Art & Museums, Rome

Favorite thing: If you are planning to visit Rome buy a Roma Pass Card website: www.romapass.it. (EUR 25)It is a special tourist cultural card that enables both tourists and interested local residents, the opportunity to benifit from various discounts and services that makes it easier to enjoy the splendour of Rome.

Free entry to the first 2 visited museums and / or archaeological sites of your choice
Reduced ticket prices to all other museums and / or archaeological sites visited thereafter
Free use of the city's public transport network (urban buses and trains, Underground lines A and B, Met.Ro trains: Roma - Lido, Roma - Viterbo for the Roma - Sacrofano section, Roma - Pantano railways lines within the urban territory of the City of Rome) Trenitalia trains and Cotral buses are not included.
Discounted tickets to exhibitions, events and other collaborating operators and businesses.
Reduced charges for use of the On-call Multi-lingual Medical Service for Tourists (MET Travel Health)
Tourist cultural service Roma Informa.
At the Colosseum a reserved turnstile is available for Roma Pass holders to get direct access to the monument

Favorite thing: One of the nicest things we did while in Rome was to go see an opera. The concierge at our hotel helped us find and book a performance. We wanted to see something in one of Rome's opera houses, but were not able to locate anything with availability. However, we were able to purchase seats at an opera that was being conducted in a church near Termini - Chiese di san Paolo. The opera (I Musici Veneziani) was magnicificent. The church was filled with pleased attendees and the performance lasted about an hour and a half.

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Favorite thing: Byzantine mosaics were to be a focus of my trip to Rome, I knew they would be wonderful, they were and I must come back one day to see more. But, I also must come back to see more of the exquisite 12th century mosaic work of the Cosmati - the wonderfully precise and intricate mosaic inlaid work you see in so many of the city's churches. Floors, altars, walls, columns - it's everywhere and it's beautiful.

Wonderfully diverse geometric patterns are executed in coloured stone, gold and glass tesserae on a fields of white marble around large circles and rectangles of porphyry and serpentine. The variety is infinite, the effect is fabulous.

Favorite thing: I love classical music but I'm more oriented to chamber music than to opera. For me the perfection of music results of three instruments: Piano, Violin and Violoncello i.e. the classical trio.
This said Puccini and his Tosca are great moments of music and song although I am a bit lost with the libretto of Puccini's Tosca. I understand that this happened after Napoleon's Roman Republic and the restoration of the Popes powers in Rome but I'm getting confused with the political prisoner Angelotti and the painter Cavaradossi and their sentiments for the diva Floria Tosca.
Clear for me is the fact that baron Scarpia, a prelate and chief of the secret police is a sadist who wants to conquer Tosca.

Here we move to Castel St'Angelo to hear some of the best arias of Puccini on the upper terrace of the Castel. Nobody can forget the sublime "E Lucean le Stelle."
Meanwhile Tosca stabbed Scarpia with a knife, Cavaradossi has been tortured and a firing squad shoots him. Now, this is the crux of the matter, the bullets should have been blank but they were real (tricky Scarpia!).
Here the desperate Tosca jumps of the ramparts of the Castel St'Angelo.

I can assure you that this scene is most difficult to play.
My wife saw this opera performed at the Terme di Caracalla. La Tosca jumped over the fake rampart but instead of lying quietly on the other side until the end of the opera she stand up before the end provoking a general laughter in the public.
"Gloires et servitudes de l'Opéra!"

Great graphic art was the original poster by Adolfo Hohenstein for the first production of this opera in 1900 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome.

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Favorite thing: I can't visit the green parts of Rome without hearing inside me the music of Ottorino Respighi about the Pines of Rome. "Pini di Roma" is a symphonic poem composed in 1924.
Actually Respighi in the four movements of his composition describes the Pines of the Villa Borghese, Pines near a Catacomb, the Pines of the Janiculum and in the finale the Pines of the Via Appia.
There are nowhere so beautiful pines as those of Rome. In French we call them "pins parasol" because they spread like an umbrella.
The "Pini di Roma" from Respighi made a triumph although the Italian audiences of that time were more fond of the operas by Puccini, Rossini and Verdi (re. the excellent pages of a VT connoisseur "Nemorino").

Some years before, in 1917, Respighi had already composed another famous orchestral work "Fontane di Roma". The fountains chosen were the fountain of Valle Giulia at dawn, the Tritone fountain in the morning, the Trevi fountain in the afternoon and at sunset the fountain opposite Villa Medici.

In 1929 Respighi composed "Feste Romana" (Roman Festivals) completing his trilogy of symphonic poems about Rome.

Favorite thing: Franz Liszt lived in Rome from 1867 to 1877 and composed here some wonderful pieces for the piano bundled in the third volume of the "Années de Pélérinage".
The first piece "Angelus!" subtitled "Prayer to the Guardian Angels" evokes the Angelus bells which Liszt heard ringing in the evening at Rome.

The next three pieces also written in 1877 are famous in the world of classical music: "Aux Cyprès de la Villa d'Este, N°1" and "Aux Cyprès de la Villa d'Este, N°2". It is said that this one was originally inspired by the cypresses of the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Rome at the Terme di Diocletiano (re. my tips on this church). It is thought that these cypresses were planted by Michelangelo.
The third piece for piano "Les jeux d'eaux à la Villa d'Este" "the Fountains of the Villa d'Esta" where he staid, is even more famous. These works foreshadow the impressionism of pieces on similar subjects by Debussy and Ravel.

Liszt wrote about this work: "j'ai essayé de rendre en musique quelques unes de mes sensation les plus fortes, de mes plus vives perceptions…" (I tried to translate into music some of my strongest feelings, of my sharpest perceptions…).

Liszt met the pope Pie IX and played for him at the cloister of Santa Maria del Rosario, on the Monte Mario. Franz Liszt studied theology, was lodged at the Vatican and received the religious "minor orders" in 1865.

Favorite thing: Villa Borghese is huge and a good map will help immensely. The very best map of Villa Borghese is at the Rent a Bike Shop either by Villa Medici or by the entrance on Viale Goethe. An extremely simple and detailed map of the park.

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Favorite thing: After further review of my last tip, I would have to say that this might be the better view. First, its free from cost and the hassle of waiting in lines. In addition, you have the beautiful confines of Villa Borghese at your back with all its ponds, paths, and silence...

Pincio is the name of the hill directly above Piazza del Popolo. It is high above the square and gives a fantastic view over no less than 12 domes, including St Peters directly in front. With the noises of the city below it is the perfect place to contemplate just how wonderful a time you are having in Rome. It is best viewed in the early morning sun or with the sun lingering at dusk.