Rome, Tourism, Accomodations Blog – Roma Turismo

Xmas in Rome

Christmas time is coming and Rome is preparing to welcome the Holidays with lights, decorations and events.

Like every year, the markets of the Roman tradition will be the most important attraction of the Holidays. In particular the Christmas market of Piazza Navona will delight adults and children during the month of December, until after Epiphany. The numerous stands that will be among the ancient buildings and the wonderful Bernini’s fountain, the lights and the parfumes will give a unique athmosphere to the famous square.

But also in other places you will find traditional events, such as concerts and exhibitions of cribs in via dei Coronari, in via dell’Orso and in Sant’Eustachio area. Walking in the city centre you could also meet minstrels and fictional characters.

Even Piazza Re di Roma has been honoring this tradition for some years with stands full of sweets, decorations and crafts, in a setting reminiscent of the Advent markets of northen Europe (in fact this square is twinned with the ones of Heidelberg.

The conditions are excellent for nice walks in the heart of the Eternal City, at the sound of pipers and the possibility to warm holding in your hands a bag of roasted chestnuts, drinking a cup of hot chocolate or a glass of mulled wine.

Roman summer: all the links with the info

Colosseum, Saint Peter’s dome, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, many piazzas; Rome is full of fantastic and historical places to visit during the day, for sure your “must to see things” is completely full, but don’t forget about the roman nights. The eternal city has a vivid life,  specially during summer with concerts, open cinema, bars along the river Tiber, markets, ecc.

Here is a list with the most important festivals where you can find details about it:

“July sounds good”:category: music
Until 31st July
http://www.auditorium.com/lugliosuonabene/

“Rome encounters the world” Category: music
Until 28th July
http://www.villaada.org/

San Lorenzo festival. Category: Music  ***Free concerts
Until August 10th
www.sanlorenzoestate.it

Rock in Roma Category: Music  
Until August 2nd
http://www.rockinroma.com/

Opera in Rome. Category: Opera
Until August 8th
http://www.operaroma.it/stagione/terme_di_caracalla

Roma Vintage. Category: Music, dance, sports, theather, restaurants, cinema.***Free entry
Until August 15th
http://www.romavintage.it/it/index.php

PAULINA CEBALLOS

Open-air Cinema free in Rome! OVS movies

For those who love cinema, this summer offers the excellent opportunity to enjoy some of the most unforgettable movies for free and in their open-air cinema. If you go for a walk to Villa Borghese in the afternoon, then you can easily take a break and head to the Casa del Cinema, where you can also fancy a drink in the garden. The movies are all displayed in the original language with italian subtitles. The Casa del Cinema in Rome has planed a different theme for each day of the week:

• Monday: Shakespeare which such movies as: A midsummer night’s sex comedy of Woody Allen and Giulio Cesare with Marlon Brando.
• Tuesday: Ciao Maschio: italian movies featuring the new generation of actors
• Wednesday: Tribute to the italian director Michelangelo Antonioni
• Thursday: Films with leading ladies, evening dedicated to the women: Yentle with Barbra Streitsand, Victor Victoria with Julie Andrews, Boy’s don’t cry with Hillary Swank
• Friday: Dance movies like: Billy Elliot, Top Hat with Fred Astaire, Tango of Carlos Saura.
• Saturday: closed.
• Sunday: Universal Pictures and Paramount films: The legendary Hollywood Sunset Boulevard with Gloria Swanson, The war of the worlds of Orson Welles, We’re not angels with Humprey Bogart.

To see the full program: http://www.casadelcinema.it/?event=9-settimane-e-mezzo-estate-alla-casa-del-cinema

When: From the 3rd of july until the 29th of august. The showings usually start at 21:00 or 21:30.

Where: Casa del Cinema, Largo Marcello Mastroianni, 1, entrance at Piazzale del Brasile

How to arrive: BUS 490 – 491 – 495 – C3 – 88 – 95 – 116

METRO Linea A:  Barberini (closest), Spain, Flaminio

PAULINA CEBALLOS

Summer concerts in Rome: Villa Ada

Like every year the summer brings not only the nice weather, gelatto and many flowers in Rome; it’s also usually accompanied by many fun activities including concerts, exhibitions, open cinema, etc.

