Rome by night: Trastevere area

The area of Trastevere is ideal for a walk through narrow streets, squares and colours that still maintain an authentically Roman character and offers a pleasant contrast with the solemn splendour seen at the Vatican. In antiquity Trastevere – “beyond the Tiber” – was the first district established on the right bank of the Tiber and was inhabited by artisans, fishermen, merchants and communities of foreigners, connected with the activities of the nearby port. Trastevere was also famous for its magnificent villas and vast gardens, the most important of which belonged to Julius Caesar who may have hosted Cleopatra there and left them in his will to the people of Rome. In the Middle Ages the neighbourhood acquired the aspect it still preserves today in its narrow alleys and small squares that often defy any idea of a rational overall urban design, and give the impression of having adapted to preexisting structures. Sites that should not be missed include the ancient Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, with the 13th century mosaics by Pietro Cavallini, and of Santa Cecilia, with the touching statue of Cecilia herself, patron saint of music, by Stefano Maderno. To find the magnificence of the Renaissance even in Trastevere, the ideal place is the Farnesina, the suburban villa of wealthy banker Agostino Chigi, containing frescoes by Raphael, Baldassarre Peruzzi and Sebastiano del Piombo.

Trastevere offers a great variety of restaurants and bars for a fun evening.

Amarcord - bed and breakfast Rome

Ostia Antica: archaeological site

The archaeological site of Ostia Antica offers a unique opportunity to complete the image of the ancient city by exploring the aspect of daily life, otherwise difficult to identify among the great public monuments of capital.

Founded around the 4th century BC as a military base between the mouth of the Tiber and the coast, Ostia soon became the commercial port of ancient Rome and for this reason was tightly connected to its history. The goods destined to the support of the capital, but also to its urban development and entertainment industry, came through here. Grain, oil, wine, precious marble, animals for the circus, arrived here from all over the Mediterranean, and were often transferred onto smaller boats that went up the river hauled by oxen on the river banks, up to the port in Rome.

It is easy to imagine Ostia as a thriving town of 60,000 people as we walk through the rather well preserved remains of the forum, the baths, temples, and residential neighbourhoods that must have housed many foreigners as well. Among the sites that deserve to be seen, are the ancient theatre, still in use today, and the Square of the Guilds, a structure consisting of 60 representative offices of the different associations of artisans and merchants who worked here. The existence of Ostia was not interrupted suddenly as occurred in Pompeii; its decline coincided with that of Rome but was made worse by the gradual silting up of the port and by floods that changed the course of the Tiber, favouring the spreading of malaria. Ostia was never inhabited again in a significant manner after that, and this allows us to follow the various phases in the evolution of an ancient city without the adding of structures from later times.

The visit is made especially pleasant by the extraordinary natural context, a fundamental element in the perception of the romantic charm of ruins that was highly appreciated by 19th century travellers. Even here Nature seems to almost regain possession of the space taken up by the work of man, creating a landscape that communicates a strong sense of the ineluctable passing of time.Ostia Antica can be reached easily by the train to Ostia Lido that departs from Porta San Paolo (Ostia Antica stop).

Amarcord - bed and breakfast Rome

Bed and Breakfast in Florence

If you are looking for an accommodation in Florence which is similar to ours , take info consideration "A FlorenceView". This well managed Florence bed and breakfast has an extraordinary location: Florence Dome Square. Three of the five rooms of this accommodation are facing the square, and the guests have a fantastic view overlooking the Dome and the Baptistery.

The rooms have all a nice decor and they are very charmingly furnished. All the rooms are equipped with air-conditioning, en-suite bathroom and satellite TV.

Even if slightly more expensive than Amarcord, this B&B has something you shouldn't miss: stay in the heart of Florence and rooms with a view.

Website: http://www.bed-breakfast-florence.com

If you are a bed and breakfast lover, you could consider this suggestion for you stay in Florence.

The Amarcord Staff - bed and breakfast in Rome

Bed and Breakfast in Italy: how to choose

If you are supposed to know exactly what to expect from a Hotel, it is not always easy to predict what you are going to get in case you are willing to book a bed and breakfast in Italy.

If with hotels the universal rating system (stars) should work properly, with other types of accommodations such as bed and breakfast, independent apartments, guest houses and country inns, the situation is quite different. In these cases you have to trust what you see and what you read.

Serious innkeepers and companies promoting these types of accommodation should be as transparent as possible. You should be able to know exactly the location (the use of an interactive map surely helps), you should be able to see as many rooms pictures as possible, a broad description and a list of facilities/amenities available at the accommodation.

What about reviews? Are they candid? I must confess that many times a review or a guest comment could be more misleading than a bad picture. How you know about other people standards and requirements? Maybe they were on a budget and for them a shared bathroom was more than ok, and they were extremely happy just for the fact that have spent 5 euros less than in another accommodation.

What makes you referent more reliable is when they offer the possibility to talk with somebody: if you are booking a bed and breakfast and you are thousands miles away, the best and most relaxing thing is to know that you have somebody to talk to and to interact with, somebody who is able to answer your questions and clarify every single doubt. Even if by e-mail or by phone you should be able to deal with humans and not with automatic systems.

Find an Italy accommodation website which deal mainly with bed and breakfast and which is listing not all of them. Choose a website with a few selected accommodation and look for pictures, maps, descriptions and read as much as possible…. And then, talk (by e-mail of phone) with somebody.

Gianluca Martini
Founder of Italia Lodging – Charming small accommodation in Italy

Rome Archaeological Area: overview

Here you have an overview about the archaelogical area of Rome. Here you find the ancient Rome heritage beginning with the Coliseum. An astonishing tour in the roots of the western culture.

