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

Our Blogger: Rhodora

The origins of Michael Bublè are Italian: his Grandmother Yolanda is from Carrubo, a small town in Abruzzi, and his  Grandfather is from Teviso in Veneto region. It’s his Grandfather that make Michael closer to classic jazz and swing music of the 40s and 50s, the Mills Brothers, Frank Sinatra and Bobby Darin Ella Fitzgerald. Encouraged, Michael learns the ‘’sacred texts’’ of swing and participates in several youth competitions. To open him a way to a major label, however, is the former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, who has always been fan of pop music, to introduced him to the producer David Foster, winner of numerous Grammy and Executive Director of the labels that are managed by Warner. Bublé amazed him singing Mack the knife to the wedding of Mulroney’s daughter, after that he finally obtained a contract and in 2003, he published his first album under his name, first in America and then in Europe, he became one of the most singers all over the world. After the big success, in  2005 he appeared with another successful album called it’s time followed two years later by Call me Irresponsible.

In 2009 the new album Crazy Love Michael opens the door of his private emotions to the world. You can see may facets of a man: the boy always happy and optimistic, the angry lover refused, the perfect boyfriend, the not-so-perfect pretender or the only man in a crowded room. In this album you can also hear him singing the eternal friendship that give consolation after a sentimental break in the song written by himself called “hold on” or a story of a couple born under an unlucky star on At this moment.

After almost two and a half years since the last tour in Italy, the great Canadian singer returns to Rome on October 23^rd 2010 for a great concert, to sing for all his fans songs of his new album and some of his greatest hits.

Our Blogger: Angelo

Litfiba is coming back to rome on the 19th of april at the Palalottomatica to offer a great concert for those who love the Italian rock. They are one of the most famous artists in Italy and are making their comeback after years of absence. Now they will be coming  to the Eternal City to show what they all about and make you go out of your mind with the best rock ever in the last years.

This band was born thaks to Ghigo Renzulli that through an ad brings together some local punk lovers . This group started singing in the 80s and they were well known and receive the appreciation from the people, that way they began their real career as they Played mainly rock music and latin pop-rock but at the end of the 90s the vocalist of the group decides to persue a solo career and got away from the band but there they go again, finally singing back together and they will try to do their best to make us have a wonderful evening rocking all night. And please show up we can not lose this chance to go rock and roll! To have the most of Rome and of your vations book a room now at Hotel Des Artistes or Yes Hotel!

Our Blogger: Raul

-Next July pianist Keith Jarrett and his legendary trio (Jarrett, plus Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette) will visit the Eternal City: an occassion not to be missed for those who love great music.

When you think of the European jazz capitals of the world, Paris and Amsterdam come immmediatly to mind. But every summer Rome hosts a number of increasingly important jazz events that reveal the growing interest of Italian audiences in improvised music.

Slowly the Eternal City is gaining cachet as a jazz city and this status will be crowned next July with the visit of Keith Jarrett, probably the most talented and well-known jazz musician alive.

Jarrett started his career with the George Lloyd quartet and then jumped to public notoriety through his performances with Miles Davis. Jarrett can be seen as the substitute leading figure in the jazz world after Davis’ dismissal. Jarrett brought jazz back to its acoustic roots after a period of electric experimentation renewing in the process the American songbook with new renditions of jazz standards. Besides his song performances, Jarret is also widely acclaimed for his ability to create long improvisations on which jazz, classical musical and even folk and gospel music blend in an omogeneous and usually astonishingly beautiful result.

But not everything is milk and honey with Jarret, as Italian audiences attending the Perugia Jazz Festival a few years ago can confirm. On that occasion Jarrett snipped at the public after what he thought was a misrespect on their side: in fact, the musician finds the slightest sounds from the audience, as coughs or whispers to be highly distracting and has no qualms about letting the audience know how he feels. In fact the organizers of his concert hand cough drops to the public before every performance.

If you will find yourself in Rome during July this is a great opportunity to attend a concert of magnificent music. At Yes Hotel and Hotel Des Artistes we are at your disposition for all your accomodation needs in Rome.

Our Blogger: Marcelo

Stoic and fatalistic. Introverted. Painter of daily life. A sense of humor and a frank manner mixed with a conservative vision about politics. A man who simply accepted things as they were. Edward Hopper (1882 – 1967), one of the most popular and well known American artists of the twentieth century will be in Rome from February 16^th.