One of the most successful festivals is “Roma encounters the world” (Roma incontra la mondo), hosted in the island of the lake in Villa Ada for the nineteenth time.

The place has also 4 food stations with self service, italian and international dishes, pizza, kebab, snacks, desserts. If you are in the mood for a drink there is also a bar. This area opens from 20:00 hrs, while the concerts start at 22:00.

Performers come from all over Italy, Europe, Latinomerica and the United States. The variety of the music styles suits all tastes: reggae from Jamaica, british indie rock, Joan as a Police woman from USA,  flamenco guitar players, serbian balcanic folk group, Ben l’oncle soul from France, italian rock bands, brazilian singers, etc.

To see the full program click this link: http://www.villaada.org/

How to arrive: Metro B1 Conca d’Oro

When: until july 28th.

Infoline: 0641734712, 0641734648 , 3472481011, 3389214142

Prices:
– Season ticket for 5 concerts: €20
Individual tickets cost from €11 to €28 depending on the concert and can be purchased in the box ticket before the concert in Via di Ponte Salario from 20:00.

Presale:

www.ticket.it

www.greenticket.it

www.ticketone.it

Paulina Ceballos

Rainbow MagicLand

Rainbow MagicLand  is the new attractions park situated just outside Rome. The park covers an area of ​​600,000 square meters and can compete with the major Italian amusement parks.
The park has been thought for all the family and its main theme is magic: it will be like being in a fairyland, among the fairy castles in the park you will meet fearsome Vikings, magical fairies, powerful wizards and the bravest adventurers.
Rainbow MagicLand offers more than 30 attractions for all tastes (partly powered with solar panels) Mystika, Shock and Cagliostro are only for the bravest while water games are dedicated to everyone. The amusement park is divided into several areas, each inspired to the characters of the Rainbow Group like: Winx fairies, Monster Allergy, adventurer Huntik and Pop Pixie.
Rainbow MagicLand is part of the Integrated Tourist Centre of Rome, along with the Fashion District Outlet.

Tickets: Season 2012

Full price: 35 €
Reduced ticket: 28 € (children between 100 and 150cm)
Evening ticket (after 18): 20 €
Free ticket: Children under one meter height

Times and openings: Rainbow MagicLand open March 31.
Open weekends from April to October.
Open from April 21 to September 16 from 10:00 – 18:00 (10:00 to 23:00 during July and August.)

Getting there:

BY CAR: Motorway A1 Roma-Napoli: Coming from the north exit at Valmontone; Coming from the south exit at Colleferro. Follow the signs to: Valmontone Fashion District Outlet – Rainbow MagicLand amusement park. The park has a parking fee.

Where was Audrey Hepburn in Rome?

The actress Audrey Hepburn, famous for her beauty, elegance and naturalness, was the main protagonist of the movie Roman Holiday, filmed in 1953. Actually this was the role for which she would have been recognized worldwide and thanks to it she won an Oscar. The movie meant a revolution for what concerns locations at that time, because the director didn’t want to reproduce the city and prefered Rome itself to shoot, making the city the third leading character on the film.

The movie is about a young princess (from an unknown country), happy but at the same time she felt oppressed by her full agenda and the court, tired of her many responsabilities she decides during her visit in Rome, to escape one night and see the city in disguise as a normal girl, then she meets an american journalist (Gregory Peck) who proposes to be her guide.
This romantic comedy immortalized both actors in the typical roman piazzas, as a matter of fact nowadays in the streets of Rome you can see in the stands, many postcards, posters and calendars with those scenes.
If you are visiting Rome and you want to discover where Audrey Hepburn was, its not that hard because is almost all in the center:

• Cafe Rocca: in Via della Rotonda, at th corner of the piazza with the same name, currently is a fashion shop.
• Castel Sant’ Angelo: in front of this beautiful castle the princess goes dancing with the barber.
• Fontana di Trevi
•  Piazza Venezia.
• Piazza di Spagna: where Joe sees again the princess while she is eating an gelato.
• Colosseum
• Joey Bradley’s apartment in Via Margutta 51, the entrance to the small courtyard is a few doors ahead in Vicolo dell’Orto di Napoli.
• Via dei Fori Imperiali: where Gregory Peck finds Audrey sleeping.

