There is a magic address in Rome for kids:  via Flaminia 82.
 
At the beginning of one of the ancient Rome consular roads that starts from Piazzale Flaminio (and finishes on the Adriatic coast), nearby the very central Piazza del Popolo, you can find, walking just a few minutes along the tramway rails, inside the old tramway deposit of the Borghetto Flaminio, a double surprise.

A magnificent museum for children from 3 to 11 years (with twice a week, on Tuesday and Thursday, activities for babies from 0 to 3 years old) called “Explora”.  And also, in the same place, one of the oldest Neapolitan pizzeria (founded in Naples in 1870), the “ Antica Pizzeria Da Michele” that was opened in Rome last year by the descendants of Michele Condurra.

A double pleasure if you have children under 11.  And even if you don’t!  You’ll discover a fantastic place full of little Romans (that often visit the museum with their teachers) and little tourists from the entire world who play together. And then, you’ll enjoy your “Margherita”,  “Marinara” or  “Napoli”, the specialities of the “historical” pizzeria as did a few years ago Julia Roberts….a scene of the movie “Eat, pray, love” was shot “Da Michele”, in Naples.

The museum Explora has four sectors. The first is called “Me” and, to introduce the children to the mystery of life, recreates a mother ‘s womb. The second, “Society”, is a miniature town that has a supermarket, a post office, a bank, a petrol station and even a dentist. So the children can play and, through that, observe and experiment a daily life of adults. The third section is dedicated to the “Environment” with solar panels and waste recycling systems to teach the children how to respect the nature and their surrounding. The fourth sector is  “Communication” with a television news show made by the children that interact with all the available materials and tools.
 
An unforgettable experience for your family!

“Explora” is opened every day from 9H30 to 19h30 except on Monday.
Tel: 0039 06 3613776
 
Antica Pizzeria da Michele is opened from 12h to 17h and from 19h to midnight.
Tel 0039 06 32600432

Roman holidays don't have to be in summer. December and January, when sunny Rome can be sometimes grey and rainy, are packed of events.  Especially a lot of beautiful exhibitions, with this common characteristic: they are always held in fabulous palaces.
You can start with Picasso that waits for you in two different locations, not very distant one from the other, the Quirinal Mews and the Barberini Palace.

Exactly one century after his Italian tour, in 1917, where he met Serge de Diaghilev (les Ballets Russes) and the ballet dancer Olga Khokhlova that became his wife, Picasso is back in Rome with more than a hundred paintings, drawings, watercolors, stage costumes etc… from museums and private collections exposed under the title: “Picasso tra cubismo e classicismo 1915-1925“ (1) in “Le Scuderie del Quirinale” (The Quirinal Mews). Just in front of the residence of the President of the Italian Republic, on the magic Piazza del Quirinale (especially in the evening that, in this season, starts very early).
The most extraordinary moment is, at the end of your visit, when your eyes, still filled with the Picasso’s colours and shapes, will discover an incredible view on roman churches cupolas, through the glass stairs that to the Scuderies exit. Unforgettable!

You can take follow Via Del Quirinale, just on your right and walk for a few minutes, between the Quirinale gardens and some Bernini's and Borromini's masterpieces (the churches of Saint Andrew and Saint Charles) that impressed so much Picasso 100 years ago, to get to another splendid place: the Barberini Palace. There, you’ll discover a particularly precious Picasso that is very difficult to expose because of his huge measures (16,5 m – 10, 5 m): the painted curtain for the ballet “Parade” (Cocteau, Satie, Massine- Les Ballets Russes) that marks, with his winged horses, street performers, and even the Vesuvius that he saw in Naples, the end of the Picasso’s cubist period and his return to the figuration. (2)

In that same Palazzo Barberini, there is another exhibition that celebrates a centenary: the one of the rediscovery of “Our Lady of Tarquinia” painted in 1437 by a very young Filippo Lippi. The beautiful Madonna is surrounded by a few other paintings of that time (Masaccio, Donatello… ) with the title “Altro Rinascimento. Il giovane Filippo Lippi e la Madonna di Tarquinia”. (3)

But this is not all. There is another extraordinary exhibition in the Barberini Palace:  “Arcimboldo”.  This most bizarre and esoteric painter of the Habsburg court, in Prague at that time, with his portraits made with fruits flowers and animals was, already in the 16th century, a sort of forerunner of surrealism and even of the contemporary art. But with much more imagination! (4)

And if after all these exhibitions filled with very strong emotions you need more calm and beauty you have to finish your roman exhibition’s tour at the Vittoriano (via San Pietro in Carcere, just beside Piazza Venezia). There you will find sixty works of Claude Monet, the marvelous father of Impressionism, loaned by the Musée Marmottan Monet (Paris). (5).

