rome blog

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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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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To the north of the city, on the river Tevere (Tiber) there’s the Ponte Milvio, the oldest bridge in Rome. Its history begins in the 2nd century BC, when the consulate Caius Cladius Nero ordered it to be built so that the Via Flaminia could cross the river. Since then, it’s been a witness of a great battle, when here, the Emperor Constantine I, defeated Maxentius in 312, as well as going through various reconstructions. Its last restoration took place in the 19th century, after Garibaldi decided to demolish it to stop the French Army, although it still preserves the three original arches.

However, young love and a novel by Federico Moccia have turned it into a tourist attractive and a pilgrimage site. In 2006, this Italian writer, who enjoyed great popularity among the country’s youth, published a new book, ‘Ho voglia di te’ (‘I want you’). In it, a young couple place a padlock on one of the streetlights on the bridge and through the key into the river to make their love eternal. The same author confessed that the night before the publication of the book he put a padlock on the bridge with the initials of the protagonists, to give more realism to hist story.

The book became a sales hit, surpassing the million copies sold in Italy, and the young Romans began to emulate Step and Gin, the literary couple, placing padlocks non-stop on the streetlights of the bridge. The phenomenon began to extend itself quickly to other places, trespassing frontiers and, at present, padlocks invade bridges all over Europe. With the curious ritual arrive the problems, with an eternal controversy emerging among who want to ban it, because they consider it damage to the patrimony, and who want to allow it because they believe it’s a tourist catch. Specifically in Rome, one of the streetlights fell down in 2007 due to the weight of the padlocks. The authorities then decided to place metal columns with chains along the bridge so that the young ones could place their padlocks there, and carry on the tradition without damaging the environment.

What’s true is that the surroundings of the Ponte Melvio have benefited from this fashion and its popularity has increased. The area offers tourist attractions in itself which are worthy of a visit, whether or not you’re in love. The third Sunday of every month, they celebrate an antique market along the Via Lungotevere Capoprati, which goes from the Ponte Milvio to the Ponte Duca D’Aosta, ideal for collectors and to feel part of the authentic Italian lifestyle.

The neighbourhood is a mix of traditional and modern establishments which attract a diverse crowd, from teenagers to sophisticated 30-somethings, with a minority of tourists. At night, the streets fill up with musicians, jewelry stands, kebab sellers and, of course, padlocks! For a price between 2 and 5 euros, you can seal your love on the bridge.

Address:  Lungotevere Salvo D’Acquisto (south side) y Via Capoprati (north side)

How to get there: The Ponte Milvio is far from the centre, so I recommend that you check out the Rome public transport website http://www.atac.roma.it/ from where you can indicate your starting point and it will make it easier to plan your itinerary.

Elena Alvarez

Whether you’re a romantic or you like to enjoy places which aren’t yet invaded by tourists, you should undoubtedly book one of our apartments in Rome and get to know the Ponte Milvio.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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The 60s wouldn’t have been anything without Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan wouldn’t have been anything without the 60s. In the same way, large part of the music from back then and now, wouldn’t be anything without Bob Dylan. Dylan could have summarised in his songs one of the highest points of North American poetry. Of course, he wasn’t really a ‘poet’, he was a singer.

But if one sees ‘No direction home’ by Martin Scorsese, there’s a segment in it in which the Beatnik poet Allen Ginsberg reveals in front of the cameras that Dylan was the person who would continue what he, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snider and Amiri Baraka among many other poets, had been learning since the 50s. And so, Beatnik culture had reached its consummation and its glorification with Dylan, as well as the spreading of its ideology.

And looking at things closely, the hippies were nothing more than a massification of Beat culture: vegetarianism, meditation, yoga, marihuana, LSD, speed, sex, road trips, interest for Eastern cultures and Pre-Columbine cultures, ayahuasca, peyote and Mexico, the American border a few steps away, where reality was quite another and it was only a few hours on the road in an open top yellow Chevy. The ‘American Dream’ gained another face. Of course the Vietnam War, May 1968, Woodstock and all those cultural events were used as a perfect frame so that Dylan could execute with precision his combination of Beat poetry, cramped singing via Woodie Guthrie and, of course, the crushing influence of Leadbelly.