Barber: Via della Stamperia 85, nowadays is a leather shop.
Bocca della verità: Santa Maria in Cosmedin, probably the most funny scene was filmed here, Gregory Peck hides his hand inside his sleeve and put his arm inside the mouth stone, the fright that Audrey shows was real, because she didn’t know what the actor would do, that prank was not planned, nevertheless it was so natural that the director decided to include it.The legend says that whoever doubted of the couples’s faithfulness, could take him or her there, if the person was unfaithful he/she would loose the hand.

• Palazzo Colonna: Press conference, Via della Pilotta, 17 . Open only saturdays 9:00-13:15, it’s a private palace of an aristocratic family, it’s construction began on the XVI century and ended five centuries later.
• Palazzo Barberini: Princess Embassy’s exterior. Via delle Quattro Fontane, 13.
• Palazzo Brancaccio: the interiors of the Embassy were filmed inside here. Viale del Monte Oppio 7. This is the last aristocratic palace built in Rome in 1880. The gardens and the balcony from where the princess sees with sadness the people dancing, both are still there. Booking mandatory for visitors. (+39064873177)
• Castra Pretoria: The Wall of the wishes, though the plates are no longer there, the wall it is in Viale del Policlinico, between Piazza Girolamo Fabrizio and Via Castro Pretorio.

Visualizza Audrey Hepburn en Roma in una mappa di dimensioni maggiori

We hope that Audrey Hepburn’s fans will enjoy this tour and have a fantastic roman holiday!
Paulina Ceballos

IN THE VICTOR EMMANUEL MONUMENT: AN EXHIBIT OF IMPRESSIONISM

“FROM COROT TO MONET: THE SYMPHONY OF NATURE”

This prestigious exhibit is open until June 29, 2010 inside the Victor Emmanuel Monument.

It’s a trip through the extraordinary innovations of the XIXth century that revolutionized  traditional painting.  These new techniques modernized painting, resulting in Impressionist painting that displays an expanded, broader understanding of nature and the culture of the times.

For the first time in Italy, you will see vintage photos, paintings and drafts from the beginnings of Impressionism of the Barbizon School of to the chromatic triumph of the Water Lilies by Claude Monet.  You will explore the colorful revolution of the Impressionists, admiring the atmospheres of Frédéric Bazille and Alfred Sisley, Gustave Courbet’s Poppy Field, paintings by Auguste Renoir and Camille Pissarro including his Pontoise landscape.

Organized by major art historians from throughout the world, the works come from galleries and private collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Public Library of New York, the National Gallery of Art and Corcoran Museum of Art of Washington, Toledo Museum of Art, Kimbell Art Museum, Musée Fabre of Montpellier, Bibliotèque Nationale de France of Paris and the Hamburger Kunstalle.

Address: Complesso del Vittoriano

Via S.Pietro in carcere (Imperial Forums)