1. Until the 21 January 2018
2.                  21 January 2018
   
3.                  18 February 2018
4.                  11 February 2018
5.                  28 January 2018 
   

October is, for Rome, a very special month. Usually, in the beginning of autumn, the weather is beautiful:  Sunny, but without the tedious heat of the summer. The best moment to walk around through the little alleys of the "centro storico" and the so many "villas", the public parks and gardens, that contribute so much to the "grande bellezza" of the Eternal City.

This magic moment of the year is called "Ottobrate Romane", an appellation that has a long history. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the Romans used to celebrate the end of the grape harvest, often going in the country, around the city walls, eating, drinking wine, making music and dancing. These feasts, called "Ottobrate Romane" , were in fact the continuing of an old tradition: the antique bacchanalia, in honour of the god of wine Bacchus.

Today, these bacchanalia have a new face: the city is full of all kinds of events and celebrations. It is maybe not just by chance that the "Rome Film Fest" takes place in October  (from the 26 October to the 5 of November) as, also, in part, the "Roma Europa Festival" (20 September to 2 December).
Much more that a real film festival as Cannes, Venice or Berlin, that are attended almost only by professionals and specialised journalists, the "Rome Film Fest" is meant to be a popular "festa" for the inhabitants of a city where the cinema has been always so important, the city of "Roma Città Aperta" (Rossellini) and "La Dolce Vita" (Fellini).

The movies, the official selection and others, are opened to the public, even with a free entrance in some cases. The Romans (and the tourists) have also a unique opportunity to see many stars and big film makers from the whole word, not only on the red carpet that is rolled out at the entrance of the beautiful "Auditorium" built by Renzo Piano but also participating to meetings whith the public. This week end, for example, with Jude Law and with Accademy Award winner  Paolo Sorrentino. They can also discover the places where so many films were shot, the most famous Fellini's setting, the  "Fontana di Trevi" (la Dolce Vita) but also many others. And, in the area of the Auditorium, organised as a sort of little village with restaurants cafés and a few shops, they can taste roman specialities at the "Trattoria del Cinema", the Rome Film Fest restaurant where the best "chefs" are going to surpass themselves.

For theatre lovers there are other opportunities in this "ottobrata" with the "Roma Europa Festival". It is an extraordinary shop window of the contemporary performing arts.  Not theatre only but also music, dance, circus...from the whole world.  Created 30 years ago, with so many locations in theatres and museums (like the MAXXI, museum of contemporary art, a few minutes walking from the Auditorium) the festival invades Rome.
In October, it seems to be again "Roma caput Mundi"!     

One of the most magic places in Rome, especially when it is marvellously illuminated in the evening, is certainly the “Ponte Sant’ Angelo”, the bridge constructed by the emperor Hadrian in the second century, in front of his mausoleum, and the mausoleum called today the “Castel Sant Angelo.”

The bridge was transformed, fifteen centuries later, by the great sculptor Bernini who sculpted (he and his school) the angels. Castel Sant Angelo has always been a sort of work in progress and contains, in fact, all the history of Rome.
 
 
The best way to discover Castel Sant Angelo is crossing the bridge on the Tiber that has the same name and then, visit the Castel inside, not only walking around just on the road to St Peter. That visit is an unforgettable experience.

Especially now, because the Castle is, since the half of June, for the first time, completely opened to the visitors and the visits are organized in a much better way than before. It is finally possible to understand the significance of that monument that, at the contrary of so many others of the ancient Rome, is not just a ruin because during centuries it never stopped to be transformed and used.
 
 
At the beginning, in the 2nd century, it was a Mausoleum that contained the ashes, first of Hadrian and than of other emperors. Later, the popes transformed the Mausoleum in a fortress where they could protect themselves from the assaults of their enemies and that they could reach through an elevated long (800m) corridor that connect the Vatican with the Castel Sant'Angelo, the famous “Passetto di Borgo”.

