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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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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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Rome Rocks! Indeed, the Italian capital is one of the best places with “gay friendly” activity in Europe. Despite the already fallen and increasingly distant Catholic Christian conservatism, Roman gay community continues to grow, and if you would want to have a good time in Rome, the places are not lacking. The Italian capital also continues to fascinate with its rich history and beautiful museums. Each step around Rome will be a new adventure for you. Let the night caught you up in some of these places full of beauty in the LGBT community.

One of the bars you must visit is the Coming Out, which since 2001 offers the best cocktails and tapas for the gay community in Rome. With a minimal decoration and the best dj’s, Coming Out gives you an ideal appetizer to start making conversation and meet new friends. Pizzas, pastas, paninis, among other delicious dishes, are at your disposal, as well as the best “beats” for you to get ready for a fabulous night in the city.

Hangar is another classic place of the gay community in Rome. This video-pub has high voltage erotic material, excellent drinks and a very nocturnal atmosphere. Probably, it is one of the most popular places in Rome and internationally recognized. Hangar is a space that inspires sensuality itself and the sensation that anything can happen between drinks. Also some pre-drinking or spend all night, become infinite.

Garbo is another destination that you should visit. Garbo bar offers a more relaxing and fun for gay and lesbian community. With affordable prices and with a “cutting edge”, attitude Garbo is the meeting point of many Roma’s nightriders looking to meet new people.

If it comes to clubs, do not miss the Push Club, where you can dance till dawn and enjoy the best house and electro. The Push Club offers you an environment where super sexy in your fantasies overwhelm the dance floor. The frenetic pace and low lights make you lose control among people, if  looking for some action all night.

Another essential place of the queer culture is the Amygdala Club. Amygdala is not only a space for parties and concerts, but there are a variety of events dedicated to the LGBT community. From theater, exhibitions, electronic music and video, an alternative space for the alternative community of Rome.

To learn more about Rome and its options for the gay community, let your curiosity drive you and explore the night at its best. Rome offers these and other options to meet and make new friends. The gay community in Rome is an endless source of imagination and diversity.

Alexa Ray

Get apartments in Rome and enjoy the nightlife and the various options the city offers the gay community and LGBT. Rome awaits you.

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Translated by: Hans
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Let’s go back to ‘Coffee and Cigarettes’ by Jarmusch for a few seconds. The mystique of such important combination is in all the short films of this great film. The cigarette, the coffee, the nicotine, the caffeine… how can we forget the important chat between Iggy Pop and Tom Waits on their comings and goings for the cigarette thanks to coffee. It seems that one thing attracts the other. however, if we had to choose between either, coffee is still the preferred one of many around the world. Its flavour, effects and the spaces that the drinking of the coffee generates are more favoured at the time of waking up and starting the day, whether it’s after meals as a digestive, in the afternoon with some dessert to snack on or to spend nights awake working or reading.

The use of coffee as a drink probably began in Ethiopia and then moved to Egypt and the north of Africa. In the 1500s it was in Turkey and Persia. It wouldn’t be until the 19th century during the great peak of commerce between the Muslim world and Venice, that coffee would arrive to Italian shores to spread its flavour around the whole of Europe. They say that back then, due to the stimulating effects of coffee, the ‘trendy religious groups’ in Europe tried to ban its use. However, in 1645, the first coffee shop opened in beautiful Venice.

Today, coffee is an essential drink in the whole of Italy. Having a coffee is Rome is a luxury that it’s well worth it due to its aromatic scents and preparation, as well as the excellent service you get in some cafés. If you’re a coffee lover, here are a few suggestions for your next visit to Rome.

Sant’Eustachio Il Caffe: Since 1938, this traditional coffee shop serves the most exquisite coffee in the city. It’s located in the centre of Rome, in front of the Palace of the Senate of the Republic, close to Piazza Navona. The good thing about this café is that it also has its own rotisserie of grains since 1948. The coffee is more than fresh, as well as coming from different places and mixes.