Bob Dylan was therefore a perfect construction of folk. At the exact moment he travelled to New York and made his debut in the famous Café Wah? where, today, of course, not many revolutions are cooking. However, Dylan’s cleverness, as well as his talent and his great capacity to synthesize folk spirit from Central USA, as well as blues, catapulted him into being one of the most important pop stars of the time. Dylan had the guts to tell John Lennon enough of ‘I wanna hold your hand’ and get serious. ‘Revolver’ and the rest of The Beatles’ discography is a legacy of that encounter.

Then came that famous time in which “he went electric”, leaving behind the accoustic guitar and the harmonica to produce such important albums as ‘Highway 61 Revisited’ among others, causing controversy as well amongst the ‘blindest’ folk fans and joy among so many rockers and blues fans. It’s true that in the 70s Dylan lost his way a bit, however his legacy maintains itself with the years and his influence doesn’t stop being essential for any new rock, folk or blues musician. Dylan will be on the 12th of November in Rome, at the Palalottomatica stadium, and you can’t miss it. For more information on Bob Dylan and his concert in Rome, ticket sales, as well as his European Tour for this month, visit the official Bob Dylan website here: http://www.bobdylan.com/

Alexa Ray

Nothing better than getting apartments in Rome and being part of this great event.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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Among all traditional musical genres, jazz is still the major source of inspiration and experimentation in the world. It was jazz, the one that influenced so many writers and artists, while inspiring them to produce experimental works that break with the formal barriers of different formats, used before. Thus, for example, the American Poetry Beat Generation, including Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, jazz used to create new improvisations in their texts, so their verses broke and conflicted, making the pace of their words new forms of intonation, meaning and poured into pages. If one carefully reads a novel like “On the Road” by Kerouac, you will notice that the rhythm is like a jazz piece to be choppy in its shakes and breathing mixture of writing. The jazz influence in arts continues in musical genres such as indie rock, metal and post rock, among others. Bands like Tortoise for example, have brought jazz to levels never heard before, bordering the minimal sound with percussion and keyboards that light up old, making the original experience of jazz, rhythm in essence, a walk through textures and new sound landscapes.

As you know, jazz arrived in Rome during the First World War, thanks to the American soldiers who brought this music to the Italian coast. After the war, jazz was very popular, and gradually made path for the Rome Jazz Festival. The Rome Jazz Festival is one of the largest jazz festivals in the world. This event brings together jazz musicians, composers and genre enthusiasts from Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States, and is presented in the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome. There is no better place to meet new people than a music festival in Europe. People are always open to meet new people, so you have the perfect excuse to link talking about music. That is, the beginning of the conversation is already guaranteed, the rest up to you.

In Rome you will also find a large number of tourism opportunities, ranging from the latest in contemporary art, classical sites and museums. Rome is generally seen as a city that opens its arms to just a few. The secrets to visit this beautiful city is of getting lost in its streets, squares and never stop moving around seeing everything that happens in it. The historical burden of a city usually tends to be overwhelming. For example walk through Berlin, always entails a return to the Berlin Wall and its former division, all that this generated, and its stories. Rome is similar but at other levels, and with a jazz background you cannot get carried away by the Rome’s autumn. For more information on this great Jazz Festival in Rome, visit the following website: http://www.romajazzfestival.it/

Alexa Ray

Get apartments in Rome and enjoy one of the best jazz festivals in the world. Highly recommended.

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Translated by: Hans
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“Rome” is one of Federico Fellini’s most experimental and enigmatic films. It came out for the first time in 1972, and has become known as a poetic, semi-autobiographical film, as it shows symbolically, the path which Fellini takes, from his birth village of Rimini, towards Rome when he was still very young. The film is structured around a series of episodes which appear to be totally disconnected from one another – which move about not according to the narration, but rather for the symbolism of each passing image.

These are images which stand out not for what they say, but their visual power, and their connotations to one another. There is no one single protagonist – apart from the city of Rome itself, and all of its many changing facets and faces throughout its history – the magic and poetic potential which resounds through the ancient city, which sometimes seems like the center of the world.