The name of “Castel Sant Angelo” was given to the monument in the 590, during the plague. The pope Gregorio Magno had a vision of the archangel Michel putting his sword in the sheath to announce the end of the epidemic. A sculpture of the archangel was erected on the fortress. Te other angels, those of the bridge, came some centuries later…
The fortress was also a prison. In the 18th century Cagliostro was held in one of the cells of the Castle and the last act of the Puccini’s opera, La Tosca, takes place on the terrace of the Castel Sant Angelo where la Tosca, desperate after Mario has been shot, jumps into the river Tiber.
 
During the Renaissance, the refuge of Popes had very luxury apartments, decorated with splendid murals. But some of the paintings that we can admire now, for the first time, are much more recent:  beginning of the 20th century, pure Liberty style, with military topics, because the Castel Sant'Angelo became also a military garrison after the unification of Italy.
 
All the rooms and the stairs of the Castel are now open to the public. All the visitors can also walk through Giovanni Sallustio Peruzzi's (16th century architect) Gate that leads to the gardens.
 
Another important new opportunity is the very sophisticated technology that is offered to the visitors thanks to some brand new Apps for smartphones with explanations in 7 languages.
 
 
Opened from 9h - 19h30h every day.
From 24 June to 17 September, from Thursday to Sunday special summer timetable until midnight.

The studios of Cinecittà were inaugurated  80 years ago, on the 28th of April, by Benito Mussolini.
To celebrate this anniversary, the studios are more opened than ever to the public with different exhibitions (opened every day, except Tuesday, from 9.30 to 19.30) , sets (ancient Rome, Jerusalem, Florence in the 1400) and didactic activities for children. Especially on Sunday where it is also possible to have a picnic on the lawns around “Il Caffé, with the Federico Fellini’s “Venusia” that is there since he shot his “Casanova” in the 1976.

From the Etruscan to the Contemporary Art, Rome is very rich in museums. But, one of them, called “ The Museum of Rome“, in the splendid Palazzo Braschi, looking out on the jewel of baroque, the Piazza Navona, is a very special one that helps, perhaps more that any other, to understand the real soul of Rome. It is the right moment to visit it: a few weeks ago, the museum reopened all his 3 floors after a long restoring and restyling work.

Palazzo Braschi, with his entrance on the small Piazza di San Pantaleo and the Corso Vittorio Emanuele, is a magnificent example of the neo-classical style. It was constructed between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th.  First, by the Pope Pius VI, for his nephew,  Luigi Braschi. And that was the last construction of a Pope for his family, interrupted by the French Occupation of Napoleon. After a few years and the exile of the Pope in France, the construction went on. The monumental stairs and the chapel on the first floor are attributed to the famous neo-classical architect Giuseppe Valadier (that was Italian in spite of his French name!)

In 1871, when Rome became the capital of Italy, the Braschi family sold the palace to the State and the palace housed the ministry of Interior. During the Fascism, it was used for some exhibitions and other events by the Mussolini’s regime and the first  “Museum of Rome” was opened (in an another place, rating the “Boccca della Verità”) in 1930 to underline the link between the ancient Rome and the Fascism.
After the war, 300 homeless families used to live in Palazzo Brachi until 1949, damaging unfortunately a part of the beautiful mural and ceiling fresco. In 1952, the “Museum of Rome” was transferred in the palazzo Braschi . It closed on 1987 to be restored, opened again in the 2002 and had a new restyling, floor by floor, these last years.

The museum is made by a suite of huge rooms, beautifully decorated by gracious neo-classical grotesque and other mural paintings, with a rich collection of sculptures, paintings, old photographs, furniture etc…on a thematic base:  Portraits of the governors (almost of the eighteenth century), landscapes (almost seventeenth but also twentieth century), celebrations and games, photographs of destructions (of the narrow streets of medieval Rome) and constructions (of a modern city).
 
The paintings, even those of the end of the nineteenth century, show us how Rome was a small town with extraordinary monuments, churches and palaces, in the middle of the countryside. And this, not such a long time ago!

We discover how the Romans always loved “circenses” and celebrations. And also, that already at the beginning of the 19th century, Rome attracted many visitors from abroad. And so, beside Canova’s sculptors and Ipolitto Caffi’s landscapes, there is a delicious portrait of a little girl, miss Catherine Bishop, of Joshua Reynolds.

And that is not all you can find at the Palazzo Braschi in these days.  On the first floor, there is an exhibition opened until the 7 of May: “Artemisia Gentileschi e il suo tempo”, “Artemisia and her time”, that of the great Caravaggio to whom Artemisia, a woman painter (a rarity in that time!), is often compared. 
 
