Showing posts with label Rome. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rome. Show all posts

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Benefits of living in Rome

My rusty English comes back in Rome! Spring has also come while the winds seem to have vanished.

A Google search brought a reader from Africa who really wants to know what were the benefits of living in Rome.

Let me tell you:

Food. Fresh food (people here have refrigerators but no other food storage space in their homes). From vegetables to fish, one could simply shop everyday for the dinner ingredients. Today we'll have broccoli, for example!

Then living in a open-air museum is another blessing. iPhone apps already help tourists understand where they are and what happened there years, centuries, millenniums ago. There are all kind of tours, exhibitions happenings. Google is generous with information on that, just search!

Climate. Though I shouldn't mention this after the snow that paralysed the city in February, temperatures here are friendly to Rome's inhabitants. (the minus being house heating is not a plus here and icy nights could be unpleasant just because people here do not agree it can be really cold inside. On the other hand, looking around in department stores one realises pyjamas are warmer here (I even saw woollen pyjamas. So they do know, just pretend Roman homes are warm)

Art. Art is everywhere and one only has to open the eyes.

Water. Tap water is very good, don't be afraid to drink it. Then all the fountains down town are the place all thirsty tourists should spot. Free fresh water.

Please let me know if you want a list of disadvantages of living in Rome.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

back to Rome

Here I am , three years after, back in Rome.

Lovely warm autumn with very few clouds and a special treat at our arrival: 27 Celsius degrees at 7 PM. A shock, even if we were back from Mexico City, where winter or hot summer never comes.

A lot of exhibitions advertised on the streets and buses: Mondrian at the Vittoriano, Filippo Lippi and Boticelli or Georgia O' Keefe? Soviet art or street art? Plenty of time to discover it all.

In the meanwhile, I've discovered that at Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the other weekend, there will be Mahler and his Symphony of a Thousand. I shall be there.

I won't be talking about politics, it is really complicated to me to readapt to Europe and its struggles. There will be a way, I am sure.


Tuesday, October 30, 2007

X things to know about Rome

Rome is a city of ruins, churches and baroc squares. the guides also speak about Vatican, Fontana din Trevi and other two, three maybe ten big touristic attractions. Thousands of other little things can make a trip to Rome richer.
Walking around the city. Rome is big for thousands of years. As the old romans, you could have a walk near the Imperial Fora, starting from the Colosseum and Constantine's Arch, to climb, then, the hill to Domitian's Imperial Palace. Look at the Circus Maximus. An amazing panorama! Don't forget about Via Appia Antica. So beautiful, by sunset!
Rome is the Vespa city but it's more beautiful if you see it by bike. With only 11 euro, uou can rent one for an entire day (more on http://www.ecomoverent.com/) and you can go from downtown to the outskirts, on the Tiber's banks.
No need to talk about the big piazzas, they are in all the guides. My favourite is Piazza di Spagna. The little squares, though, have a special scent. On my list: Campo dei Fiori, downtown, near Piazza Navona, from where, on a very narrow street you can get to Piazza del Fico.(now in refurbishments)

In that area too is Piazza di Pasquino, where you could go by day, to read what are the roman citizens complaints. For five hundred years, people come here to tell what bothers them, in verses or prose, on little notes called pasquinade which they attach to a statue. Conceived in the roman dialect, the little tirades generally attack the Pope and the governants.
Coffee, coffee and coffee again. Tip: if you drink it for the daily caffeine dose, you better ask for it at the bar. A ristretto vanishes in two seconds on the addicted's throat, so no need to pay almost the double price, just to sit at a table. Attention: the romans are drinking cappuccino only in the morning, so don't ask for it at noon or worse, in the evening. I am not claiming you won't be served, but in Rome we behave like romans, no? Ask for a cornetto near the coffee. Or for some aragostine ( filled with Nutella). For a richer sensation, I fully recommend the sorchette. They can be found near Porta Pia. The translation is vulgar, the pleasure not. A puffy dough with a chocolate and cream icing on top, the sorchette are famous around the students that spend the weekend nights in the clubs near Porta Pia. It is a real custom that before they go home, they fill themselves with these goodies, from the la Lambiase. A proof: the dozens of cars parked near the building.
(Lambiase Antonio Laboratorio Pasticceria Via Cernaia 49 A, Roma)
Rome is the city of angels. On the walls, on a bridge that is only theirs (Ponte degli Angeli), in the churches, everywhere you can see the beautiful creatures that are watching upon us.
Caravaggio without a cue. Possible! Just go to the Saint-Louis des Français church, between the Pantheon and Piazza Navona. Three works of Caravaggio, all consacrated to Saint Matthew cand be admired in the chapel that bears the same name.
You can discover another Rome if you go to EUR, the quarter the fascists built in the 30's. Few tourist know about it, but, if you have time, you can go there to see how the architects of the early XX century saw things, then. If you get there, you could see the Collosseum in a square variant.
At table: waiters in Rome are generally rude, so don't take it personally! You cannot leave Rome if you haven't tasted the Italian wines . If you want to try something not so expensive, go to the Enoteca Cul de Sac (73, Piazza Pasquino) and wait for a free table. To the ladies, I recommend a Braccheto d’Acquim, because it is sweet, bubbly, and not so alcoholic. The enoteca menu consists of hundreds of wines from all over Italy.

full article in Romanian here, in Timeout Bucharest.
all this wouldn't have been possible without Silvana, Andrea, Dana and Poliana. Mille grazie a tutti!

Saturday, September 29, 2007

rome








Since one of my friends who doesn't speak Romanian realised I was in Rome, I will share here some of my experience in the Old Empire .
Of course, images worth more than one thousand metafors...today: the blue, blue sky. the old bridges across the Tiber, the piazzas, the obeliscs, the fountains, the columns and the Pantheon.

the next days, the stories.