From Monday to Thursday: 9.30AM-7.30PM

Friday and saturday:           9.30AM-11.30PM

Sunday:                               9.30AM-8.30PM

Cost of the ticket: EU 10,00

INFO: 06/6780664 – 06/6780363

Lorenza Faraone

Roman Guide Center

POPE JOAN

This is one of the most famous medioeval legends: Joan is a young English woman, educated at Magonza. Because of her love for theology, she decides to dress-up like a monk and thanks to her great culture, once i Rome, rising through the Church hierarchy, she is chosen as Pope. She took the name of John VIII and reigned between 855 and 857.
Joan became pregnant by one of her lovers. While in Easter procession between Saint Peterʼs and Saint Joan the Lateranʼs Basilicas, meanwhile the crowd was growing its pressure, her horse got scared, frisked and she fell off. People watched in horror and astonishment when she gave birth to a child, revealing her female nature. The angry mob tied her feet at her same horse and dragged her to Ripa Grande. There she was stoned to death together with her baby.
it is a harsh story which takes us back to the darkest centuries of Rome. According to some scholars this legend, this is what it is, could have born as a “satire” against papacy and a ferocious criticism of some female personages as the corrupt noble ladies Teodora and her daughter Marozia, who during the 10th Century were at the same time lovers, mothers and killers of several popes.
The story of “popess Joan” gave rise to the following odd legend: since then, to avoid a repeat of such a shaming event, as soon as elected, popes had to sit on one of the thrones, with a potty-style hole in the seat, while an examining cleric felt under it to check his sex. Though, one of these two thrones, the so-called “sedes curules or prophyreticae”, according to recent studies, was actually established to be a thermal de-luxe water-closet, dating back the time of Emperor Hadrian.
The result is a complicated plot we better leave to historians. Lovers of Rome can satisfie their curiosity in Via dei querceti, by looking up at the niche on the wall with a Vergin Mary with child, which was built up on the same spot where our heroine is said to have given birth to her child.

Friday 17 – Standing for Abruzzo

Friday 17, not always bad!The April 17^th has been the day os solidarity for the earthquake’s victims of Abruzzo, with the voices of singers from “Sanremo Giovani”, who went on stage goes all’Alpheus in Rome, in Via del Commercio is planning the “Standing for Abruzzo, with the heart and the music.” The event, sponsored by the MUnicipality of Rome, is organized by VERTICAL Onlus (Italian Foundation for the cure of paralysis), FIDIA Onlus (Italian Federation of Disability) in collaboration with FIABA Onlus (Italian Fund Elimination of Architectural Barriers) and ANTHAI Onlus (Association Protecting and Italian Handicap Invalids).Over the intent of the organizers, an opportunity to offer full support and assist the people affected by the earthquake in the night between 5 and April 6.
Through a contribution of 12 euro has been assured, in addition to participation in the concert music, including the ability to receive a free double DVD Speaking of the Bible, Old and New Testaments.To enliven the evening, by Angelo Martini, were the youngs of Sanremo Giovani: Mauro Di Maggio, Francesco Arpino, Chiazzetta, Dr. Fra, Marco Candigliota, Mary Patrick, Luke Bussoleti, G & G, Michele Amadori, Virginia Splendore.The world of music always comes down to testify in his own closeness to those who no longer has a house, who has lost everything he had, who saw their lives shattered in an instant.

Save money at Roma’s Outlets

What is the best way to save the money?
Outlets! It seems given the rising number of customers who go there, to find the best price.
Here there are discounts during the whole year and outlets could be a good alternative to shopping centers, although a bit far from home.

Usually the bigger outlets grows outside the city walls, but since the period of economic crisis, people prefer to travel by car over the road and focus on actual savings.
Thsi shopping places offer garments, footwear and accessories discounted at 30-40% and during the end of season sales you can easily reach 70% or more.This trend comes at great discount directly from English countries.The Web plays an important role in the hunt for discounted product and this time the trend comes from France, where for years there are sites that recover the practice of selling post.Near Rome there are two wide outlet, where the search of the discount and the head at the price of the occasion is something easily available.
Specifically these are Valmontone and Castel Romano.

There is no choice, you can find great brands from Dolce and Gabbana to Pinko, from Diesel to Eredi Pisano, in short, these vast open spaces don’t allows you to escape without even having made a purchase.Some significant data may help to understand the reality of this great area:
Valmontone, opened in 2003, is composed of over 300 stores in an area of 100,000 mqs involving other 200 companies of fashion and even the furniture, the bedding and accessories for the kitchen.

Castel Romano consists of only 110 stores of exclusives brands including Valentino. Built with an architectural style reminiscent of imperial Rome, Castel Romano Designer Outlet is located only 25 km from the center of Rome. 25,000 square feet of pure shopping.
A large free parking with over 2,000 parking spaces, bars, restaurants, ATMs, a great playing area for children.
A true temple of shopping in the Pontine heart.
Not far from the Tyrrhenian coast, during the summer is pleasant destination for a day of sun and sea.
A location easily accessible by even an hour from the other provinces of Lazio.

This relaxing oasis of shopping can satisfy every need, making it easier to purchase.

So enjoy it!