Caffe Greco: Another traditional place to drink coffee, it was founded in 1760. Stendhal, Wagner, Gogol and Goethe, to name but a few, have all been in this café. Sampling a coffee at Greco is drinking the flavour of rich and cosmopolitan Rome. At this place you’ll feel like you’re in a scene of ‘La Dolce Vita’.

Caffe della Pacce: This beautiful café opened its doors in 1860, one step away from Piazza Navona. Visited by different important figures of art and culture, Caffe della Pacce is a place with a lovely terrace where you can sample the recently grounded coffee in all its different mixes. Very romantic and cozy to enjoy the nightfall in Rome.

These are just three of the places where you can sample the best coffee in the Italian capital. Explore the city and its charms, you’ll see that there’s more than a surprise waiting to be shared with a good coffee out in open air.

Alexa Ray

Get apartments in Rome and enjoy the best coffee every day. Your stay will be of beauty, history and the best flavour.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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Avril Ramona Lavigne, known worldwide by Avril Lavigne, is a pop punk singer who was born in Canada in 1984.  In 2002, she got into everyone’s home with many hits, when she was only 17. The album that brought her to fame was “Let Go”, which made her to be nominated to eight Grammy nominations and has sold 18 million copies worldwide.

But there were two songs in particular that made Avril very famous in every corner of the planet, and those are “Complicated” and “Girlfriend.” These two issues were among the 100 biggest songs of the decade, according to Billboard, which is one of the most influential charts in the music.

The most important singles launched, along with “Complicated” and “Girlfriend” are “Sk8er Boi”, “I’m With You” and “My Happy Ending”. They reached the top most important songs of the time in the United States and other countries.

But Lavigne not only released magnificent albums and was able to present one hit after another, but also produced soundtracks for different movies. The most famous of all was a song she wrote called “Alice” for the film Alice in Wonderland, directed by Tim Burton, one of the most important filmmakers, and in which Johnny Depp played an important character.

So far, the artist has sold 35 million albums, making her one of the most successful singers of the past 10 years, in spite that she is only 26. Today, this beautiful and rebellious girl is promoting her latest production called Goodbye Lullaby, which was officially launched on the 2^nd of March this year.

More information: http://www.avrillavigne.com/ar/event/2011/09/10/rome-italy

Palalottomatica: Piazzale dello sport, 00100 Rome, Italy

MiLK

The Canadian girl will give a concert in Italy on the 10th of September at the Palalottomatica. For that reason if you want to see a great show, rent apartments in Rome and enjoy Avril Lavigne.

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Translated by: Hans
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Being a Bear is an attitude. Bear Love has no limits. If you ever felt you did not fit with the gay community, because you have too much weight or too much hair, you’re wrong. The Bear community continues to grow in the world, and there are more and more options of celebration for Bears throughout the world, especially in Europe. Love has no borders, and if it comes with extra weight and heat, then you better learn to enjoy it, live it and spread it everywhere.

For the curious and inexperienced, the term Bear appeared back in 1987, because of the famous “Bear Magazine”, created by Richard Bulger and Chris Nelson. Published in San Francisco, California, the magazine has continued to publish regularly to date with the best information for hairy, bearded and heavy guys, who are so attracted to many. This magazine has become very famous, due to the fact that it is being presented internationally with an image that the gay community is not recognized for, while changing the stereotype that gays have in the society. Being homosexual is then also being big, hairy, bearded, and having no shame.

Rome is a city open to the Bear culture; so, from the 11^th to the 14^th of August the Bears in the Village is celebrated there, three days of celebration and excess for the “heavyweights” of the LGBT community. Bears in the Village is a wild festival of clubbing and dancing, at the highest point of summer, in which meeting people from all over the world, including having an affair or meeting the love of your life is possible. The Bears in Rome, a community that continues to create a space for new events and cultural Bear celebrations, organize this event.

