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

Our blogger: Marcelo

-Marcelo, philosophical as ever talks about an ongoing exhibition in Rome and while at it takes us for a walk into Leonardo’s mind.

Simply beyond any kind of definition! How can you say that you are something when you are everything? Sculptor, architect, painter, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, anatomist, inventor, writer, botanist, geologist…The very meaning of ‘’open mind’’ is fitting better than never  for someone who explored every single aspect of human being and his relationship with nature. Not for a moment The Beauty was forgotten, since a searcher of the Truth is first of all a lover of the Truth.

Understanding the Truth as a whole is certainly the very spirit of the renaissance. That spirit was fully alive in Leonardo.He dreamed of a flying man, walking on water beyond limitations not by going against nature but through a fully understanding of it . And so in time the dreams became true by an unconditioned faith in nature and human being that gave inspiration to mankind…

The exhibition ‘’ Leonardo, il genio e le invenzioni’’ (Leonardo da Vinci – genius and inventions) At the Palace of the Chancellery is being held in Rome until April 30th 2010. Mostly focused on “machines” designed by the genius find on display fifty-operated machines and available to the visitor to touch and feel.

The machines are divided into five categories: water, air, earth, fire and mechanisms. The first four categories including that interacting ‘’element’’ of nature while the last one instead contains all those machines that may have different applications.

The man had always looked at the sky with an inexpressible feeling of wonder. Leonardo not only looked but worked on in order to design his very famous flying machines (including the parachute).

His genius, however, not only turned to the sky but also to the sea, to enable humans to explore its depths. It seems that Leonardo developed a diver or even a submarine. Later he decided to quit the experiments in fearing that they might be used for illicit purposes such as piracy.  Ethics were part of his vision. Funny enough anyway, to consider that a device for a ‘’miracle’’ (walking on water) was also provided by his creative mind.

This exhibition includes a chain that Leonardo designed for bicycles and watches. By this Leonardo anticipated the invention of a car.

Among the inventions relating to water: the innovative hydraulic saw, which uses water power to drive an automatic system capable of cutting timber and saving human labor.

Now you’ve read about it. You may have red lot about Leonardo. Maybe it’s time to experience directly yourself. Just exactly as he intended it… Isn’t it?

To get there from our locations Hotel Des Artistes Rome or Yes Hotel Rome is very easy by simply taking the bus 40 or 492 arriving there in no more than twenty minutes! If you need accommodation check www.hoteldesartistes.com or www.yeshotelrome.com.

Our Blogger: Marcelo

“Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit.”

-Horace

From the 24^th February the exhibition ‘’ I Giorni di Roma: L’età della Conquista, Roma e il mondo greco’’ will allow you to explore the classic art even deeper into its roots and learn more about the cultural influence that Greece had over Rome, because as the Roman poet Horace said (and that’s the quote we’re using for this entry): “Captive Greece took captive [with its culture] her uncouth conqueror“.

The Capitoline Museums, placed in the legendary Capitoline Square (designed by

Michelangelo, no less) is the location chosen for this event. The decision is more than natural since the Capitoline Museums (the first public museum in history) are thematic-centred in the classic period.

Impressive marble statues, fine works in bronze and terracotta sculptures, ornaments and home decor items made of bronze and silver. Everything in order to bring you back in time and portraitf a period during which the ruling elite felt, with increasing awareness, the strengthening of its prestige and expressed it through art.

The conquest of Greece (the decades between the end of the third century BC and half of the first century A.. C)  opens an entire new prospective to the Roman society. The exhibition will focus on this very great moment in Roman History allowing visitors to better understand the strong influence of the Greek culture in Rome.

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Where: Piazza del Campidoglio

From: February 24, 2010
Until:  September 05, 2010

More info: http://museicapitolini.org/ http:// www.beniculturali.it

The Capitoline Museums are located at only fifteen minutes by bus (40 or 492)  from our locations: Hotel Des Artistes (www.hoteldesartistes.com) or Yes Hotel Rome (www.yeshotelrome.com).

Our Blogger: Marcelo

Lovers of Fantasy are familiar with Mister Michael Ende. His works have been translated into more than 40 languages. Now there is an exhibition in Rome to commemorate the years that he spent in Italy and the thirtieth anniversary of his Masterpiece: ‘’ The Neverending Story’’.

The book describes the world of Fantasia which is being threatened by “The Nothing” an evil force that destroys everything. The story aims to keep us in touch with the imagination against the trend to be only a practical, logical and cold…

The ‘’mostra’’ develops through manuscripts, photographs and different documents, describing the fifteen years that Ende lived in Genzano (about thirty miles from Rome).

We hope you enjoy it and that you also find inspiration in our beautiful City of Rome. Maybe the same inspiration that Michael Ende and other authors have found here, in this eternally- neverending-inspiring City.