For the first time in Italy! An exciting exhibition that arrives to Rome after a great success at the Palazzo Reale in Milan (More than 1,600 daily visitors). The Exhibition in Rome is organized with the support of Fondazione Roma and Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. It will be entirely dedicated to all aspects of Edward Hopper’s extraordinary career.

Explore Edward Hopper artistic conception in which  “Great art is the outward expression of an inner life of the artist, and this inner life will result in his personal vision of the world’’ while , “So much of every art is an expression of the subconscious’’ and ‘’ and little of importance by the conscious intellect.”

Our Blogger: Jona

Even if the concert is held on Friday the 8^th of October 2010, for sure you are able to hear U2’s most famous song “Sunday bloody Sunday”. The Irish rock band which has sold more than 170 million albums and won 22 Grammy Awards. And that is more than any other rock band has achieved. Not only the selling records will guarantee you an unforgettable evening at Olympic Stadium.

 The road to world wide success has been long. Everything started in 1976, when none of the 4 members were very good musicians. Years went by, and they got better. Everything changed in 1987 when they released hit record The Joshua Tree. U2 has all these years made lot of charity work and helping people with groups like:  Amnesty International, Make Poverty History, the ONE Campaign, Live Aid, Live 8, Bono’s DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade in Africa) campaign, and Music Rising.

Tickets can be bought online: www.ticketone.it and prices are very reasonable because 85% of all tickets cost less than 95€, the ones for the field in front of the stage cost 55€ and at least 10.000 tickets cost 30€.  

Our Blogger: Vanda

From on October 24 up to February 14 th 2010, to the Museum in Rome Trastevere, you can assist to a photographic show from the title “Before and after the Wall.”  The exhibition has the purpose to tell the history of the wall in Berlin through forty photos taken during the last forty years in Berlin, the show it will put in prominence all the changes that this city has suffered from the creation of the wall up to its demolition and its transformation into a ”monument” of a past that cannot be forgotten.

The photographers authors of this interesting show are: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Leonard Freed, Bruno Barbey, Ian Berry, Guy Le Querrec della Magnum Photos, Gianni Berengo Gardin a Mauro Galligani, Giovanni Chiaramonte, Nicola Gnesi e Davide Monteleone and the great French agency Eyedea.

The museum is open every day, except Monday, from 10:00 until 20:00 but the box-office is closes to the 19. Price ticket: 5.50 European (whole) 4.00 European (meeting place). Address: Piazza di Sant’Egidio, 1/b

At Hotel Des Artistes and Yes Hotel we will be more than happy to give you all the necessary information to visit this and many other famous museums in Rome. Make a reservation and get ready for the experience of a lifetime!

Our Blogger: Joseph

Singer, song-writer and pianist Tori Amos returns to Rome for the first Italian date of her Sinful Attraction Tour in which she will introduce new tracks off from her new released album entitled Abnormally Attracted To Sin. Amos, also known as the “the goddess of rock” for the die hard fans, is one of the most important figures in contemporary music scene; anyone who has followed her music career, will be able to recognize the overturns from her music in the 90’s thanks to intense activities like Little Earthquakes (1992), Under the Pink (1994) and From the Choirgirl Hotel (1998).

Known for her emotional concerts, Amos will be doing some new covers from her previous albums.. Amos have performed in beyond 1,000 dates in the theatres and prestigious well-know concert venues all over the world. Her last world tour in 2007, has been defined by BBC as "The return of Tori Amos as she had defined herself as well… beyond its end". In the peak of her career Amos has done covers of classic rock tracks such as Angie by the Rolling Stones, Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana, Thank You by Led Zeppelin, I am on fire by Bruce Springsteen and New Age by Lou Reed.

Here at Yes Hotel and Hotel Des Artistes we’ll be glad to help you in every way we can to enjoy this and many other great events in the city.

30 September 2009 – Auditorium Parco della Musica                                                  

Tickets:

Plateau 45 euros;                                                                             First Gallery 35 euros;                                                                     Second Gallery 25 euros.

Our Blogger: Stefano

The bouquinistes are the sellers of second-hand books in Paris who have installed their wooden stands along the Seine. For decades, they have been offering the best of arts, litterature and entertainment at an affordable price in the largest “open air library” in the world. Today they are considered “heritage of humanity".
The bouquinistes are a part of the history of Paris. The same term, "Bouquin" in argot is an old book.