It is important to consider that Italy has been characterized by a fairly marked religiosity and macho culture, where these spaces are still working their way to break boundaries and leave behind conservatism and old images of reality. The body has been made to be explored. We were all given a body, and we should lead it to a space where we could feel full mentally and physically. Some people do not realize this, they get lost in identities created by the mass, the best thing to keep them in balance is to choose giving everything in the dance floor, go out and run freely and smile at any negligent look. Bears in the Village is another opportunity to keep the Bear community more alive than ever, especially in the beautiful Rome, full of beautiful places and history. For more info about this event visit http://www.bearsinrome.it/

Alexa Ray

Nothing better than renting apartments in Rome and spend a few days of dancing and partying among Bears like you. C’mon, it’s time to leave everything on the dance floor.

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Translated by: Hans
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When talking about cutting edge electronic music, there are not many bands that can be named (as opposed to other styles, of course), but The Chemical Brothers is one that will always be in such a list. The English band, which at first was called The Dust Brothers, was born in London almost two decades ago and was formed by Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons. They are famous, because they were one of the first bands that popularized the electronic music around the world and also, because they have created the Big Beat style.

Everything started on the back of a club called Naked Under Leather in England in 1992, where Rowlands and Simons began DJing and eventually ended up becoming friends. That’s when they started working together and chose to call themselves The Dust Brothers. At that time the myth was born.

Little by little, they were becoming famous, but in ’95 ended up changing their name to The Chemical Brothers because there was a band in the United States with the same name. By this time Rowlands and Simons were known in many parts of the world and began making their first international tour with other great band like: Underworld and Orbital.

Currently, after seven studio productions, The Chemical Brothers became an icon band of electronic music with almost 20 years of being on stage.

More information: http://www.ticketbis.com/entradas-the-chemical-brothers-roma-2-011/en4634

Ippodromo delle Capannelle: Via Appia Nuova 1255 00178 Roma.

MiLK

A show of this magnificent band is an obligation for the fans of this musical style. All you have to do if you want to attend their presentation on the 13th of July is to rent apartments in Rome and enjoy the show at the Ippodromo delle Capannelle.

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Translated by: Hans
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30 Seconds to Mars are currently one of the most famous progressive rock bands in the world. The core of the group is formed by Jared Leto, Tomo Milicevic and Shannon Leto but these are complemented by other musicians who join them for live shows. At the moment 30 Seconds to Mars are playing all over the world, performing their 2009 album, This Is War, to their fans.

30 Seconds to Mars began in 1998, but they didn’t release their first album until 2002. They received a lot of attention from the very start of their career thanks to the fact that the singer, Jared Leto, is a well-known Hollywood actor who has worked with some of the biggest names in acting like Nicholas Cage, Brad Pitt and Edward Norton.

But the band quickly showed that they were more than just a vanity project of a famous actor and these musicians from Los Angeles manage to continue winning over new fans all over the world with each release.

Their name, as they recently revealed in an interview, comes from a thesis written by an ex-Harvard professor which states that thanks to the rapid progress of technology the human race will eventually be able to travel to Mars in just 30 seconds. This idea, according to the band, explains in few words the kind of music they make.

More information: http://www.livenation.it/artist/thirty-seconds-to-mars-tickets

Ippodromo delle Capannelle: via Appia Nuova, 00185 Roma, Italia

MiLK

30 Seconds To Mars are coming to Italy to perform for their fans in the Ippodromo delle Capannelle on 18 June. Anyone who would like to go and check out the band’s music, and their film star singer, can rent apartments in Rome

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Translated by: Ben Palmer
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James Hillier Blount, or James Blunt as he is better known, is a British singer who was born in Wiltshire, and shot to fame in 2005 with the single “Beautiful.” And ever since the subsequent release of his first album, Bed To Bedlam, he has travelled the world, playing sold out shows.

