the Rome Blog

I wandered down to the Basilica San Paolo yesterday afternoon in order to take a look at the market they’re holding for the feast of St Peter and St Paul. As I was leaving, an Italian started following me, calling:

“aooo!”
“tspspspsp”
“hey!”
“giovane!”

I realised he was talking to me (actually, I’d seen him fall in behind me), but I was also being given a great lesson in ways to call a stranger in Italian so I walked on.

“biondo!”
“ragazzo!” (more…)

A couple of weeks ago I had a friend come to visit me in Rome, and I took advantage of my new status as tour guide to make another visit to Ostia Antica. Walking down a hallway somewhere near the thermopolium, we were surprised to find a small owl curled up in a niche in the wall:

(thanks to Rachel for the photograph)

Actually, having a friend visiting Italy was a great excuse to visit Ostia Antica again (more…)

I recently discovered the website of Pierreci, who take care of the bookings and reservations for some of Rome’s monuments. As well as the standard things like The Colosseum (and until its recent reclosure, the Domus Aurea), Pierreci can also arrange tours of some of Rome’s more obscure treasures (more…)

I keep forgetting to renew my Bibliocard. If you haven’t come across one of these, it’s a sort of souped-up library card. It costs €5 a year, and for this you get all the usually library borrowing rights, plus a selection of discounts around the city (more…)

This week, as well as putting up some new pages on the Mamertine Prison, Piazza Navona and Santa Sabina, I also finally got around to visiting the Ara Pacis.

The Ara Pacis Museum is a strange place. It’s housed in a controversial building designed by the architect Richard Meier, a long white pavilion walled with over 1500 square meters of glass. It seems out of place in Rome, and many people detest it. I actually thought that it wasn’t that bad, but I don’t think it’s being used to its best advantage (more…)

While I was walking from the Church of Trinita dei Monti (at the top of the Spanish Steps) to the Piazza del Popolo, I came across a rather dramatic modern statue, representing two men in battle:

The men are two brothers, Enrico and Giovanni Cairoli, (more…)

One of the things that I really like about Rome is how much fun it is to go for a walk here. Traffic aside, there’s so much to see and explore that you can walk for hours without getting tired or bored (well, I can. Walking may be the only exercise I have any stamina for, but I’ve got tons of it). This week I’ve found a really good tool for planning walks. (more…)