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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Throughout the centuries there’s been frequent massacres of artists, philosophers, thinkers, writers, scientists and activists who have been sentenced to death for defending their ideals with strength and coherence, for having carried out their personal struggles against a society that censored them with violence.

From that fact, the exhibition ‘Undressed of flesh’ tries to represent some of these famous people with pictorial language, conferring an artistic dimension to the tragic events of history (also recent history). And so, Antonello Morsillo, an Italian artist who lives and works in Rome, decided to concentrate his recent production on the history of these famous disappeared people, making a last exhibition as a tribute to upstream thinking and condemning denied freedom.

Morsillo was born in southern Italy, in Foggia, and since he was a teen he took interest in illustration, beginning to make characters for cartoons. Years later, in Rome, he was to obtain his degree in graphic advertising, drawing and painting. His first individual exhibition was the publication of a catalogue in 2002. For four years Morsillo worked with SonyBMG and this experience allowed him to establish himself definitively as an illustrator thanks to the making of album covers for popular Italian singers, such as Milva, Patty Pravo and Luigi Tenco.

But it’s with the exhibition ‘Undressed of flesh’ that Morsillo reaches a new era in his artistic development, uniting illustration and painting and a deep theoretical investigation. This way, he makes a pictorial and conceptual route that takes us to the murders of Federico García Lorca, Giordano Bruno, Sophie Scholl, Matthew Shepard, Gandhi and many more.

And so, Morsillo chose Ipazia, a mathematician, astronomer and philosopher from ancient Greece who was literally cut to pieces by a group of Christians, and he represents her pregnant, as the mother of science. We also find Pier Paolo Pasolini, the Italian writer and film director who was murdered in 1975 by a ‘ragazzo di vita’ (child of life) and he’s represented with open arms, simulating a flight from his ‘crucifixion’. There’s also Giordano Bruno, who doesn’t have a mouth in the painting but slight marks instead that seem to slowly give him back his words, and Sophie Scholl (leader and activist of the anti-Nazi movement ‘White Rose’), represented with a white rose in her mouth, tied by a string of thorns that condemns silence.

The exhibition can be visited until the 17th of February at the Rodari Library, located on Via Francesco Tovaglieri 237/a (00169). The opening times are from Monday to Friday from 9am till 7pm, Saturday from 9am till 1.30pm and closed all day Sunday. You’ll find more information on this webpage: www.artribune.com/dettaglio/?type=event&id=7619

menschauser

If you find yourself in the beautiful Italian capital, don’t miss this interesting exhibition. We also recommend that you rent apartments in Rome and come and enjoy a stay in this city to discover all the cultural and artistic initiatives that it offers.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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A recently published study by Professor Hoyu Horoku in the journal of the Department of Psychological Phenomenology  of the University of Portland has once again highlighted the long-standing debate about the unmatched power of music to get us out of the present and automatically lead us just  as a Proustian Cupcake (remember the central role played by the famous Vinteuil sonat,a not only the relationship between Swann and Odette, but also in the heart of In Search of Lost Time), to revive a past with indescribable intensity.

According to the experiments of Professor Horoku, the reason to explain the surprising emotional power of music, which is able to transcend the barriers of time, would have to do with the same part of our brain where the memories of the past  are stored and read  (on the medial prefrontal cortex) and acts as the central interface between music and memories and emotions. The results of the investigation does not appear to contribute much to those made in the past by Professor Peter Janata at the  Mind and Brain Center at the University of California, regardless of the potential applications in patients suffering from diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, that may receive assistance through digital lists custom music playlists, which add much less light to the phenomenon than the descriptions provided by writers, thinkers and artists throughout history.

Indeed, such things as the above description of the Proust Vinteuil sonata, effect of  the Pythagorean notions about the vibration of the bodies and the music of the spheres, or the actual string theory in contemporary physics seem to approach in a much more seductive, rich and nutritionally way the essential enigma.

Anyway, one of the most evocative , refreshing whimsical and nostalgic seductively published albums last year was Rome, an album in which the renowned musician and producer Danger Mouse, aka Brian Murton, and Italian soundtrack composer Daniele Luppi, have distilled after five years of work spent in the most extreme secrecy, their love for Italian films music of the  of the sixties and seventies to work closely with musicians who played the original scores of Ennio Morricone (the most celebrated composer of a short list that included such notable artists as Piero Umiliani, Piero Piccioni and Bruno Nicolai) recruiting for the cause the talents of Norah Jones and former White Stripes member Jack White.