His style, which is a mixture of pop, rock and folk, has won him fans of all ages – one of the reasons why the independent label Custard Records signed him.

In his short career, he has already won two Brit Awards, two Ivor Novellos – as well a Grammy nomination in 2006. In 2007, he released All The Lost Souls, which went gold in its first week.

Also instrumental in Blunt’s rise to rame is his background. Before becoming a singer, he was in the British military, and in 1999 took part in the peace plan OTAN in the Kosovo conflict. He also worked with charity Doctors Without Borders, to which he continues to lend his support, often holding fundraising auctions at his concerts.

And so, though he only has two studio albums to his name, James Blunt has come to be one of the biggest voices and faces of pop in the world.

More information: http://www.forumnet.it/

Palalottomatica: Piazzale dello sport, 00100 Roma, Italia

MiLK

The Englishman is coming to Italy for a show at Palalottomatica on 13th March. If you want to attend, you can also searchapartments in Rome and see an artist who has managed to capture the hearts of so many in just a few years.

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Translated by: Poppy
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From the hustle and bustle and the chaos to the silence and most absolute desolation: Once upon a time, cities that are now completely deserted use to be immersed in the everyday din of noisy life. A continuous flow of people and cars and the roar of civilization were witnesses of their essence till the day everything stopped. They were completely abandoned, left empty and silent.

The ghost towns are spread throughout the world: there are abandoned cities in the United States, in Ukraine, in France, in Japan, in Spain and Italy. Why these towns were left as this depends on each case, but often due to impossible architecture, a nuclear accident, a natural disaster, a war or a crisis time have left these cities totally empty.

This is the case of Zhi Shan, located in northern Taiwan. What was to be a luxury futurist vacation complex was reduced to a ghost town of strange shapes. The complex, composed of small round modular units of glass and concrete, was left unfinished due to the construction company falling into bankruptcy because of the high accident rate of the workers during the first weeks of work. This has established it as a kind of mausoleum in memory of the deceased workers. Some people say that the city is inhabited by the evil spirits of these ones.

Another amazing story is that of the medieval town of Craco, known as the “Città Fantasma” of Italy. Located in the south of the Italian peninsula, Craco was evacuated in the 70’s by a possible collapse due to earthquakes. It is situated on a 400 metre high hill of sand and clay and it is very vulnerable to earthquakes. Thanks to its medieval appearance it has been the setting for numerous films such as “The Passion of Christ” by Mel Gibson. Its streets full of destroyed houses, castles and even a church, give it a ghostly and romantic appearance. It is both beautiful and desolate.

Perhaps the most terrible story is that of the ghost town of Pripyat, located in the Chernobyl region. Pripyat suffered the most serious nuclear accident in human history on April 26th, 1986. The explosion of reactor number 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant caused 500 times more radiation than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. After the accident, the city was so heavily contaminated that it had to be evacuated immediately. In fact, it is not expected to be re-inhabited for several centuries. As if it were a joke, on the streets there are still signs which read “Forests are the lungs of the planet,” “Keep away the trees of fire”, “Health for the workers of Chernobyl,” as if the city was still alive and nothing had happened. Pripyat, which in the 70s had 47.000 inhabitants, was a young, avant-garde city city, and today it is totally empty and forgotten.

But these are not the only ghost towns of the world. There are so many that we could spend hours writing about them. For example Oradour, located in the south of France, which was massacred by German soldiers in World War II has never again been inhabited; Kolmasnkop in Namibia, where people use to go in search of gold became abandoned and semi buried by the sand; Or Detroit in the United States, which after the economic crisis in the 50’s, passed from being an industrial city to a city with neighbourhoods similar to a ghost movie, totally uninhabited. Who knows what other hidden treasures will appear in the future? Maybe your town is next!

Rent apartments in Rome and take a trip to Craco in southern Italy to see this ghost town, you’ll be amazed!