San Peter’s Basilica, the center of Christianity
Posted on 5 March 2010 | Comments Off
A visit in Rome cannot be completed without visiting the center of Christianity, San Peter’s Basilica. This Basilica is the world’s largest and it’s really considered as the center of Christianity; for this reason many tourists choose to visit it every year. One of the main monuments in Rome is certainly San Peter’s Basilica, for what it represents and for being the largest in the world, just think that its 15,000 sqmt large. When in Rome you must not miss a visit to this Basilica. You will need a lot of time an much patience but you’ll be rewarded. Inside this majestic Church you can admire famous artists’ paintings and arworks which contribute to make this Basilica one of the most admired in the world. Just to quote some of them, you may see the world famous Michelangelo’s “Pietà” or Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s “Baldacchino in Bronza” and the famous “Cupolone” which stands out from Rome’s rooftops. After visiting it inside you cannot miss a visit to the Cripta Vaticana, where there are the rests of many Popes. Many altars are great artists’ from the past artworks. Many of the ancient Basilica’s rests, before the restructuring works, are kept here.
The Vatican Museums, a collection of priceless artworks
Posted on 4 March 2010 | Comments Off
One of the biggest and most visited museums in the world, with a great number of artworks, this is the Vatican Museum, opened everyday to many visitors. In one of our previous post we suggested you to visit the famous San Peter’s basilica, heart of the Christianity and place not to miss when in Rome. Located in Vatican City in the heart of Rome, there is another place you must not ignore, we are talking about one of the most visited museums in the whole world thanks to its immense collection of culture, the Vatican Museums.
A visit to the Vatican Museums includes a passage through the Candelabra Gallery, the Tapestries Gallery, the Geographical Maps Gallery and the hall of the Immaculate Conception. The visit passes then through Raffaello’s rooms, painted from the artist in a period between 1508 and 1520. This is not all, obviously, as we left as last the most important passages during a visit to the Vatican Museums: the Sistine Chapel, where the Conclave takes place and where you can admire the splendid paintings of Michelangelo’s Genesis and the Universal Judgment. The Sistine Chapel is the most famous part of this museum and it is known all over the world. This big treasure, Vatican’s pride, was completed between 1475 and 1483, when Pope Sisto IV asked Michelangelo Buonarroti to paint with his wonderful creations the new-born chapel.
The Vatican Museums are open from Monday to Saturday. The gates open at 9 am and close at 4 pm where the last guests can enter and will have time to visit it all until 6pm. The ticket costs €15.00. The reduced ticket is around € 8.00. There is also a school reduction of € 4.00.
A German Museum in Rome: Goethe’s house
Posted on 3 March 2010 | Comments Off
Goethe’s house is a magnificent German museum located in the heart of Rome and which follows the stages made by this great Teutonic artist in Italy.
Rome is not just ancient monuments remembering the glorious imperial past, or churches testifying the Pope’s influence in this city and in great part of Italy. This Eternal city has to tell many other stories of great artists who passed by. In Via del Corso, near Piazza del Popolo there is a very particular museum dedicated to a German author who lived in Rome for some years, Goethe’s house. The great Johann Wolfgan Goethe lived in Rome during his famous Italian trip in a period between 1786 and 1788 and exactly in the rooms where he stayed together with other artists there is the German museum. A museum derived from the house where he lived and inside it there are collections of Goethe’s evidences with particular attention to his trip in Rome. In Goethe’s house, besides this permanent exhibition, there are temporary events regarding Italian – German themes and always centered on the trip’s topic, just to be always connected to the permanent museum. In the library and in the reading rooms sometimes there are cultural events, all connected to the topics we already talked about. Goethe’s house is open everyday (except on Monday) from 10 to 18. The entrance ticket is € 4,00 with reduction to € 3,00 for students with regular documentation and over 65.
Caffè Letterario
Posted on 1 March 2010 | Comments Off
“Caffè Letterario”, a unique place to spend a different night out in Rome.
Caffè Letterario is a really unique place in a particular context which is able to give you a different and original nights instead of spending the night out in a pub.
In one of the “richest” areas regarding the roman Night-life, there is a really particular place which can be appreciated both by the romans and by the tourists looking for a nice place to spend some hours. This place rises in the Ostiense area which is known for its intense night-life and where it is easy to find simple pubs, disco pubs or night clubs open until the morning light. Together with all these places, in the area of the ex general market, rises a really unique place called “Caffè Letterario”. This place rises where there was the slaughter house of an ancient market which will become an area dedicated to the arts “Città delle Arti” with all different places but all dedicated to join entertainment, culture and gastronomy in the heart of this neighborhood. “Caffè Letterario” is the union between a library and a normal caffè in an unique intercultural space made to relax and get its client comfortable. This kind of place is very known in the Anglo- Saxon Countries and obviously it perfectly joins the typical athmosphere of a bar where to drink with a place to make intense intercultural exchanges. Not an easy place to find in Italy and for this, unique in its style. This Caffè Letterario has a bar area, where you can have drinks and food, and a library area where you can buy books. There are also reading areas where you can have a look at the books exposed in mini libraries.