Rome was recorded using technology of the time at which it pays tribute to at the Forum studies in the Italian capital, located in an old church where in the past the above mentioned Italian composers worked, whose music is closely related to childhood memories of Luppi and perhaps to a lesser extent, Danger Mouse.

Paul Oilzum

This record makes it particularly suitable to illustrate the connections between music and memory, and a soundtrack is hard to beat when you think about renting apartments in Rome

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Translated by: Marc
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Until the 29th of April, the Museo D’Arte Contemporanea Roma-MACRO exhibits, at the Centro di produzione culturale, the work of the American photographer Steve McCurry. The exhibition is a tribute to one of the most important exponents of contemporary photojournalism, obtaining on various occasions the World Press Photo Award, considered the most important award in this field.

The work of McCurry has become a reference point for those who like photojournalism. Both he and his work are well known in Italy, becoming a reference for many young people who see the events of our time through his photographs. This reason has brought the MACRO Museum to make this exhibition that symbolizes a tribute of the Italian people to McCurry and his work.

The exhibition is commissioned by Fabio Novembre, who has taken the 200 best works made by McCurry of his 30 year career. Despite that the presentation of the young Afghan woman with green eyes in the exhibition is inevitable, there will also be some more recent works that gather the period between 2009 and 2011. Among the works that will be exhibited there will be photographs taken in Thailand and Myanmar (Burma), that include a spectacular series dedicated to Buddhism. There will also be some unknown work of his taken in Cuba.

Steve McCurry was born in 1950 in Philadelphia, United States. His start in photojournalism took place in a local newspaper. His first incursion outside the United States was in India, where he made an interesting tour to observe and capture the complex world of castes and misery in the middle of scenic and aesthetic beauty, given by the landscape and ancestral culture. In 1978 he moved to Afghanistan to make photojournalism and he stayed there covering the conflict until 1992. However, the work that took him to stardom in journalism and photography is the photograph ‘Afghan Girl’, that appeared on the cover of National Geographic magazine in 1985 and which was reproduced in all the media of the time and the years after that, being considered as one of the most important images of the 20th century that has appeared in reports, posters, leaflets and all kinds of printed media.

The ‘Afghan Girl’ is a photograph of Sharbat Gula, a 12 year old girl of the Pashtun tribe who was in a refugee camp in Pakistan. Her name he got to now 20 years later when he went back to the area and found her at the age of 30, with the pain of war reflected on her face.

His work has taken place in war fronts such as Beirut, Cambodia, Afghanistan and the surrounding areas, Kuwait, the former Yugoslavia and the Balkans. McCurry’s photographs tell us the horrors of war and the loss of the limits of reason that happen during these conflicts.

For more information:

http://www.macro.roma.museum/mostre_ed_eventi/mostre/steve_mccurry

Nancy Guzman

If you enjoy the places where human warmth is the centre of life, we recommend that you rent apartments in Rome and enjoy a few wonderful days attending all the good shows and exhibitions that this city has this time of year.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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From next 31^st of January, to the 12^th of February 2012, we will be able to enjoy in Rome, one of the most famous masterpieces of the English writer William Shakespeare, we are indeed talking about the most famous love story in the world, Romeo and Juliet. The performance will take place in the majestic Teatro Eliseo in the Italian capital.

It would be impossible to know or try to calculate how many adaptations of this classic have been made since 1597, year in which Shakespeare finished writing the book. As a little known curiosity, some people said that the great writer and playwright based his story on other contemporary tales to write Romeo and Juliet. About the beginning of the sixteenth century Italian and French people already had the sad stories of two lovers. Different writers translated into French and into English the original story by Matthew Bandello. Shakespeare compiled the best of both adaptation and included new original characters on his own, in what is now undoubtedly the saddest love story ever written.

The play plot is based on the love between Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. Both belong to the two most influential families in Verona that hate each other. But the lovers try to ignore everything around them and find ways to pursue their romance. Juliet finally planned to drink a potion that would make her look like dead and thus disappear with her lover at last. But Romeo was not advised of the trick and thinking he had lost his love forever, commits suicide at the tomb of Juliet. Juliet wakes up and when she sees the dead body of her lover also decides to kill herself.

