Hotelrome.net Blog : A guide to news and events in Rome

Make your Christmas and New Year in Rome just unforgettable!

From the 22nd of December till the 1st January the eternal city of Rome will be again immersed in the eternal Rome Christmas Sound of unforgettable Gospel choirs and also as part of the traditon Christmas markets in Rome are already on, colorful and full of lovely smell and you will probably want to know more about life and what to do in Rome and Italy.

The Inspirational Choir of Harlem, a group of versatile sounds, which drifts away from jazz to gospel, from jazz to pop, and to RnB, its religiousness is expressed through great vocal abilities and grand musicality. This group was born under a thorough direction of Anthony Morgan, the artist of greatest talent, who patiently and very accurately, has selected some of the voices exceptionally unique in whole New York.

The members of the Inspirational Choir of Harlem have participated in various productions, like: Mama I Want to Sing, McDonald’s Gospel Fest, The Christmas Tree Lighting at Rockefeller Center, and in the movie Bon Fire of the Vanities, with Bruce Willis & Morgan Freeman as the main characters.
Do not miss this opportunity in Rome , and as far as Christmas trees are concerned you must absolutely see the Rome Saint Peter’s tree and nativity. Rome means eternal, and music lasts forever, there is nothing like Gospel music on Christmas! Enjoy! It’s Christmas Time!

And now all you have to do is plan your trip and book your convenient, central Rome hotel and B&B right away, and let yourself have a wonderful time.

All concerts are held in the Rome Auditorium.

Calendar of the Rome Gospel Events :

22/12/2007
The Inspirational Choir Of Harlem
Festival Gospel
Saturday, Dec 22 Sala Sinopoli, ore 21

23/12/2007
Sue Conway Victory Singers of Chicago
Saturday Dec 23 Sala Sinopoli, ore 21

25/12/2007
Joe Pace & Colorado Mass Choir
Tuesday Dec 25 Sala Sinopoli, ore 18

26/12/2007
Virginia Mass Choir
Wednesday, Dec 26 Sala Sinopoli, ore 21

31/12/2007 al 01/01/2008
New Orleans Gospel Night
Monday Dec 31 Sala Santa Cecilia, ore 22
Tuesday Jan 1 Sala Sinopoli, ore 18

and buy your Rome Gospel tickets online now!

If you take a little walk in Rome you’ll notice her immediately. She’s everywhere: in the logo of the soccer team of the city and almost on every public object or document you see.
Of course I’m talking about the Capitoline she-wolf from the Capitoline Museums with which I assume you’re familiar, at least visually and for which you can get more about your Rome city tour information .

If the romans seem to be so fond of this bronze sculpture is because it tells the story of the city. Legend has it that King Numitor was overthrown by his brother Amulius who ordered the two grandsons of Numitor to be thrown into the Tiber so they won’t live to take revenge on him. But sadly for the traitor the twins (whose names are Romulus and Remus, in case you haven’t figured it out) were cared by a she-wolf who suckled them until a shepherd found them and raise them allowing the brothers to give back the throne to his grandfather and to found the Eternal City. (If you want to get the complete picture Romulus and Remus wound up fighting- and I mean serious fighting. Romulus killed his brother and gave his name to the city becoming also its first king.)

logo of the AS Roma soccer team

Even if the sculpture seems to be the perfect representation of the foundation of the city, originally the she-wolf was alone. Sometime during the renaissance the twins were added to the sculpture, that by the way was believed to be an Etruscan masterpiece until a couple of months ago when an Italian specialist discovered that the wolf is actually much younger, having been created during the High Middle Ages.

Just for the sake of the trivia you must know also that there are two replicas of the she-wolf in the United States, one in Cincinnati and the other one in Rome, Georgia, a gift, in Mussolini’s words, “from ancient Rome to new Rome.�

The she-wolf is hosted in the Capitoline Museums, Piazza del Campidoglio 1. To get there is very easy if you are a guest of Hotel Des Artistes or Yes Hotel: go to Termini and take there the bus 170 for six stops. The museums are open from Tuesday to Sunday, from 9:00 AM to 20:00 PM.

The sentiment of the true

Fifty years after a grand exhibition in the National Gallery of Modern Art, i Macchiaioli come back to Rome.

This exhibition was prepared by Francesca Dini and the Foundation Brincherasio of Turin, and Dart Chiostro del Bramante of Rome, was then enriched for the Roman edition by splendid masterpieces, like “La scolarina” (The schoolgirl) of Giovanni Fattori, “Il rio a Riomaggiore” of Telemaco Signorini exposed for the first time, “Carro e bovi nella Maremma toscana” (Carriage and oxen in Maremma of Tuscany) of Giuseppe Abbati. The exhibition proposes an artistic itinerary of more than a hundred artworks, and is articulated in eight sections, giving an opportunity to study original and rigorous relation of Macchiaioli with “the principles of the true”.