The structure of the film is a very fragmented writing, where the presence of each character is emblematic, and remains in the mind’s eye for a long time afterwards. Perhaps one of the most beautiful images is the one with the white horse walking through traffic, amongst all the cars which pass slowly in a traffic jam, all under a grey, dull sky. The horse gallops amongst the cars, as though trying to distinguish between the past and present, glory and decadence. In the same way, Fellini constantly draws contrasts between the life during the Fascist war in Italy, with his own counterpart in the 70s – thus demonstrating the radical change in culture. Some of the war scenes show neighbours meeting up in public spaces round the city – restaurants, refuges, performances, which is then contrasted with the hippie counter-culture. Perhaps also, one of the most symbolic scenes is the juxtaposition of groups of prostitutes in brothels, with a fictitious catwalk with a great spectacle of fashion, watched over by a religious audience.

This film is undoubtedly, a clear example of how poetic devices can be used in a film, whilst also functioning as a philosophical questioning of society, full of ambiguities, and succeeding in illustrating the great changes and social processes which a city so steeped in ancient history as Rome has undergone over the years. As with his other films, Fellini aims to capture the “Italian spirit” as he imagines it; voluptuous, exaggerated, full of flamboyant colour and volume, decadence, vulgarity, frivolity, beauty, glory, sensuality, sexuality, modernity and history. This film is definitely a piece which will charm the watcher time and time again – not only does it study the remains of the Roman cultures, but it gives a number of contemporary social portraits too – of communities, subcultures which are constantly changing and transforming within the same place. If you’re thinking of going to Rome, were already curious about the city, the Rome of Fellini cannot fail to capture your desires and intrigue for the Italian capital.

Alexa Ray

Find apartments in Rome and discover the place where Federico Fellini, genius of 20th century cinema, made one of the best pieces of film of all time.

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Translated by: Poppy
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Going to a sauna is definitely a highly erotic experience. You’ve just got to give the body what the body wants. There’s nothing quite like hanging out with your partner, or with a stranger for a long session of massages, in the sweltering heat, and a great atmosphere. Rome offers some of the best places in Europe for the gay community. Take the time to do a bit of research – and if your travel itinerary is not too hectic, allow yourself the pleasure of relaxation amongst the fresh aromas of all that eucalyptus vapour, in a city which is increasingly open to the LGBT community.

One of your options in Rome is the Apollion sauna. A huge space, it has been remodelled to modern standards of comfort and pleasure, and for 13 euros you get the chance to spend a more than satisfying time in one of modern Rome’s most popular places. Located in the city centre, only a few minutes from the Roman Coliseum, the sauna is an unmissable stop-of point for anybody seeking new sensations. Apollion has newly renovated steam rooms, aromatherapy, shiatzu massages, smoking rooms, hydro-massages, and video rooms where you can spend some sensual, relaxed time with your partner, as well as meet other couples also enjoying the romantic experience.

If a bit of modern luxury is what you are after, don’t miss out on a visit to the Europa Multiclub. The place is one of the most impressive buildings in Rome, if not the whole of Europe. There’s nothing quite like it for the international gay community; Europa Multiclub boasts vast swimming pools, and dark, relaxing corridors, and is the ultimate place for relaxation. There are also steam rooms lit up in different shapes and colours, Finnish saunas, hydro-massages perfect for couples; a gymnasium, and a cafe where you can enjoy a fresh drink or a cocktail. The sauna also hosts various different events, parties and surprise evenings which are sure to blow you away with their charm and quality.

And of course, not forgetting the Bears in this steamy journey of pleasure. If you are Bear or Bear Friendly, find out information about the Sauna Meditarraneo in Rome, a super bear-friendly space where you can meet plenty of other bears just like you, in search of relaxation, friendship and more. The Sauna Meditarraneo is full of colour, and atmospheric, low-lit steam rooms where you can sit back, and let all your troubles fade away, disconnecting from the chaos of the city. Turkish baths, relaxation rooms and above, an area called Laberynth, where can lose yourself amongst all the other bears. Magical.

Alexa Ray

Why not find apartments in Rome and take advantage of some of the relaxing things on offer in the Italian capital. You’ll be left thoroughly satisfied, and ready to carry on enjoying yourself. And the international LGBT community certainly knows how to enjoy itself – and in these kind of hang outs, you’ll find people from all over who just want to have a good time, make friends – and who knows, in amongst all the steam, vapour and water you might just meet the love of your life.