The director of the play is Valerio Binasco, who is in charge of leading a great cast composed by the best Italian actors of the moment. Arturo Annecchino, who has composed the soundtrack to this beautiful and sad story, will play the music. Riccardo Scamarcio plays Romeo and Deniz Ozdogan will interpret the role of Juliet. Success is assured and there could be no better setting than Teatro Eliseo for this so important play written by such great writer as Shakespeare.

The fact that the play in its representation coincides with Valentine’s Day and is not a coincidence. The capital of the ancient empire is considered one of the most romantic cities in the world. It may be a unique opportunity to celebrate this important day in the company of your partner in the setting of the city of Rome, walking through its streets, visiting its legacy, its temples, the Vatican, Roman Forum and of course the Colosseum. Discover the Trevi Fountain, stroll along the banks of the river or visit the hundreds of fashion stores on its avenues.

Tickets for the performance can be purchased from 36 €,  http://www.italianticketoffice.it/romeo-e-giulietta-teatro-eliseo-131802l1154377-es.html

Fernando Paterna

It is a unique opportunity to rent apartments in Rome and attend this performance. Rome is a multicultural capital, full of life and places to visit. Its cuisine is unique and do not forget to eat a wonderful ice cream before returning home.

Translated by: Hans
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Pizza is one of those dishes that are easily found in all parts of the world. Just as burgers, coke and chips, pizzas are an common fast food everywhere. Its easy preparation, exquisite flavor and variety of choices, have made this dish the favorite of Italians. If you are one of those who started eating pizza at Pizza Hut and Domino’s, then you have to try a Roman pizza in Rome. Here are some of the best pizzerias in the whole Italy.

Montecarlo is one of the most sought pizzerias around Rome. Its pizzas are prepared with the freshest vegetables and a great more cheerful and friendly atmosphere in the center of Rome. Very near the Piazza Navona, where your pizza route in this city should start. The dough of this classic pizza place is light and crispy, preserving the ancient tradition in the preparation of this dish.

Baffetto pizzeria is another top meeting places for pizza in Rome. Since 2004, Baffetto offers great quality and variety of pizzas as well as promotions for groups of four or more people, special events, meetings, etc.. Apart from delicious pizzas, pastas and salads, the best drinks await for you.

Dar Poeta is another very typical Roman pizzeria. Located in the Vicolo del Bologna Street, this pizzeria will charm you with its old and rustic brick walls, intimate atmosphere and family environment. Its wood stoves ensure that your pizza is more than crispy and aromatic.

Da Francesco is another option to visit on this route of pizzas. With years of experience in the preparation of Italian dishes, it is located in Piazza del Fico, this pizzeria also offers a friendly service. Try to arrive before 9:00 pm because they are normally overbooked by then.

Magion La Gatta is a pizzeria for experimental guests. The combinations and elements used in the preparation of its pizzas, seek to to bring this dish to a contemporary gourmet level, playing with new elements and colors from the classic technique for making pizzas.

As you can see, your options to find a great pizza in Rome are endless. For all tastes and prices, you have to try a crisp, authentic Roman pizza during your stay in the fabulous Italian capital. In addition, each walk may be associated with this treat, because of its practicality and size, you can buy a pizza and take it during your walks around town, there is always and option when it comes to pizza in Rome.

Alexa Ray

Get apartments in Rome and enjoy its incredible cuisine and the beauty of its streets, squares, museums and galleries. Rome is still a source of inspiration for the best cooks and chefs from all around the world.

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Translated by: Hans
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Having the perception of Rome as an old woman who lies on a huge velvet couch, adorned with flowers and fruits as a marble horizon hides behind silk curtains, is a huge mistake. Rome wears miniskirt, has sneakers, and is not necessarily a woman, goes out very late on the street, listening to rock, eats on the street and of course is modern. Rome has a large and youthful alternative culture able to catch you from many aspects. If you are looking for art, fashion, creativity and adventure, Rome certainly has everything you want.