Macchiailoli-pronounced as “Mah-key-ay-Oh-lee” is a small, but very important school of painting in Italy in the XIX century. The movement was born in Florence, in Tuscany i 1856, and was straightly related to the Risorgimento movement for the unification of Italy and creation of a free democratic state. Many of them fought along with Garibaldi and even lost their live on the battlefields. Some call i Macchiaioli the direct predecessors of the Impressionists. They took their name after the word macchia- in italian stain, spot. They were called so by unfriendly critiques of the time. I macchiaioli claimed that the form does not exist, but is created from the light and that the individual sees the whole world through the form, which are not isolated from the nature, thus as the stains of colour distinguished and other stains of colour, as the light when hitting the objects is being re-directed to our eye as a colour. The colour, according to i Macchiaioli should have substitute the reality in the painting as a composition of stains, and is the unique way for an individual to enter in contact with reality.

To learn more about i Macchiaioli, do not miss this exceptional opportunity to visit Rome and definitely visit Chiostro del Bramante till 2nd February 2008.

Our Yes Hotel is strategically close to Termini station from which you can take two buses to go to this Exhibition (Bus 40- Stop Chiesa Nuova and Bus 64- Vittorio Emanuele II or Chiesa Nuova Stops): Do not miss the chance to stay with us and enjoy unique Italian art!

Eternal city attracts so many tourists not only for its enormous architectonic heritage, the beauty of its past, but also for so many extravagant and extraordinary contemporary art realities. No doubts, Rome is a museum in the open, but there is so much to explore in “closed� traditional museums of Rome. Have to say that Rome has many important and significant art complexes and museums dedicated also to Contemporary art.

During my stays in Rome I always try to visit this special Museum, always trying to catch with modern art exhibitions, which this Museum hosts on regular basis. I always walk there. My last visits were Chagall’s and Gauguin’s exhibitions. My Rome hotel was situated in Termini station area, so I went down Via Cavour, then went down the Opio hill, which led me straightforward to the Colosseum, and from Coloseum I went along Via dei Fori Imperiali, and in the end arriving to the Venice square I went up a small hill to the Museum Today I would like to tell some curious peculiarities of this prominent complex, situated in the heart of ancient Rome’s downtown -Complesso del Vittoriano- Victorian Complex, in via San Pietro in Carcere, which hosts in these days a breathtaking exhibition of Paul Gauguin, The Artist of A Myth and A Dream.

Victorian Complex is situated inside the Palace of Altare della Patria and is part of the Central Museum of Risorgimento. This complex was erected in the late 19th century in honour of the first king of unified Italy- Vittorio Emanuele the Second right after his death in 1878, that is why it is called Vittoriano. This monument, which was inaugurated in 1911, is collocated to the Central Museum of Risorgemento, destinated to collect and safeguard the testimonies related to the political, economic and social transformation of Italy in the XVIII, XIX , XX centuries. These testimonies are constituted of letters, diaries, manuscripts, pieces of art, like pictures, sculptures, designs, incisions, stamps, weapons, which re-evoke the facts and the protagonists of this important period of history of Italy and for a grand archive of the memories of Risorgimento.

I was really impressed by my last visit of Gauguin’s Rome artworks. Gauguin is a researcher of a fusion of art and life. Was refused by conventional France and considered subversive. He speaks out with his stains of colours and pure connotations in rare atmosphere, he puts his personages, primitive and mythical in a literary and insular Eden, maybe trying to find in his obsessive search of Perù of his childhood…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Bioparco Roma” – Zoo Rome

Have you already seen everything during your stay in Rome or do you only need a little break from visiting all the historic sights?
Then the Bioparco Roma is perfect for you.

In the heart of the Villa Borghese – the big park in the centre of Rome – you’ll find the zoo of Rome that was transferred into a Biopark during the last years, located close to the American Rome Embassy.
About 1000 animals in a wide park, bars and restaurants, a museum and even a swimming pool for children make the visit a special one.

Special attractions are a young giraffe that was born last year (2006) and the area of the bears. They have got a new area with a pool that has a wall made of glass on one side
so that the guests can even have a look what the bears are doing under water.

Furthermore you can find tigers, lions (asiatic), elephants (indian), zebras, camels, different birds, a lot of monkeys like chimpanzees, orang-utans and some smaller spezies,
wolves and dingos. But there is a part for native species as well where you can see a cow, sheep, pigs and goats.
The reptiles like crocodiles, frogs, iguanas and snakes have an own new house.

To see every part and every animal takes you at least 2 hours.
If you don’t want to walk all the time you can take a little train that goes through the whole park. A ticket – valid for your whole stay – you can get for only 1 €
together with your entrance ticket for the zoo.