We can find in Rome a similar tradition, a sort of book trade, sometimes wandering the city, not formalized, but with a long tradition. Indeed we can find markets, book stalls and kiosks set up in many parts of Rome: Campo de ‘Fiori, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Piazza Pasquino, and the Fontanella Borghese. This is the place to sell books, not to be confused with other stands dotted around the city that have nothing to do with the tradition of which we speak.

Today their business is gradually changing in line with market needs and demands of tourists. And so, instead of old books and prints of works of art, on the kiosks appear now posters of famous actors or, in Paris, small plastic Eiffel Towers.
For this reason it was decided to revisit the streets of Paris by an exhibition dedicated to bouquinistes.
The exhibition will be inaugurated during the eleventh week of culture. It proposes materials coming primarily from the collection of the National Library Ceccarius and that of the Parisian museum in Rome.

The exhibition will display images and documents from the XIX and XX centuries. We’ll find many books, newspapers, posters and postcards that tell the story of this ancient tradition.
An unusual exhibition that will bind two great capitals that have always been culturally close. The photographs will be on display on the National Library on Viale Castro Pretorio 105, only a couple of steps away from Hotel Des Artistes!

In fact, Des Artistes and Yes Hotel are two wonderful accomodation structures in Rome. Their location and comfort standards are great, and will offer you everything you need to have a fantastic time in the Eternal City.

Attending to the opera is an experience many look forward to experience when they visit Italy. But the opera academies in Italy are not always touristic-friendly and getting a ticket can prove difficult. So, if you’re able to attend a quality Opera concert you can call yourself lucky, but if you are coming to Rome during may you’ll have the chance to have the opera experience of a lifetime.

On May 25^th the famous Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli will offer in the Colosseum (no less) a charity concert to help the people from Abruzzo, where some villages have been almost destroyed recently by an earthquake.

In case you still don’t know him, Andrea Bocelli is a blind tenor famous for its prowess in both the opera and popular music fields, an ability that has enabled him to conquer a wide audience and to spread the interest in Opera all around the world.

That night Angela Ghiorghiu will share the stage with Bocelli. Gheorghiu might be less well- known outside the opera world, but she is one of the new stars of the genre, and another of the many reasons that make this event unique.

The tickets cost one thousand euros and can be bought through the internet.

Don’t miss this beautiful experience and don’t miss either the chance to enjoy Rome staying in two of the best hotels in the city: Yes Hotel and Hotel Des Artistes, both very well located, near Rome main station and only half an hour away from the Colosseum!

Il Nostro Blogger: Arianna

Lo aspettiamo tutti con ansia, il nuovo tour di Claudio Baglioni “Questo Piccolo Grande Amore 2008 – il concerto”

I nome del tour prende spunto dal film da poco uscito “ Questo piccolo grande amore” ispirato all’omonima canzone dell’artista, del quale il cantautore ha curato la parte musicale

Un concerto che, attraverso musica e parole, ripercorrerà le tappe della carriera artistica di Claudio Baglioni, con particolare attenzione alle canzoni dell’album che lo ha reso famoso.

Dal tour prende il nome anche il doppio cd live, una chicca per i romantici e per quelli che volessero fare un salto indietro del tempo.

Personalmente amo molto le canzoni di Baglioni, hanno accompagnato la mia infanzia e la mia adolescenza.

Molti non sanno che gli inizi non sono stati facili per il cantautore romano ma proprio con l’album “ Questo piccolo grande amore” arriva un successo spiazzante che dura fino ai giorni nostri.

Non solo cantante Baglioni, ma un’artista in piena regola. ai suoi concerti siamo abituati a vedere dei veri e propri spettacoli, mai banali ma pieni di musica e colori.

Credo che anche questo concerto meriti di essere visto e mi chiedo quali sorprese ci riserverà questa volta.

Qualche piccola curiosità: Claudio Baglioni è stato il primo cantante a esibirsi negli stadi. Il primo concerto è al Flaminio dove viene applaudito anche per avere posizionato il palco al centro dello stadio, aperto in tutte le direzioni, così da avere un contatto a tutto tondo con il pubblico

L’artista si presenterà a Roma il 22/05/2009 in piazza di Siena.

Vi invito tutti a stare qui da noi all’Hotel Des Artistes. Il nostro hotel costituisce infatti la base ideale per raggiungere la sede del concerto.

Partendo da via villafranca 20, camminare per 450metri e prendere la linea M per sei fermate, scendere alla fermata Victor Hugo e ancora a piedi per 450 metri.