Piazza di San Pantaleo
Opened every day except Monday from 10h to 19h.

"Levant, Maestral, Tramuntana....", these tree winds, from East, North-West and North, blow in the whole Mediterranean area and particularly on the Dalmatian coast,  the island of Brac and, at the North-west part of the island, in the little harbour of Sutivan, just opposite the main town of Dalmatia, Split.

These winds that refresh the hot summers are also the names of tree tracks of  "Bike Friendly Sutivan", officially opened during last summer. Starting from Sutivan, you can chose your track according to your capacities. Maestral, the easiest one (an asphalt road), leads you to the splendid beaches around the bay of Likva, on the west of the harbour. Taking the Levant track, at the east side, you can go to the delicious nearby village of Mirca. And with Tramuntana you climb the little hill of St Roko (the patron saint of Sutivan) with a small church of the 17th century and a splendid view on the mainland.

You can also go much further and discover the whole island on your bike. Going around the coast but also, and it is perhaps the only way to know Brac, venturing inside the island. Biking in the middle of olive groves and vineyards you can understand what is really this island, discovering his past.

Biking, you'll pass through perfectly preserved old little villages and little towns where people used to live for centuries, staying far from the dangers of a sea full of pirates. One of the oldest settlements on the Island is Skrip with his Illyrian town walls from 1400 BC and the legend (there are no historical proofs) says that Saint Helen, Emperor Constantine mother, was born there. In Skrip you can visit a very interesting museum of Brac. In Dracevica, Dol or Gornji Humac, for example, the tourism hasn't spoiled at all the authenticity of the little villages because there are no beaches. The same for Nerezisce that was the capital of the island from 1000 to 1827 and that still has some beautiful old mansion.

Biking, you'll find yourself on Napoleon's old roads, the first ever made on the island (as, in fact, in the whole Dalmatian Coast). You might also cross a bridge called Franz-Josef, in memory of a visit that the Emperor made to the island and to Sutivan in 1875.
Biking is also a good way to climb on the peak of the island, Vidova Gora (780m) and discover an extraordinary panorama with a necklace of islands.  You could make some strange encounters in old caverns, with dragons or a Hercules that was sculptured in the stone in the old Roman times...

Two years ago, when he still was the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson spent the summer holidays in Sutivan with his family and he made this enthusiastic declaration in a little video that is used now as a publicity for "Bike friendly Sutivan":
"We have all been cycling around in the neighbourhood of Sutivan and it is been very safe, absolutely beautiful, food is superb and I cannot recommend it too highly."
"Bike Friendly Sutivan" organised his first competition at the end of May, a few days ago, under the name "Uvati Vitar" that means in Dalmatian dialect "Catch the Wind”

Nothing strange to that when you know that Sutivan is, from many years, the centre of an international festival of outdoor extreme sports named "Vanka Regule"  ("Out Of Norm") that takes place in July.

Who doesn’t know “ The Colosseum “, the most famous monument of ancient Rome?  Visit Rome without having a look to that emblem of Roman eternity is almost unthinkable. Especially now that an exhibition, called “The Colosseum: An Icon”, was opened a few days ago on the middle floor of the “Flavian Amphitheatre (that was the originally name) and will least until next January.

The exhibition where are exposed, for the first time, a lot of remnants that are the testimony of a long and almost unknown story of the Colosseum, during the middle Age and later, opened a few months after the end of the restorations works that costed some 25 millions of Euro to Diego Della Valle (Tod’s) and that gave back their originally light colour to the Colosseum stones (travertine) that became grey for the polluted air coming from the cars and bus that used, for more than a century, to pass very near, all around the antique amphitheatre.

The biggest amphitheatre of the ancient Rome (with a capacity of 80.000 spectators)  was constructed at the time of Vespasien, of the Flavian Dynasty (also famous because he introduced the first public toilets!), between 70 A.D. and 76 A.D.  But it was completed only in 80 A.D. under Titus.
The inaugural festival lasted 100 days and more than 500 beast and who knows how many gladiators were killed during this grand opening period.
During lunch- time, these very violent games where replaced by something even more cruel: the execution of death sentences.

In the third century, even if there is no historical base to be sure of that, it seems that a lot of Christians were martyred there. Not certainly in the time of Nero as we could see in the famous American film “Quo Vadis” for the simple reason that it didn’t exist yet.
The only link with Nero is that the name Colosseum comes probably from the Nero’s colossal statue erected just near the Flavian Amphitheatre that was constructed on the side of the lake in the gardens of Nero’s Domus Aurea.