First of all, Rome is definitely a super “gay friendly” city, where you can find hundreds of bars, discos and saunas for the LGBT community to prove it. If you are gay or lesbian or whatever you like to be, you will find a community in Rome offering effervescent parties, romance and dance evenings. Europe Multi Club, Skyline and L’Apeironare, are some names you’d like to remember for you next visit.

For the rockers, indie rockers and metalheads, there is nothing better than the Roman music scene full of underground and alternative concerts, as well as multiple vinyl shops scattered around town, where you can find music from all music styles. Have in mind that in Italy there is  a long tradition of progressive rock that comes from the 70′s, and there are many older editions of this kind that you can find in stores like Elastic Rock, Goodfellas and Just Like Heaven.

Similarly, if what you like is fashion and the “street wear”, going “shopping” indiscriminately throughout the day and find the best of the season models, Rome offers an intense fashion culture, not only developed in the prestigious shops of course, but in its streets where there are risky young people, following some of the “hipster” trends and bringing you a sophisticated personal touch of beauty and attitude to the city. Find the rare and “vintage” at good prices in the shops around Termini, Porta Portese market on Sundays, as well as Testaccio market.

If it comes to contemporary art and new trends including the  last tendencies of Italian art, just start your tour at MACRO, Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome, where you will find a large and diverse collection, considered to be one of  the best art museums of contemporary world. This museum also receives information from galleries and emerging artists in central Rome.

Rome maintains a youthful face even though the conventional tours never show it. Explore the city at your own pace and style, Rome is a city that continues to change and daring to be fresh and modern in Europe.

Alexa Ray

Get apartments in Rome and enjoy the modern options the city has to offer to new tourists, especially to the young ones in search of alternative options of entertainment. Rome is still young, though the years pass.

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Translated by: Hans
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Visiting Rome is a delight for all senses. Beautiful views, vibrant music, impressive ancient architecture… the possibilities never end in the Italian capital. In the same way, the best you can do is stimulate your palate with some classic Italian cuisine dishes that are available, of course, in some of the most known restaurants and bars in the city. Like in all big cities, the cost of your food will depend partly on the amount of money that you have. However, don’t doubt in trying some food in an old market, on the streets, in cafés or in unconventional restaurants. Exploring and travelling consist in trying everything and doing so everywhere, at a price that’s convenient for you. Not always the most exclusive restaurants are the best and, in Rome, the quality of the food is maintained at the price that goes best with your budget.

In Rome you’ll find plenty of trattorias and pizzerias, as well as alternative and vegetarian restaurants. Roman food is popular and simple; as you already known, in Italy you eat a pizza like you eat a piece of bread. However, each place has its own character and preparation secrets, which makes the Roman gastronomical experience into something pretty unique. The essential thing about Roman food is that it’s made with fresh products, high quality vegetables with a traditional and modern touch, vegetable oils and fresh meat. Some entrées like zucchini are basic to start a good meal. The variety of pasta that you’ll find is infinite. And there are good desserts for every holiday and excellent coffee.

Some of the basic dishes that you have to try in Rome can be Fiori di Zucca, a base of zucchini flowers with mozzarella and anchovies submerged in oil to create a brilliant combination. The cod fillets are also part of the tapas that you can find and you can accompany that with a fresh beer; pieces of cod cut delicately and fried in oil, leaving them with a crunchy and salty texture are the perfect complement for a moment of relax in a bar or a café after a long walk.

The pasta carbonara is another of the dishes that, despite the simplicity of its preparation and low cost of the ingredients, it satisfies everyone’s appetite. Made with pasta, eggs, cheese and pancetta, this dish can be a light lunch or a captivating dinner accompanied by an exquisite seasonal wine. Pizza alla Romana is another classic, as its name confirms: a layer of dough in the oven dosed with warm spices served with a bit of olive oil is a snack that accompanies all drinks and that you can share in any street of Rome while you’re looking for your new destination. A delicious cappuccino can complete your lunch or dinner, as well as starting your day in the Italian capital.

Alexa Ray

Get apartments in Rome and get to know a bit more of its delicious culinary tradition. Affordable for all wallets, Italian cuisine captivates palates from around the world.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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Until February 12 the Pallzzo delle Esposizioni in Rome hosts the international interactive exhibition Homo sapiens. The huge story of human diversity, curated by geneticist Luigi Lucca Cavalli-Sforza and philosopher Pievani Telmo. The exhibition is an open dialogue to rethink human development process, starting with the first footsteps and continuing with the appearances of different ancestors of what we humans we are today.

