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Travel Guide


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Cultural Information


Rome's cultural life has stepped out of the shadows and into the limelight in recent years. High-profile and innovative international performing arts festivals, such as the RomaEuropa Festival (see Special Events), Rome's new state-of-the-art auditorium (see Music below) and other venues, and massive city council spending on culture, have all helped to make this happen. Rome's only official arts centre, the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Via Nazionale 194 (website: www.palazzoesposizioni.it), which combines cinema with dance and exhibition spaces has a newly revamped interior and roof-garden terrace. Major exhibitions have a spectacular venue in the Scuderie Papali del Quirinale, renovated by famous Italian architect Gae Aulenti and located opposite the Quirinal Palace (tel: (06) 3996 7500; website: www.scuderiequirinale.it). Past shows have included retrospectives of major works from St Petersburg's Hermitage Museum, Sandro Botticelli, and Antonello da Messina. Contemporary art or photography shows are also programmed. And in a long line of major arts openings in past years, the city now has a Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo (MAXXI) (tel: (06) 321 0181; website: www.maxximuseo.org), a national centre for contemporary art and architecture. The former military barracks not far from Rome's new auditorium have been transformed and expanded under a project by well-known Anglo-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, and opened in 2007. Part of the state collection of contemporary art and architecture has been transferred here.

Those determined to sample something less conservative should seek out the Centri Sociali, non-profit, self-governing social centres set up by left-wing students during the 1970s, with support from the Italian Communist Party, which host the most radical concerts, films, theatre and dance events that Rome has to offer. Admission costs are at a minimum here, as are the prices for drinks at the bar. Centri Sociali attract an ‘alternative' crowd aged 18-30 and vary from well-run places offering educational courses and Internet cafes to suburban squats (see Live Music in Nightlife for more information).

Tickets for cultural events are in demand, so it is important for culture-keen visitors to rush to the box office with cash (not credit card) in hand some days prior to the performance. Prices start at around €30. Ticket agencies may save hassle. Orbis (tel: (06) 474 4776), provides tickets for concerts, theatre and sporting events. Hello Ticket (tel: (06) 4807 8400 or 800 907 080; website: www.helloticket.it) sells tickets by phone, online or at their main branch at Via Giolitti 34 (in the eastern wing of Termini train station).

The weekly Roma C'è and TrovaRoma publications (see above), daily newspapers La Repubblica and Il Messaggero and fortnightly magazine Wanted in Rome (website: www.wantedinrome.com) provide more information on cultural events.

Music: Rome's new auditorium, Viale Pietro de Coubertin 30 (tel: 199 109 783; website: www.auditorium.com) by Genoese architect Renzo Piano, the Auditorium or Parco della Musica (as it has been christened), features three halls of varying sizes and a large outdoor amphitheatre used for concerts and events. Everything from pop and jazz to dance and symphonic orchestras are hosted here, and the venue is the official home of Rome's principal and most prestigious classical music academy, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (tel: (06) 808 2058; website: www.santacecilia.it). Rome's Philharmonic, the Accademia Filarmonica (tel: (06) 320 1752; website: www.filarmonicaromana.org) performs regular operas and concerts at the Teatro Olimpico, Piazza Gentile da Fabriano 17, Flaminio (tel: (06) 326 5991; website: www.teatroolimpico.it). Rossini and Verdi were once members of this academy (founded in 1821) that offers a varied programme of chamber music, opera and contemporary music. There are many other venues for classical music including the main auditorium of Rome's La Sapienza University where the reputable Istituzione Universitaria dei Concerti, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5 (tel: (06) 361 0051, website: www.concertiiuc.it) holds concerts, churches and in the summer parks and archaeological sites, many of which are part of the Estate Romana series of events (see Special Events). Some of the most atmospheric summer venues for music (classical and contemporary) are the Baths of Caracalla, the Teatro di Marcello, the Fori Imperiali and the Terrazza del Pincio.

The Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Via Beniamino Gigli 1 (tel: (06) 4816 0255; website: www.operaroma.it), dominates the opera scene. The season runs from November to May. In summer the theatre hosts operas, ballets and concerts in the Baths of Caracalla. Free concerts (choral, chamber and organ recitals) are held in churches (including Sant'Ignazio, the Gesù and San Paolo entro le Mura) year-round by the Associazione Internazionale Amici di Musica Sacra (website: www.amicimusicasacra.com).