Rome and its shopping streets
Posted on 25 February 2010 | 2 responses
Monuments, history and culture, Rome is this and much more, the eternal city is very well known for its shopping streets, famous all over the world, let’s have a look at them! Between the monuments going around Rome trying to discover this incredible city’s history, we have to mention the big shopping streets. Rome as well as many other big Italian cities has big shopping streets with the most famous Italian and International fashion names exposing there. Shopping streets are going between Piazza di Spagna and Via del Corso. Mainly Via del Corso is full of boutiques and shops of any kind and taking direction to Piazza di Spagna there is the most famous Via Condotti, where the most prestigious and well- known fashion designers opened their boutiques creating one of the most elegant streets in the world. For this reason, even if you’ll be full of itineraries and visits, don’t miss a walk on these streets where you will see many people going around for shopping. In Via del Corso just in front of Piazza Colonna there is a new gallery recently opened which is called Galleria Alberto Sordi, dedicated to the famous actor. This perfect recreation of the end of ‘800 is open during the whole day and it offers many elegant shops, not only fashion. Rome can offer you touristic itineraries for any kind of taste and after an intense day of history and culture, having a walk between the busy shopping streets is not a bad idea!
Rome’s ARA PACIS
Posted on 23 February 2010 | Comments Off
Rome: the “Ara Pacis”
Rome is rich of monuments and today we would like to talk about Ara Pacis which has just come back to receive visits after a total refurbishment and the construction of a museum which is now hosting it.
In the marvellous and suggestive “lungotevere” stands a very symbolic monument for Imperial Rome’s History: Ara Pacis Augustea. This site which has been recently totally refurbished is now available for visitors who want to admire it in its perfect conditions thanks to a reconstruction elaborated with historical testimonials. Ara Pacis was first built in 9 a.c. to glorify Peace Age under Augustus – Pax Augustea. This site rises in a very meaningful place as it is at exactly 1 mile far from Pomerium, which is where the ancient consuls coming back from their wars were going to lose their military powers given from the state of emergency and take their civil powers back again. This unique cubic construction, this real altar, has an elevate symbolic meaning which is magnified by the decoration that are composing it. Between the Corinthian columns Ara Pacis offers to the tourist decoration representing, just to give you an example, the “Sacrificio di Enea ai Penati” and the splendid “Personalizzazione di Roma”. The museum built around Ara Pacis during the reconstruction offers to the tourists the visit to the monument and also it guides to the history of this monument and its meaning, all accompained by events and exhibitions connected to the history and the symbol of Ara Pacis. The museum is where Ara Pacis rises, on the Lungotevere at the corner with Via Tomacelli and is open to tourists everyday (excluding mondays) from 09:00 am, to 07:00 pm. We suggest you to visit the museum’s website as it is always updated on all the information regarding events or exhibitions.
Short Itinerary through Rome’s history
Posted on 22 February 2010 | 2 responses
In the past, Rome was capital of an important republic and a great Empire. Today there are still vestiges of Conquering Rome, and for this reason we decided to show you an itinerary to find Rome’s historical traces. A good stay in Rome cannot miss a well organized visit around those places which made this city so eternal. Throughout the whole city you may find rests of a majestic past which sometimes are missed from the tourists due to the hurry or to the bad organization. This historical itinerary will guide you through the vestiges of Ancient Rome. An itinerary like this needs not more than 3 days to be completed and goes through important places which are testifying this city’s legendary past. To start you must visit Colle Palatino, the place where the “legend” began, from where Romolo, first King of Rome, was commanding the first nucleus of what will be the capital of an Empire. After this first historical taste, the visit must proceed by going to Fori Imperiali and Colosseo. The “Fori” were the real political and commercial city center because Rome’s future was decided over there. Nowadays they are very well preserved between the two Archi di Trionfo, Settimio Severo and Tito’s one. Near Fori there is Anfiteatro Flavio, or most known as the Colosseo, the place where Romans attended cruel games created by the Emperors. We suggest a visit to Basilica Emilia, you can see some paintings of the famous “Ratto delle Sabine”. As you might know, Romans were masters in creating aqueducts and were very interested in personal health and body treatments. For this reason we suggest you to visit “Terme di Caracalla” as a last visit. These “spa” were built around 217 and were considered as a real beauty farm where the rich citizens could go searching for some relax.