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Translated by: Poppy
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Vintage. Seeing old TV series is vintage. Putting worn clothes on is vintage. Going out in the street with your parent’s clothes is vintage. The retro look, old toys, retro-future, it’s all vintage. Star Wars is vintage. Transformers are vintage. Kurt Cobain’s suicide is vintage. History doesn’t pass in vain and is always looking to repeat itself. Despite it not repeating itself, all its characteristics are similar in the future that’s becoming the present. The changes in fashion, above all vintage, attract young people more and more who are tired of poor cultural ways, the worn-down internet, of propaganda, of adverts… It seems like it had, in everything vintage, more depth, more romance.

So from where does this great interest for everything old, from what happened, from what is no more and however it still is come from? The answers are multiple. When we’re interested in something old, be it historical, in this case coming from pop culture, there’s a great nostalgia in between, the anxieties of wanting to commemorate something that was, maintaining nostalgia alive. And it’s how the saying goes: “past times were best”. But with vintage, past becomes present again, it succumbs to fetichism, mannerism and re-use. That way, now we enjoy punk, disco, hippie, goth, pin-up girls, garage and psychedelic cultures again, all artifacts of the past that never wear off or that people strive to reinvent and revalue.

And it’s true, possibly all trend feeds off the past. From garage rock to underground film, 80s fashions and that song you danced to the other day in a party that was so old you weren’t even born when it came out, or even a simple thought, and despite that you know the lyrics better than any of the hits on the radio today. To have a vintage style, as well, you have to know how to wear it and seduce, become part of the past that one wants to dress like and from which so many references in conversations come from, and the way in that everything combines to be fresh and modern. Nobody will tell you that that old stuff from your dad is rubbish if you know how to use it.

Like everything that touches us, vintage becomes a product of consumerism, of everything that needs to be digested to carry on being cool. Is the present so pathetic that we have to resort to the charms of the past? Something that never was and that will carry on never being. That’s how the relic becomes a part of a new fiction of today. The modern gestures disappear in a hybrid identity, like the machines that give meaning to these dark times. For more information on Roma Vintage visit this website. Music, culture, sport and good food until August 15th: http://www.romavintage.it/

Alexa Ray

Rent apartments in Rome and be part of vintage culture, that absorbs everything, which is ready to transform you into a pure nostalgic.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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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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Television seems to have lost a bit of its edge during the last few decades. Options on cable TV are far reaching, without particularly improving upon the current level of quality. In other words, more channels, less quality. And with that in mind, television continues to be an open window for publicity, political manipulation, and the worst side of the media. So internet continues to become the more diverse alternative to television – and even possibly the most democratic. With platforms like Youtube, and Vimeo amongst others, we can all be TV producers.

With so much video production spreading through the networks we can see how the different fictions we are fed have the power to indoctrinate. Which is to say that the television of forty years ago is not the same as today, and within that, neither are the levels of fiction then and now. To be more specific; when we speak of “fiction” we also mean verisimilitude, or the truth. The truth is a construction – it doesn’t exist, and is an invention moulded to the the aims of the creators of, in this case, television. In this sense, the real, or reality, or truth – or that which was not true remains like a dream, in limbo, where the medias construct something for us to believe in as the truth – something credible.

The fiction series in general, in spite of telling tales of love, sex, affairs, action, violence, horror and other genres of entertainment, are in the same way an open page on which to understand the political processes, and the consequences which mould the reality of the states and societies. For example, in the space age series of the 1950s, we find a fear of an alien race, of the invader – that which comes from the “other side” – a direct reflection of the political climate of the Cold War, and the terror of the nuclear bomb. Nowadays, other the hand, we have rubbish like “reality tv,” presenting various different artists, circumstances, and characters in situations in which the private space of the individual is invaded in order to create a ridiculous fictionalised life. All this and more is on the agenda at the Rome Fiction Fest 2011, the biggest festival in the world dedicated to the TV series, and TV films, miniseries, docu-fictions, and comedies, to name a few. And it’s not just geared towards the public, but the international TV market too. For more information and programme updates, visit this website http://www.romafictionfest.it/

SISTER RAY

To know more about this festival, and join in with the gala, events and projections, why not find apartments in Rome and enter the world of television.

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Translated by: Poppy
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