The normal entrance (adults, zoo only) costs 8,50 €. Children from 3 up to 12 years pay 6,50 €. For chilren up to 3 years the entrance is free.
The reptile house costs 5,00 € but when you combine it with the ticket for the zoo you’ll pay only 2,50 €.
A ticket for the little train costs 1,00 €.

The park is open from 9.30am till 05.00pm the whole year.
From 24 March till 1 November the closing time is 06.00pm.
From 7 April till 30 September on saturdays and sundays the closing time is 07.00pm.

The Rome Zoo location is absolutely ideal, since right in central Rome near the Galleria Borghese and our Via Veneto Bed and Breakfast also.
You can easily arrive at the Bioparco Roma with the subway Metro A – station “Spagna” or “Flaminio”, with the tram no. 3 and 19 – station “Bioparco” and with the bus lines 52, 53, 926, 217, 360 and 910.

Coffee or espresso?

Be careful with what you order when you are in Rome because a “caffè” is not the regular coffee as you maybe remember it from home.
A caffè is an espresso and a caffè americano is a coffee that is similar to the normal filter coffee.
A caffè macchiato is an espresso with a touch of milk, a caffelatte is a big cup or glass of milk and coffee.

You see ? the world of coffee in Italy is indeed one of its own. So don’t call it simple to order a normal coffee in one of these countless bars
where you can have a quick breakfast in the morning consisting of the italian cornetto (a very sweet croissant) and a coffee. One of the most famous café in Rome is the Caffè Greco, steps away from the Spanish steps and our B&B De Cappuccini and Jonella.

So what is “a coffee” then ? It consists of only a small cup with a very small amount of coffee in it. The complete name of that is caffè espresso.
But as it is a long name, everybody would only say caffè and you’ll always get that small cup.
The name doesn’t have anything to do with that the coffee is made very fast (like express) or that the water is pressed with pressure through the coffee powder.
It comes from the italian word “espresso” and that means something that is only and especially made for a guest, it is from the time when the
caffè espresso was only made in bars and not yet at home.
And as unbelievable as it may seem, but the italian coffee is much healthier than the normal european filter coffee and contains less caffeine so when having your morning breakfast in Yes Hotel Rome, ask for an espresso instead !
But that’s not all.
There is a big variety of other coffees and also you wouldn’t drink every coffee on every time of the day.

The day in Italy starts with a quick breakfast in one of these bars. Try the Dolce Vita district of Via Veneto, very elegant and central and close by the Villa Borghese
An Italian usually takes a caffè or a cappuccino or a caffèllatte and one or sometimes two of these sweet cornetti
(croissont without filling, filled with white cream, with chocolate cream, with jam, …).
Over the day till the early afternoon all kinds of coffee are common, mostly a simle caffè is taken as it is the fastest one.
In the later afternoon and in the evening it is not common anymore to drink the big coffees with a lot of milk.
If you’ll do it even though you’ll be recognized as a tourist. )

Some coffee-examples:

caff̬ Рnormal espresso, served in a small cup
caff̬ doppio Рdouble espresso, served in a small cup
caff̬ lungo Рespresso made with the double amount of water, served in a small cup
caff̬ ristretto Рespresso but less than a normal one, very concentrated, served in a small cup
caff̬ macchiato Рespresso with a little amount of milk (hot or cold), served in a small cup
caff̬ corretto Рespresso with alcohol (usually grappa), served in a small cup
caff̬ al vetro Рnormal espresso but served in a small glass instead of a cup
Marocchino – normal espresso with a teaspoon of melted chocolate, milk foam on top and a lot of cacoa powder, served in a small glass
(usually without chocolate, only with milk foam and cacoa powder)
cappuccino – espresso with hot milk and milk foam on top, sometimes with cacoa powder, served in a bigger cup
caff̬llatte Рa double espresso (but usually only one is taken) with hot milk, rarely with foam, served in a big glass
latte macchiato – hot milk, milk foam and one espresso (usually there is taken less coffee), served in a big glass
caff̬ americano Рespresso filled up with hot water, served in a bigger cup, similar to normal filter coffee

And this is only the basic. Every guest has their own preferred coffee and therefore there are many variations like
caffè lungo macchiato, caffè lungo al vetro, caffè al vetro macchiato, cappuccino chiaro (with less coffee) or scuro (with more coffee), …

Coffee culture in Italy is a bit different. Usually everything is taken “al banco” – meaning standing at the bar.
Of course there will always be the possibility to sit down but then, be prepared to be charged extra, a so called service charge.
Sometimes it is even double price of what you originally ordered, although usually it is between 10% and 15%. At any rate, ask the price before sitting to avoid bad surprises.

Obviously if you decide to sit on a terrace in Piazza Navona you will pay more than in the round the corner small bar, but you will enjoy the suggestive atmosphere of old Rome ….

Come enjoy our special Rome Hotel offers , which are a best value for your money !