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Travel tips, Food, Lifestyle, Street Art, Events and Exhibitions in Rome and all around Italy.

rome-Chiesa-del-Sacro-Cuore-del-Suffragio-even-called-small-Duomo-of-Milan

Did you know that in Rome there’s a small “Duomo di Milano” in the heart of the city?

You won’t believe your eyes: you are in Rome but for a moment you will seem to be in Milan. The Romans, who know it well, call it “little Duomo of Milan”. Let’s discover together the many curiosities related to this church. It is located on Lungotevere Prati, in the midst of buildings of a very different architectural style, not far from the Palace of Justice. This is the Church of the Sacred Heart of Suffrage, a small neo-Gothic jewel in the heart of Rome. The nice name given to it is naturally due to the incredible resemblance to the more famous Milanese church. The external facade, in fact, full of spiers and pinnacles, recalls the Cathedral of the Lombard capital. The construction of the church began in 1908 and the project was entrusted to the engineer Giuseppe Gualandi who was inspired, in the choice of style, by the Gothic from beyond the Alps. The building was completed in 1917 and blessed and opened for worship on 1 November of the same year; the following 10 December the parish was

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November 22, 2022 10:34 am
maritozzo-romano

Why is the typical Roman dessert with cream called maritozzo?

The day of one of the tastiest Roman desserts is approaching and let’s go and discover some curiosities. And in December Maritozzo Day in the Capital. For those who live in Rome or travel to the capital for tourism, a stop not to be missed is to eat il Maritozzo, a sweet from Lazio, made up of very soft bread that is slightly sweet and filled with fresh whipped cream. One of the Roman reference points for this dessert is located in via Ettore Rolli: “Er Maritozzaro” is always full of people and you have to queue punctually to be able to bite into one. An originally poor sweet, which in the Middle Ages was a meal for peasants deriving from an old sweet bun that dates back to ancient Rome. The etymology of the word derives from “husband”, in fact during the first Friday of March, the man who wanted to formalize his bond with a marriage proposal, used the sweet to hide a ring to give to the future bride. BOOK YOUR ROME IN A DAY Even the

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November 21, 2022 9:23 am
Villa-Borghese-cinema-dei-piccoli

In Rome there is the smallest cinema in the world

This is the Cinema dei Piccoli, a room dedicated to children born in 1934 where cartoons were initially shown. This is why the Romans began to call it “Mickey Mouse House”, but then Disney did not like it and opposed the use of this name. The first screen was a sheet, while today it has an area of 5 × 2.5, so small that in 2005 it was awarded the Guinness Book of World Records for the smallest cinema in the world. The Cinema dei Piccoli is a wooden building where about sixty people can be seated inside. It is located in Viale Della Pineta, inside the Villa Borghese Park (Porta Pinciana side) – Largo Marcello Mastroianni. As the official website of the small theater points out, the Cinema Dei Piccoli began its film career for children in April 1934: in comedy and cartoon programming. A couple of years later, a wooden silhouette with a large Mickey Mouse equipped with a movie camera is placed on the roof of the cinema and the word MICKEY HOUSE is added to the

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November 7, 2022 11:19 am
pantheon

Did you know? The Pantheon is the largest hemispherical dome ever built in unreinforced concrete

As for the diameter, today, if we do not consider the roof of the CNIT (Center des nouvelles industries et technologies) in Paris as a dome (in reality it is a cross vault), the dome of the Pantheon in Rome is still the largest. to the world, surpassing both the dome of San Pietro (diameter 42.52 m) and the dome of Brunelleschi in Florence (minor diagonal 41.47 m and the dome of Santa Sofia in Constantinople (greater diameter 31.24). Despite being so ancient, with its internal diameter of 44.30 m, the dome of the Pantheon is still the largest hemispherical dome ever built in unreinforced concrete. The Pantheon, located in the Pigna district in the historic center, is a building of ancient Rome built as a temple dedicated to all past, present and future divinities. It was founded in 27 BC. by Marco Vipsanio Agrippa, son-in-law of Augustus. It was rebuilt by the emperor Hadrian between 120 and 124 AD, after the fires of 80 and 110 AD. they had damaged the previous construction of the Augustan age. The massive

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October 22, 2022 3:34 pm
roman monuments

Roman monuments: the small church of the Colosseum

Roman monuments: the small church of the Colosseum. Santa Maria della Pietà, the small church of the Colosseum. Inside one of the most important monuments of Rome, the Flavian Amphitheater, in one of its large arches (to be precise the 24th arch), there is a small chapel dedicated to Santa Maria della Pietà. The church was founded between the 6th and 7th centuries. It has always been a place of worship, probably in memory of the people who died inside the Colosseum. The first information based on the church are those handed down by Cardinal Cencio Camerario, who was an illustrious historian and connoisseur of Roman churches. These documents date back to 1192, a time when it was known with the title of “Santissimo Salvatore in Rota Colisei”. In 1490 the Compagnia del Gonfalone began to represent the drama of the Passion of Christ in the center of the great arena of the Colosseum.Just like the Via Crucis which is celebrated every year starting from inside the Colosseum, retracing the stations up to the Temple of Venus and Rome. Subsequently

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May 24, 2022 7:27 pm
Pantheon-rome

Do you know when Rome became the capital of Italy?