The four Basilicas in Rome
Posted on 19 February 2010 | Comments Off
Rome: The Four Basilicas
One of the most suggestive historical itineraries in Rome is connected to its past under the Vatican’s domain, still visible nowadays thanks to it churches and basilicas spread throughout the whole city. The visit of the four Rome’s most famous basilicas is very important both on the historical and architectural point of view. Rome is related to the Catholic Church and Vatican which still plays a very important role in the very heart of the city. This historical connection is visible in the whole city, being it full of churches and basilicas, some of them very antiques, which testify that at least until the “Breccia di Porta Pia” Rome was under the command of the Pooe. But the real gunfires which gave Italy its capital arrived only in the second half of ‘800. Before that period, Rome was belonging to the Vatican and still today, a visit in Rome must include some of the numerous testimonials of the “papal” past of this city. Today we can propose you an historical itinerary which origin goes back to medieval times. It was 1300 when Pope Bonifacio VIII promised indulgence for all the Christian pilgrimages during the Jubilee Year, every 100 years. The pilgrimage was passing from a visit to the four major Basilicas in the city. This visit was granting the indulgence and therefore, nowadays the visit of these four Basilicas is still one of the most followed tourist activities. The first of these four Basilicas is the majestic San Giovanni in Laterano, where passing from the “Holy Steps “ (Scala Santa) you’ll arrive in the “Sancta Sanctorum” where some of the most important relics of the catholic religion are preserved. The second one is the ancient Santa Maria Maggiore, built in 352 in a site considered as miraculous thanks to the apparition of the Virgin. The third one is the most known San Pietro, famous all over the world and the last one is San Paolo Fuori le Mura, built in 324 and completely renewed in 1854 after a fire almost destroyed it all. Nowadays not everyone can appreciate like in old times these four Basilicas, however, depriving it from its religious content, it’s still an incredible visit both on the architectural and historical point of view, especially regarding San Pietro.
Hotels Rates in Rome
Posted on 18 February 2010 | Comments Off
As we already saw, finding a hotel in Rome is very important but after talking about the position of the hotel we must spend some words for the all the rate types that hotels in Rome are using.
After writing about the hotel position when planning a trip in Rome, we would like to have a look at hotels rates. All the following rate types are quite common in all the big cities hotels but we will focus on the hotels in Rome which are constantly using various rate types and we think that spending some word on this might be useful for you to choose the right hotel.
The first ones are the “temporary offers” like Last Minute Discounts, where you will get a discount only if your booking is made until 24 hours before the arrival date or Early Booking Discounts, which are exactly the opposite, i.e. you get a discount only if you book with many days in advance.
The discounts on the nights are very much appreciated, for example, if you stay some nights you will get one free (3×2 or 4×3) . Similar to this one is the discount you have if you stay for a determined number of nights, without having the night free but with a big discount.
You may also find the season discount, even if Rome hasn’t a low season thanks to its climate which allows the tourists to visit it all year. However in the coldest or hottest months you may find some discounts. Very well known are the “special packages”, if you book a hotel you may also find special discounts or free entrances on museums or monuments etc. Last but not least, the not refundable rates, those rates with a huge discount but with many restrictions. These rates are not refundable, you cannot modify your booking nor cancel it. It is obvious that the hotels may apply one or more of these rate types so it’s important to always have a look at all the offers to find the best and suitable one for you.
The choice of a good hotel location in Rome
Posted on 17 February 2010 | Comments Off
Rome isn’t like all the other big cities, and choosing a good located hotel is something very important to be able to visit all monuments. The underground line is very poor as the subsoil in Rome is full of archaeological finds, so if you find a hotel located outside the center it might take you a long way in the traffic and lose the possibility to visit the monuments which are worth a visit.
Rome hides many touristic itineraries or archaeolo
gical sites which a tourist can’t miss but it is also a very big city where a tourist need to find a good located hotel in order to visit it all or at least to be able to visit the main sites. We can suggest you some advices to find a good located hotel in order for you to see and admire this city in every way. We think that the best location is in the city center and specially Trevi Area. This area is very well connected and being in the center, you can easily visit the heart of Rome, with its monuments, either by walk or renting a bike. From the hotels in this area, you can easily reach Piazza Navona, Città del Vaticano, Pantheon and the famous Fontana di Trevi. If you would like to use the public transports, underground or bus, you can visit other famous sites such as Colosseo and Circo Massimo. All these hotels are easily reachable for guests coming by train or by plane. We suggest you not to reach Trevi Area with you private car or else, you may park it and take it only at your departure day. If you won’t find any accommodations in Trevi Area or in a central area, we suggest you to find a hotel near to a metro station as the busses or trams (specially in peripheric areas) are sometimes very slow due to the traffic and may ruin your stay in this Eternal City.