The history of Carbonara is uncertain, mysterious and debated. There is not an official version recognized by all but many and various hypotheses about the birth of this delicious dish of the gastronomic tradition of Lazio Region, like the Amatriciana and Gricia.
 
There is a nationalist hypothesis that says that the birth of the Carbonara is related to the woodsmen who were producing charcoal during their seasonal migrations to the Apennines between Lazio and Abruzzo. They would bring saddlebags with eggs, pecorino cheese and pork cheek and they would prepare the pasta on open fires. In this case the recipe would be the evolution of the "cacio e ova" typically consumed by the farmers and by the woodsmen of these lands.

There is another (interesting) version that says that the recipe was born by chance during the occupation by the American troops in Italy, around 1944 with the introduction of bacon and lyophilized eggs. The legend says that American soldiers added their ration composed of bacon, cream and powdered eggs to spaghettis.
 
After the liberation of Rome, the dish became increasingly part of the menu of Roman taverns from 1946 onwards.

Carbonara’s history is complicated and uncertain while present-day Carbonara’s offer is much more clear and definite! That is why we want to present you a guide of the top 7 Carbonara’s in some of the best Roman restaurants.
Have a look to the Puntarella Rossa article from last year (still up to date) clicking here.

If you are in Rome before the 19th of August, you can also make a “ grand tour”, as it was called in the 18th century , in Venice (and even in London!) without leaving Rome, thanks to a magnificent exhibition that opened a few days ago in the Museo di Roma,  Palazzo Braschi (with a view on the beautiful piazza Navona) : “Canaletto 1697-1768”, commemorating  the 250th anniversary of the artist’s death.

With 42 paintings, 9 drawings and 16 books and documents, it is the largest exhibition ever held in Italy of Giovanni Antonio Canal, better known as Canaletto, and especially beloved by the curious British travellers of his time.

Symbol of the 18th century, the venetian painter was a genius of the “vedutismo”, the painting of urban landscapes, at the same time realistic, with a lot of very precise details, and full of dreams and imaginations. Some of those “vedute”, when mostly invented by the painter, were called  “Capriccio”. Canaletto whose father was a theatrical scene painter, was particularly inspired by the roman ruins that are the subject of many of his  “capricci” painted when he was staying in Rome.

Nevertheless, his most beloved “model” was his native Venice, with his canals and palaces, the Ponte Rialto, the Piazza San Marco, the famous celebrations of the wedding of Venice with the sea on the boat Bucintoro etc…
But he painted also a lot of “vedute” of London and the Thames. And, thanks to this roman exhibition, it is possible, for the first time, to see a huge painting of Chelsea on the Tames that was cut in two pieces by Canaletto himself, probably to earn more money.
The left side, with the Chelsea College is exposed in Blicking Hall (National trust) in Norfolk and the right side, with the Ranelagh House, in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes” in La Habana, Cuba. Now they are together again, for the first time, in Rome.

The exhibited paintings and other peaces are from museums all around the world (National Gallery of London, Kunsthistorishes Museum of Vienna, Pushkin museum of Moscow, the Budapest Museum etc… ) and also from many private collections. But some of those are missing. For example, the Canaletto’s of a very special collectionist: the queen Elisabeth II. To see them you’ll have to go to Buckingham Palace!
 
The Museum of Rome, Palazzo Braschi is opened every day, except Mondays, from 10h to 19h.
Entrance: Piazza San Pantaleo, 2.

There are at least tree or four reasons to visit in these months the Ara Pacis Museum, along the Tiber embankment, on the western edge of the Piazza Augusto Imperatore, in the hearth of Rome.

First to admire the marvellous roman bas relief, more than 2 thousand years old, that decorates the monumental alter called “Ara Pacis Augustae” build in 9 AD to celebrate the victories of the first roman emperor, Augustus (from 27 BC to 14 AD) in Spain and Gaul.

Second, to get a close look on the very controversial glass and travertine construction of a great American contemporary architect, Richard Meier that protects the alter. The Ara Pacis Museum is, in fact, the only modern construction that exists in the central part of Rome so that the contrasts could be disturbing.

Third, to see “The Ara as it was”. That means, first of all, full of colours, like all the roman monuments.  Every Friday and Saturday evening, from 7h30 to 11 pm (last entrance at 10pm) the visitors can, with AR visors (Samsung GearVR) and the cameras that have been built into them,  have a fully immersion in the antique Rome and assist with Emperor August and his family (that are represented on the altar, amongst other bas relief) at a sacrificial ritual through a film with actors, a 3d reconstruction of the Ara Pacis and computer graphics. 

But that is not all. From the 7th of February until the 3rd of June, in the lower part of the Ara Pacis Museum, there is a very precious exhibition: “Magnum Manifesto”, that celebrates the seventy anniversary of the foundation of the famous photographical agency Magnum, in New York in 1947.
 
The exhibition has 3 parts: 
Part 1: 1947- 1968 Human Rights and Wrongs.
Part 2: 1969-1989 An Inventory of Differences.
Part 3:  1990- 2017 Stories about Endings

It is possible to understand by these titles that the exhibition offers to the visitors an accurate and not at all trite historical documentation of the second part of the 20th century and the first years of the 21st. The Magnum members where always very concerned about what happened in the world and their watchful eyes certainly played a very important role in the recent History. 
 
Museo dell’Ara Pacis
Lungotevere Augusta
00186 Roma
Tel 0039 060608
Opened from 9h30 to 18h30.
THE ARA AS IT WAS  Friday and Saturday 19H30-  23h00

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

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.