Do you know when Rome became the capital of Italy? Everyone knows that Rome is the capital of Italy but not everyone is aware of the regions and the period in which the Eternal City became the most important place in the boot. Let’s find out together. In 1871, King Vittorio Emanuele officially made his solemn entry into the city to settle in the Quirinale. It is the beginning of the history of Rome, capital of the unitary state: after the “Presa di Porta Pia” on September 20, 1870, Rome was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy with the plebiscite of October 2 and was proclaimed Capital on 3 February 1871. Rome is the only city in Italy that does not have exclusively municipal memories; the whole history of Rome, from the time of the Caesars to the present day, is the history of a city whose importance extends infinitely beyond its territory; that is, a city destined to be the capital of a great state (Cavour, Speech to the Parliament of Turin, 25 March 1861). Before the choice was

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May 20, 2022 7:50 pm
Colosseum-tour-first-level

The Emperors arrived in the Colosseum using a secret passage

The Emperors arrived in the Colosseum using a secret passage. Under the Flavian Amphitheater, a gigantic structure for shows built in the imperial era, there is (and has recently been included in a recovery project), a dense series of tunnels that allowed gladiators, beasts and workers to move, work and enter the scene without being seen by the public, if not at the last moment. One passage in a particular way allowed the emperor to appear unexpectedly on stage: a spectacular move that allowed him to show himself to the public suddenly and in the middle of the same show. The Colosseum is the most grandiose spectacle machine of antiquity and behind the scenes it hid and hides a very complex underground world, invisible to the nearly 80,000 people sitting in the stands. In this labyrinthine underground citadel everything was functional to the staging on the arena: the arrival and deployment of the gladiators, the passage of the beasts from the cages to the arena. But also the entrance of the emperor escorted by the praetorian guard who entered the

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May 11, 2022 11:43 am
piazza-del-popolo

The Secret of People Square in Rome

Few are aware of a particular acoustic effect found in People Square. In this square, one of the most famous in Rome, two people can easily talk from one side of the square to the other without necessarily shouting. Lie or reality? Let’s see in detail. Piazza del Popolo is one of the most famous squares in Rome, at the foot of the Pincio, it was designed at the end of the 18th century by the architect Giuseppe Valadier.Today it is a large pedestrian area of about 16,000 m², a place for important public events: its capacity allows it to accommodate up to 65,000 people. BOOK YOUR WALKING TOUR OF ROME In one of the two hemicycles of the square, on the opposite side of the slope and terrace of the Pincio, in front of the Egyptian obelisk, there is a very long wall, in the center of which there is a large fountain (the fountain of Neptune). Stand in the center of the wall (the one opposite the Pincio), where the fountain is located, while the other person will

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May 4, 2022 2:04 pm
european-green-pass-international-certificate-covid

Back to normal, goodbye to the Green Pass from today: stop wearing masks even at the bar

Here are the new rules and what changes in Italy starting today: It is slowly returning to normal and this Sunday 1st of May 2022 marks an important stage in the now very long coexistence of Italians with Covid. In fact, starting today, the green pass will be presented in very few places (for example, the RSA) and even the masks will be recommended but not mandatory in many places. The mask will remain mandatory on long-distance travel (trains and airplanes), in cinemas, theaters and in closed sports competitions. This at least until June 15th. At work, in the public, they will be “recommended” for prudence, while in the private sector, individual companies will decide whether or not to make their employees wear them. BOOK YOUR ROME TOUR The recommendations, in any case, always remain the same: sanitize your hands, keep your distance and avoid crowds. Will the green pass still be required to travel abroad?Yes. The rules change according to the destination countries but the green pass in its “basic” form (vaccination, recovery or negative swab) will continue to

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May 1, 2022 9:45 am
barberini-symbol

The origin of the Roman saying. What the barbarians did not do, the Barberinis did

Quod non fecerunt barbari, fecerunt Barberini, or rather what the barbarians did not do the Barberini is a saying often repeated in Rome. The motto appears for the first time in a “pasquinata” that is a satirical phrase associated with “Pasquino” the most famous talking statue in Rome. Between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries at his feet, or around his neck, sheets containing satire in verse were hung in the night. And various sources attribute the saying to Monsignor Carlo Castelli, ambassador of the Duke of Mantua. According to a widespread belief, the phrase refers to decisions taken by the noble family that were real scars for the monuments of Rome, but not all the stories correspond entirely to the truth. DISCOVER MORE ABOUT MAX PARINI For example, it is often said that to build the Baldacchino di San Pietro by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the bronze covering of the Pantheon’s pronaos was removed and cast in 1625, under Pope Urban VIII. In reality, 99% of the material was heavily used in the construction of the 80 guns of Castel Sant’Angelo

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April 3, 2022 5:19 pm