Another explanation for the name Colosseum is that, in the Middle Age, the amphitheatre was surrounded by small houses and looked enormous.
In fact, the monument remained still very important for the Romans, even after the fall of the Roman Empire, despite a lot of pillages (St Peter and different palaces where built with the travertine stones stolen to the Colosseum) and 2 or 3 earthquake (in 407, in 1231 and in 1349).
 
During all the Middle age, there were slaughterhouses, stables and many craftsman shops inside the monument. In the time of the wars betweens two families, the Frangipane and the Annibaldi , in the 12th century, the Frangipane constructed a tower and a timber walkway used by their soldiers, on the top of the south flank of the amphitheatre. Later, somebody opened a hospital. And, thanks to a particularly good microclimate, in the 17th century, the Colosseum had a fantastic botanical garden with more than 400 different plants.
 
All this unknown history of almost 2000 years is told by the remnants, paintings, drawings, models etc… exposed. Without forgetting the myth of the Colosseum that is kept alive by so many “peplum” films that are part of the program of this exceptional exhibition opened until the 8 January 2018.

"Carnival", today, means Rio or Venice, certainly not Rome. Though this celebration was born in the ancient Rome and the Roman Carnival was, until almost the end of the 19th century, one of the most spectacular events in the world.
Using the word "event" is probably not the best way to talk about the Roman Carnival because, until the 17th century, it lasted for a long period that was extended, more or less, to the whole winter. Yes, during centuries of pope's reign, Carnival started already on the famous "twelfth night", the 6 of January, and ended on the night of the Fat Tuesday, just before the beginning of Lent, the period of 40 days of fasting and rigors before Easter.

The Carnival, which the name comes probably from Latin "carrum navalis" that means "float shaped like a ship", as they were used for this festival or, according to other opinions, from "carnem levare" ("take away the meat" that happens at the end of the festival), is the Christian version of a very old tradition, from an immemorial time: the humans were afraid to see the sun disappear a bit more every day until the winter's solstice and than, the frightening phenomena was inverted and the hope could come back.

That fear was also the origin of the old roman festival "Saturnalia" that was celebrated from the 17th to the 23d of December, the last month of the roman year, in honor of Saturn (Cronus for the Greeks). He was not only the terrifying pagan divinity who devoured his own children, but he was also the god of sowing, and the king of a mythic "golden age".  The "Saturnalia" was a festival of light, in the middle of the winter. Exactly like, a few centuries later, when the "Carnevale" was celebrated all along the via del Corso, the urban stretch of the old roman Flaminia that ends in the hearth of Rome and that remains even now "the" central street of Rome. Via del Corso (called before "via Lata") was the theatre of battles between the "moccoletti ", the candles that everybody handled trying to blow out the other candles and maintain their owns lighted and battles of "confetti", little candies at the origin and, later, tiny chalk balls. Invaded by horse races and masquerade balls, with many masks from the Commedia dell'Arte, as Pulcinella or the more roman Meo Patacca or Rugantino. During the festival, the roles were reversed (like during the Saturnalia, where the slaves were served by their masters) and the rules didn’t exist, in a sort of copy of the old Roman's "libertas dicembri ".

These lasts years the old tradition is coming back. For the Roman Carnival 2017, via del Corso will be again, with the whole “centro storico” , from the Piazza del Popolo to Piazza di Spagna and Piazza Navona an opened air theater with clowns, float parade, music and confetti (no more chalk but paper!) during the whole month of February. And, as the majority of Romans live now in the suburbs and no more in the center of Rome, the biggest parades, on Sunday 26 February and on “Fat Tuesday” (28 February), will take place via Tiburtina, between Portanaccio and Casal Bruciato, in front of the famous cinema studios “De Paolis”. So, an old tradition that seemed forgotten, like nature, is reborn.

Don’t believe those who say that the magic Rome that princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn) discovered during her unforgettable “Roman Holidays” with the irresistible journalist Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck) doesn’t exist any more. It is not true, even if that beautiful romance has almost 65 years!

Not far from the noisy and crowded via del Corso, between the sumptuous Piazza del Popolo and the famous Spanish Steps, there is a little street that seems protect by an enchantment. An unexpected oasis of peace and beauty, with small houses surrounding courtyards and gardens that look like little villages lost in the middle of a big town.