This exhibition is enormously appealing to all audiences and is divided into 6 sections telling and expressing the tensions that marked the emergence of homo sapiens on earth.

The first section is “The Supremacy of Africa” and refers to the time that the Homo sapiens was the only human inhabitant  for more than 2 million years and is separated from the previous records due to their ability to create and build rudimentary tools that allowed them to be differentiated from other species. This was possible due to a larger head and it will mark the beginning of the appearance of Homo, the beginning of the Paleolithic era that will be defined by the material record imprints found of this ancestor of mankind.

The second section “Loneliness” is a recent invention and refers to the appearance after the Homo sapiens, who decided to move along walking hundreds of miles in a continent full of species, to contact their Neandertal cousins, the little flower man from and the mysterious Denisova man from Siberia.

The third section is “The Geniuses, people & languages ??and it moves us 40 thousand years into the past, when revolution comes and Paleolithic man develops sophisticated tools for a better living, such as the use of fire for cooking and heating. Parallelly  Australia and America arecolonized , this is justified by scientific research that have determined the anthropological, genetic, and linguistic  relationship.

The fourth section “Traces of the world” invites us to look at the process of domination of nature, the use of land, plants and animals, which will lead man to new situations such as conflict and migration in search of new products and land.

Section five:  Italy unity in diversity, takes a look at the special status that makes Italy a place of intersection of biological and cultural diversity, both of which will contribute to the evolution of people and the early appearance of language.

Section six, we are all relatives,we are all different: the intertwined roots of civilization, is a logical development of this interesting exhibition that introduces us to realize that beyond the skin color, language differences, religious or political our origin is only one.

For more information: http://www.palazzoesposizioni.it/categorie/mostra-008?explicit=SI

Nancy Guzman

A great alternative to start the year with good vibes is to rent apartments in Rome and visit the Palazzo delle Esposizioni to see this show.

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Translated by: Marc
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Dining is one of those luxuries we all indulge in. That is, to eat something delicious is possible if with a little curiosity and good taste, we explore the city that we visit and aptly choose an appropriate restaurant . No need to spend too much either, just see that it is within the capabilities of our pockets and keep track of our stomachs demands. The aperitif before dinner is a classic ritual for those who know how to start a good meal.

Within snack tasting surely there is no rule. It depends on what you’re looking for, either something refreshing or strong, it also depends on the dishes you are going to eat. Usually a good glass of wine is a classic appetizer. Many prefer a lighter whiskey with some ice to also open the appetite. Generally, fruit cocktails are not recommended before a meal because of its high sugar content, which also raises the levels of alcohol during ingestion. Drink whatever you want, but drink something before you eat, it alerts the senses and gives food intake even more emphasis on the palate, raising awareness and giving more pleasure in eating. If you eat something in Rome, here are some bars that can be perfect to visit to start your meal.

Societe Lutece is one of the more “chic” bars  you can find in Rome. Located near the Piazza Navona, the great variety of drinks will give you many options to choose from before dinner. Very cozy and very comfortable, Societe Lutece also offers you a buffet of salads and other small snacks to start your appetite before dinner.

Salotto 42 is another point of reference if what you need is a refreshing drink before dinner. Try to arrive on time because it usually tends to be very full, plus many Roman celebrities spend evenings in this bohemian place. They also offer fresh salads and sandwiches to accompany your favorite cocktail.

The Modo bar is another meeting point if you’re looking to share a good drink accompanied by a light jazz concert before lunch. Also, Modo has known dj-s that will make your evening before dinner never ending. Designed completely in white and black, you’ll find yourself in a Kubrick film “a la Roman”, of course, you will be more than simply fascinated.

Finally, E Frizioni Freni is the quintessential bar if your after “arty” and modern style. Decorated with books and contemporary art everywhere, this bar offers snacks at very affordable prices and of a high quality. Definitely a point where literary and intellectual gatherings will be on the city’s daily agenda. Simply a classic.

Alexa Ray

Get apartments in Rome the nights in this city are endless and full of bohemia. Every corner hides a story that awaits you as well as and hidden bars and exotic drinks. Let your curiosity invade this classic city.

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Translated by: Marc
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