Coliseum
Architectural marvel of antiquity and symbol of the Eternal City throughout the world, the Flavian Amphitheatre is the largest structure for entertainment with gladiators and wild animals ever built by the Romans. Erected in 8 years (72-80 AD) by the Flavian dynasty on the place previously occupied by the artificial lake of Nero’s Golden House, using 100.000 square metres of travertine and 300 tons of iron, the Colosseum was inaugurated with 100 days of games. The 60.000 spectators that it could hold entered through the 80 numbered arches at street level and, after spending the entire day there, could leave in under 20 minutes. The programme offered hunts with wild animals in the morning, executions of condemned criminals at midday and gladiator combat in the afternoon, and in warm weather the audience was protected from the sun by a awning consisting of 240 sails maneuvered by sailors of the imperial fleet. The underground section at the centre of the arena was used to keep the cages with the animals and the equipment for the games. The floor was placed above that and was made of wooden flanks covered with a layer of sand. Walking through the corridors of the Colosseum today we cannot help but notice its ambiguous and almost paradoxical attraction as, on one hand it seems to represent the best of the Roman civilization in the grandiosity of its architecture, and on the other it seems to express its darker side in the cruelty of the shows that were offered here.In the Middle Ages the Colosseum was transformed into a fortress and later used as a quarry of building material. The iron clamps that held the blocks of travertine together were extracted and melted down for other purposes, leaving the holes that are visible throughout the structure.

Suggestion: in order to avoid the long lines, it is possible to purchase tickets at the entrance to Palatine in Via di San Gregorio and by the Arch of Titus.

The Roman Forum
The Roman Forum is the most important archaeological area in the city, the ideal place to understand that having a “historical sense” means, as the great writer T.S. Eliot says, feeling that the people of the past are our contemporaries. The Forum was the centre of the public life of the ancient city; it developed after the reclaiming of the marshy valley that extended from the Palatine and Capitoline hills in the 7th century BC and the last monument – the commemorative column of the emperor Phocas – was erected there in the 7th century AC, exactly 1200 years later.This was where the political, religious and commercial activities of ancient Rome took place. We must use our imagination to recreate it as it must have been at the time, full of buildings and people from all over the empire who, just like us today, wanted to see the symbol of the incredible adventure that had led a community of shepherds to become owners of the world. The Romans charged their buildings with an important function of propagandistic communication, aiming at producing in the viewer a sense of admiration mixed with fear. We find basilicas for business meetings and for the administration of justice, the Curia, seat of the Senate, temples, triumphal arches, monuments and statues. The area was crossed by the Via Sacra which was used for religious processions and triumphal parades. With the passing of time and the increase in the population, the area was extended with the addition of Imperial Forums that also contributed in stressing the greatness of the empire. Later, as decline set in, the Forum was abandoned and used as a source of building material. When the first archaeological excavations began in the late 18th century, its monuments, by then mostly underground, had been invaded by cattle and flocks and used as pasture land.

Piazza del Campidoglio
Ancient seat of the most important temple of the state cult and symbol of Rome “caput mundi”, the Campidoglio has always maintained its importance in the life of the city as centre of the City Government since the 12th century and with the presence of the Capitoline Museums, the most ancient in the world. The square, considered one of the most elegant in Europe, was designed by Michelangelo who created the splendid access ramp, new facades for the preexisting buildings (Palazzo Senatorio at the centre and the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the right), and added the Palazzo Nuovo on the left, giving it the trapezoidal shape that never fails to communicate a sense of harmony and equilibrium to visitors. The orientation of the square helps us understand the evolution of the city that at Michelangelo’s time had already turned its back to the remains of ancient Rome, the place of the past, of a historical phase that was concluded, to face the new centre of power and rule of the day, the Vatican.

The original of the bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius, whose copy is placed at the centre of the square is preserved in the Museum and escaped destruction in later times only because the personage on horseback was identified with Constantine, the first Christian emperor.

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Film Festival in Rome

Rome is a city endowed with boundless energy and a natural vocation for mingling different peoples and cultures – a city wide open to the world and to the world of art. A city that became one of the great capitals of the cinematic imagination, and a teeming set itself, between the end of World War II and the dolce vita, from Cinecittà to the Via Veneto, with its peplum movies and its comedies all’italiana, and its treasure of both stars and character actors who were born here and worked here.
It’s this dynamism and this wealth of experience that naturally led to the creation of Cinema-Festa internazionale di Roma, a great urban festival of the highest quality but also with a real feel for the people of this city. It’s a Festival designed for the public, which starts from the Auditorium, the heart of the whole event, and spreads out to involve the entire city, in the very locations that turned Rome into one of the legends of world cinema.
Rome Film Festival springs therefore from this city’s great love for cinema; it’s a festival dedicated to those who love cinema but also to those who want to discover it and are ready to adventure into the experience of its endless magic.

Where and When:
CINEMA – Festa Internazionale di Roma: a great new festival taking place in a great city. And not just a festival but a real feast for movie lovers and a great event for all those who work for cinema, show cinema, tell us stories through cinema.Not just a great city, but THE city of cinema par excellence, will host the Festival which will transform its centre - the Auditorium Parco della Musica - in the Parco del Cinema for nine days.
The dates
the event will premiere at Rome’s Auditorium from the 13th to the 21st of October 2006, along with screenings at movie theatres and events held in spots that symbolize the city, from the Via Veneto to Piazza del Popolo, from Cinecittà to “Greater Rome”. Locations in the province of Rome and the entire Lazio region will also be chosen for events during and immediately after the festival.

For further information visit the film festival official website

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