Once, there were almost all luminous painter’s and sculptor ’s studios. One of them or, more exactly, two of them (at the number 51 and the number 33), where the sculptor Alcide Tico lived and worked, were chosen by William Wyler to shot his film “Roman Holidays” in the 1952.  Today, if you enter in the courtyard of the number 51 where you can find different little shops of design and interior architecture, go the the porter, Fabrizio Falcone. He has transformed his lodge in a little museum with the walls covered by posters and photographs of Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck and he will, if you are lucky and he is not to busy, show you the famous steps leading to Joe’s apartment and the terrace where the panorama has not change at all from the fifties: the old “centro storico” of Rome that you can admire from the via Margutta terraces, on the slope of the hill Pincio and the park of Villa Borghese, with his roof gardens, churches and cupolas, is exactly the same that princess Ann marvelled.  The only new things in via Margutta are some luxury shops, some antiques, and a good vegetarian restaurant…

If you like cinema, there is another important address in via Margutta, at the opposite side of the famous number 51 of the tiny street . Going towards piazza del Popolo, at the number 110, you’ll see a little  memorial plaque dedicated to Federico Fellini and his wife, the marvellous actress Giulietta Masina. The couple used to live there, on the first floor, in a huge apartment, full of books, for decades, until they died, in the nineties.
 It was not unusual to see Fellini drinking a cafe in the “Canova bar”, a few meter from there, on the Piazza del Popolo, in the morning, before he went to work, or in his office in Corso d’Italia, just at the other side of the villa Borghese, or in his beloved “teatro 5” at the Cinecittà film studios.

Winter is very close and grape and olive harvests are almost completed in Italy.
Now it is time to rest a bit and tell you the amazing story of our olives harvest experience.
We are located in Maremma, the southern part of Tuscany: our country house lies within a working farm estate (27 acres) producing first quality Tuscan extra virgin olive oil.

The olive trees that are all around our house have seen many things and many people as they are much more old than our grandparents. There is a very special atmosphere, the time seems to stop some days, the surroundings are whispering stories about farmers and old traditions from once upon a time.

The olive picking usually starts at the beginning of November and ends in Mid December all around Tuscany depending on atmospheric conditions.
 
Olive harvesting is not an easy work: usually, the entire family, often friends and even seasonal workers are called to help during the harvest. Usually the older people of the area are the only people whit the know how in order to correctly decide when to start picking up these little green enchanted fruits. If you start too early the oil quantity will be modest, if you wait too much the taste will be bitter. This activity is not about science and numbers but about skills and experience.

The olives are picked by hand or with olive harvester shakers, they are stocked in nets and then in baskets that are transported the same day of the picking to the mill (the Frantoio). In order to have the best oil and to avoid fermentation the olives must be squeezed in 1 or 2 days from the picking.
There is an unrepeatable energy that is produced during these long days around, inside and over these beautiful trees. Probably brotherhood is the best term to define this nice atmosphere.

We do send our olives to the Mill (Frantoio) in Scansano, where Mister Osvaldo controls, manages and conducts all the different aspects of the squeezing procedure. First of all the olives are separated from the leaves and are cleaned with water.

Then the cleaned olives are pressed obtaining the Olive Paste as a result. Then this paste is gently mixed in order to help the separation of water from oil molecules.

The next step is extremely important and consists in the extraction of the olive oil: the paste is sent to a centrifuge that separates water from extra virgin oil. After 1 to 2 hours of procedures the “green gold” flows out of the machines and can be finally tasted on a crispy homemade Tuscan bread bruschetta. The only word that describes this moment is happiness.

Do you know want to learn how the olive oil is produced? Have you ever experienced the olive harvest tradition in Tuscany?
Many hands are needed to pick olives! That's why it could become a very interesting experience for you to join us, so contact us if you're coming to Tuscany during next Fall. We can host you in our marvelous villa!

After years of restoration and excavations, Circus Maximus, the largest Roman monument is opened to the public (since the 17th of November), even if the restoration is not completed (only the North East part is done).

This huge ancient roman chariot racing stadium and mass entertainment venue, in the Murcia valley, between the Aventine and the Palatine hills, existed probably at the very beginning of Rome, almost 2.8OO years ago (the foundation of Rome is dated 21 April 753 BC). According to tradition, the founder of Rome, the legendary Romulus, constructed it and vowed it to the god Consus. The famous "rape of the Sabine women" happened there.

