of Moroccan origin, born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1976. His peculiarity is the beginning of his career when he was 16, unlike other dancers who start their training during their childhood and have long years of physical and mental work before performing on stage professionally. His first public appearances were on Belgian television as a dancer and singer, and then he studied modern dance.

His special preference for highly flexible movements, similar to contortion, has led him to work with hip-hop and modern jazz, focusing on the concepts of multiculturalism and difference.

Currently his work is internationally known, because it incorporates elements of dance to other disciplines in the performing arts; as the movements of his work Sutra, created in coauthorship with the sculptor Antony Gormley. In order for him to create this performance, he traveled to China to learn from the Shaolin monks, some of their moves and body control. He has also worked as a choreographer, his first performance was called Anonymous Society with music by Jacques Brel.

The program that Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui has been developed for Equilibrio. Festival della Nuova Danza brings together dance figures with young artists from a border stage between dance, theater and circus.

In the opening act, he will perform his latest creation Tezuka, which was inspired by the cartoonist and creator Osamu Tezuka. It is an interesting work on the creator of Astro Boy, in which Cherkaoui juxtaposes different moments of history like the nuclear issue and the crisis of central Fukoshima, but everything, focused on the work and the creation of Tezuka, especially when dancers are drawn on their bodies, while painting each other and move like brushstrokes. It is a very interesting creation of modern dance, where the harmonic motion is coupled with the media.

There will be a space dedicated for dance and video in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Dave Saint-Pierre, the enfant of contemporary dance, will be among the guests with his work A little tenderness, Shitty Brothel!, where the dancers are naked skin and soul.

This festival makes the experimental and contemporary dance accessible to all those who feel with passion the expression of movement.

For more information: http://www.auditorium.com/eventi/festival/5102953

Nancy Guzman

If you love dancing and want to experience it, rent apartments in Rome and enjoy this world-class show, but book early tickets for not having any disappointment.

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Perhaps the beginning of this crazy feast was due to practical implications, before entering a period of about forty days in which fasting and rejecting any food or drink that induces pleasure was forbidden, remembering the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness where he was tempted by Lucifer several times. So the last day before Lent, food and drink was everywhere and there was no other option but to end it all before the start of the fasting period. Thus, in a feast of color, food and drink, and as many excesses as possible took place, people “sinned” before entering a time of reflection and meditation, before being forgiven and saved by the body of Christ and his sacrifice.
The tradition was vibrant and constant in Rome, probably Rome celebrated one of the largest carnivals in the world. Goethe wrote about it in 1787 as well as many other important writers of the nineteenth century. The masks, the color, the splendor of dance and outdoor celebrations undoubtedly inspired writers, artists and musicians.

To hold a moral question about the beginning of carnival is a doubt. What made it return to Rome to the center of its  life in the twenty-first century? S question which is easy to answer. To explore the carnival is to explore the unconscious. In the center of the mask is the principle of freedom that can alter behavior, situations, beliefs and actions.

As Oscar Wilde would say, “Man is least himself when he talks in his own name. Give him a mask and he will tell the truth.” The tradition of carnival merely assent to this fresh moment of space and time in which freedom and debauchery finally mix. Thus, carnivals and festivals of this type trigger repression caused by religion and political systems. In regions of the world, the mask feature is beyond the simple act of celebration and festivity to become a ritualistic instruments that can lead to revolution or ecstasy of  group. For more information on the Carnival in Rome, visit the following website: http://en.carnevale.roma.it/

Alexa Ray

Get apartments in Rome and enjoy the party and dancing . Come and celebrate in the capital of Europe, one of the oldest customs of joy and celebration around the world.

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