Circus Maximus was destructed by fire many times and reconstructed by several kings, beginning with Tarquinio Prisco, at the end of the VI° century BC and, later, by emperors. The first constructions were in wood and than in bricks and stones. There were two obelisks inside the Circus. One is now on the Piazza del Popolo, the other one Piazza San Giovanni.

With his 621m long and 118m large and the capacity to receive hundreds of thousands people (150.000 according some sources, much more according others) the Circus Maximus became the biggest venue for "ludi", the games, that the antique Romans liked so much.  Not only for the chariot racing that we can see in the famous peplum film Ben Hur (that was not shut there, though but in another of the 12 Circus of the ancient Rome!) but also "naumachie" (vessel battles), gladiator's fights, beast (leopard, bears, elephant...) hunts and fights, plays, recitals, athletics, triumphal processions ("pompa circensis")...And public executions!

The excavations discovered in the ground level a lot of workshops, shops, taverna, brothels, betting shops and "latrina," lavatories. Centuries ago, the Roman's already used to bet on a horse. And they also had already lavatories, with current water that came from the aqueduct. It is now possible to visit one of these "avant-garde" latrina entering in a stretch of tunnels of 100 m in the "ground level", beneath the last tier of spectator's seating.

The Circus Maximus was still in function in the sixth century (549) under Totila, one of the last kings of the Ostrogoths. Later, the circus was vandalised for centuries and the valley became an agriculture soil, property of the roman family Frangipane who built a tower, la Toretta della Moletta, with defensive walls in the 12th century. This medieval tower was also restored and can be visited, offering a marvellous panorama on the whole archaeological site that, these last years, became a sort of public park with, some times, big concerts (as the one of the Rolling Stones in 2014).  

The entrance for the visitors is on the Piazza di Porta Capena.  Opened every day except Monday, from 10h to 16h.  After the 12th of December only during the weekends (10h 16h) and the other days by request (tel. n°: 00 39 06 0608) from 9h to 21h.  

Thanks to Rome Municipality for the photos of the Circo Massimo.

A beautiful surprise is waiting for you in Rome, in the Termini Railway Station.  These last years, especially, the station was not at all a place where to stay more than the strict necessary time to catch a train.

Now it is completely restored and the right wing that was build in the thirties by a great architect of that time, Angiolo Mazzoni, closed for years, is again a beautiful opened space dominated by marble vaults (Cappa Mazzoniana) that houses (from the 5 of October) an extraordinary traditional Italian food market called "Il Mercato centrale", opened every days from seven in the morning until midnight in Via Giolitti 36.

Exactly like the one opened in Florence two years ago, at the first floor of the old San Lorenzo market by the famous Florentine chef Umberto Montano and that had, this year, more than 3 millions visitors.
This anti-fast-food place seems to have already a lot of fans.  It is so unusual to see all together so much high quality artisanal food especially in a place that never had an "Oyster Bar" (New York-Grand Central) or a Train Bleu restaurant (Paris- Gare de Lyon).

Inside the "Mercato Centrale", there is a restaurant on the first floor with the chef of a famous roman restaurant, Oliver Glowig, and tables everywhere (for 500 people). It is also possible to buy and take away anything, raw food to prepare at home or already cooked delicious traditional dishes. Fresh fish or meat, fresh pasta, pizzas, pastries, ice cream, chocolate, cheese, truffles, Sicilian specialities, salamis, artichokes, mushrooms and other roman specialities...Also bread and whine, vegetarian and vegan food, hamburger of the best beef from Tuscany, the "Chianina" etc...
 All together, there are 15 boutiques, 15 big names of Italian culinary tradition. Amongst them, the roman "pizzaiolo" Stefano Callegari that invented, years ago, the famous "trapizzino", a little jewel where a piece of pizza becomes a sort of "tramezzino" (sandwich of sliced bread) full of tasty food.

There is a strange contamination effect: when you leave the "Cappa Mazzoniana" and continue to walk inside the station, you notice that the quality of the food that you can find there, in the "bars" of the station, has improved, at least from an esthetical point of view, and it is a pleasure to go around and discover nice shops everywhere.
It should be even better in the next months if Umberto Montano, the creator of this magic "Mercato Centrale", succeeds to go on with his project that provides also cinema, theatre and other cultural events inside his Mercato Centrale that he wants to be "a space for high quality and culture, a place for interlocking".

The name of the most important Dalmatian town, "Split", comes from the Latin word "palatium", according to some experts. Though, all of them do not agree and certain affirm that the origin of that name is "Aspalathos", the Greek appellation for broom, a very common plant in the country around Split.
But what is absolutely sure, beyond these controversies, is that this beautiful little Mediterranean town that was called Spalato, Spalatro, Spljet and now Split, is born inside and around the palace of a great Roman Emperor, Diocletian. Or, more exactly, inside a huge fortress surrounding a luxury private villa with an atrium, a vestibule, a peristyle, a mausoleum ...

With two mains streets, four large towers at the four corners  and four gates (Golden on the north, Silver on the east, Iron on the west and  Brass on the south). Diocletian, who was born in a village near Salona, (today Solin, a few miles from Split), the capital of the Roman Province of Dalmatia, built this amazing property at the beginning of the fourth century, when he decided to resign (the 1may of 305 AD) after twenty years of reign, a record for those times.

When you arrive in Split by the sea, you have in front of you the "riva", the sea front that is, in fact, the facade of the palace. Nothing to do with the ancient ruins that you can find in so many places around the Mediterranean sea! On the "riva" the walls, the windows, the columns and the arcades of the old palace are completely integrated in normal houses where people live, in shops, cafés or restaurants.

All the experts agree that the Diocletian's palace in Split is one of the best preserved Roman antiquity. Perhaps even the best one, thanks to that complete integration in the every days life, since long centuries.

In the seventh century, the palace was an extraordinary refuge for the Romanised population who lived in the surroundings and tried to escape at the violence of the new invaders:  the Avars and the Croats.  For centuries, the Diocletian palace was forgotten by the world. Until the publishing, in 1764, of the book "Ruins of the palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalmatia" of the Scottish neo-classical architect Robert Adam that was, like two French artists, Charles Louis Clérisseau and, a few years later, Louis François Cassas, very impressed by the Diocletian Palace that inspired him some buildings on the Thames in London.
The Diocletian Palace (that means the whole centre of Split) who is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979 became a television set for the fourth and the fifth season (2014-2015) of the famous American television series "Games of Throne". Daenaris kept her dragons in a perfect place: the Diocletian Palace cellars!

Continuing our tour amongst the churches of Rome, looking for the most precious treasures of art, it is impossible, sometimes, to avoid queuing. To see the most beautiful Michelangelo's sculpture, "La Pietà"  (made in 1499, when he was only 25years old!) you'll have to go inside St Peter that is more crowded than ever because of the Jubilee. But the beauty that you'll discover is worth a long wait...

To see another Michelangelo's masterpiece, the Sistine Chapel, even if it is just beside St Peter, you'll have to wait in another queue (and, this time, pay also a ticket that is better to book in advance), at the entrance of the Vatican Museums.

But you can also find other Michelangelo's works in other churches with a much easier access. For example, in San Pietro in Vincoli, near the via Cavour, not far from the emperor Nero's Golden House (Domus Aurea) and the Colosseum, you'll see a impressive statue of Moses.

But, if you are in Vatican, you can first just cross the Tiber and walk towards the Pantheon and the Piazza della Minerva. Inside  "Santa Maria sopra Minerva", there is another Michelangelo's sculpture, on the left side of the main altar,  "Christ bearing the cross", that was completed later or, more precisely, "covered" with a bronze drapery. Like some Sistine Chapel nudes that were "dressed" after the Trent Council (1545- 1563)...

In this beautiful gothic church (the only one in Rome!) built upon a Minerva's temple in the 13th century, you can also admire some marvellous frescoes by the Florentine painter Filippino Lippi (Filippo Lippi's son) in the Cappella Carafa ((the Assumption and the Annunciation are unforgettable), on the right side of the main altar. And, on the square in front of the church, Piazza della Minerva, the amusing little elephant that carries an obelisk is an unusual Bernini's work.

Completely different from one of the most intense Bernini's sculpture, "The Ecstasy of St Teresa of Avila ", a baroque absolute masterpiece that you can admire in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, via Venti Settembre, not far from the Termini train station. It is also not so far from San Pietro in Vincoli (the Michelangelo's Moses) and from Santa Maria Maggiore, the oldest of the four papal basilicas of Rome. You have to visit this beautiful basilica, especially if you like mosaics. And, in that case, you cannot ignore Santa Prassede, jus a few steps from Santa Maria, with her extraordinary byzantine mosaics from the 9th century.
But, all this is just a little part of the treasures enshrined in the... 900 churches of Rome.