Theatre: The theatre season runs from October to May. The city's official troupe, the Teatro di Roma (tel: (06) 6880 4601; website: www.teatrodiroma.net), is based in two locations: at the prestigious Teatro Argentina, Largo di Torre Argentina 52 (tel: (06) 6880 4601), which hosts lavish and often highbrow productions directed by renowned directors, and at the Teatro India, Via Pierantoni 6, Lungotevere dei Papareschi (tel: (06) 5530 0894), a renovated former soap factory with three stages which puts on rather more experimental and multi-disciplinary offerings, also in summer. Musical comedies are performed at the fashionable Teatro Sistina, Via Sistina 129 (tel: (06) 420 0711; website: www.ilsistina.com). Two other venues managed by the ETI (Italian Theatre Board), the Teatro Valle, Via del Teatro Valle 21 (tel: (06) 6880 3794; website: www.teatrovalle.it), and the Teatro Quirino, Via delle Vergini 7 (tel: (06) 679 4585; website: www.teatroquirino.it), put on an interesting and varied programme, the first of contemporary work, the second of classics and Commedia dell'Arte. Also worth mentioning is the Teatro Palladium, Piazza Bartolomeo Romano 8 (tel: (06) 5706 7761; website: www.teatro-palladium.it) which is attached to the Rome's third university (known simply as Roma 3) and offers a very interesting range of readings, films, dance and theatre events. Fringe theatre is well represented at the Vascello, Via Giacinto Carini 78, Monteverde (tel: (06) 588 1021; website: www.teatrovascello.it).

Best of all are the open-air performances, held over summer in the lovely Giardino degli Aranci, Via di Santa Sabina, Aventino. Other venues are the Anfiteatro della Quercia del Tasso, Passeggiata del Gianicolo (tel: (06) 575 0827; website: www.anfiteatroquerciadeltasso.com), with stunning views over the city, and the Teatro Romano di Ostia Antica, the Roman amphitheatre in Ostia Antica. It hosts, among other events, the international performing arts Cosmophonies festival (website: www.cosmophonies.com).

Dance: The Rome Opera Ballet performs at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Via Beniamino Gigli (tel: (06) 481 601; website: www.operaroma.it), where the regular diet of classical ballet is enriched with guest performances of internationally renowned dancers. The Teatro Olimpico, Piazza Gentile da Fabriano 17, Flaminio (tel: (06) 326 5991; website: www.teatroolimpico.it), has a strong dance season, ranging from classical to contemporary. Tickets for dance productions at the Teatro Argentina, Largo di Torre Argentina 52 (tel: (06) 5530 0894; website: www.teatrodiroma.net), are snapped up, so early booking is advised.

Film: Italy's grand history in film has been centred in Rome since the Cinecittà (Cinema City), Via Tuscolana 1, was opened by Mussolini in 1937. Scenes from Anthony Minghella's The English Patient (1996) and Jane Campion's The Portrait of a Lady (1996) were filmed in these studios. The Talented Mr Ripley (1999) and Gladiator (2000) are more recent Hollywood films set in Rome, but Italian cinema has failed to match the flowering of the 1940s, 50s and 60s. Among the greats are Rossellini's Open City (1946) and Vittorio De Sica's The Bicycle Thief (1948), painting a harsh but touching picture of post-war Rome. Equally popular but highly romanticised was Jean Negulesco's Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), focusing on the quest for love and the Trevi Fountain, and Audrey Hepburn's Oscar-winning performance as a besotted princess in Roman Holiday (1953). However, it is Fellini's films Roma (1972) and La Dolce Vita (1959) that have indelibly stamped images of Rome on the movie-goer's mind. More recently Rome's version of Woody Allen, Nanni Moretti, enjoyed considerable success at home and abroad with films called Caro Diario (1993), which showed a beautiful and virtually empty Rome in August, and La Stanza del Figlio (2001), the dramatic tale of a family that loses a son. Some younger film-makers, such as Gabriele Muccino and Turkish born Ferzan Ozpetek, have used the city of Rome to great effect as a backdrop in films such as L'Ultimo Bacio (2001) by the former and Le Fate Ignoranti (2001) by the latter, both of which feature rising Italian actor Stefano Accorsi. Muccino has gone on to make the successful The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) with Will Smith in Hollywood, while Ozpetek has remained loyal to Rome. His most recent film, Cuore Sacro (Sacred Heart) (2005) is also his strongest to date and is largely set in the medieval Monti district of the city.

Though in recent years many older and smaller cinemas in Rome have closed to make way for larger multiscreen cinemas in the suburbs, there has been a simultaneous renaissance in small art house venues. The Cinema Trevi (near the fountain of the same name), which had been abandoned in the 1970s for example, reopened in 2003 as a state-of-the-art screening room and archive for the Italian National School of Cinema; the historic Cinema Farnese in Campo de' Fiori has just been refurbished and reopened; and  the city has its very own Casa del Cinema (House of Cinema), which hosts screenings as well as Q&A sessions with leading actors, directors and scriptwriters (website: www.casadelcinema.it).Metropolitan, Via del Corso 7 (tel: (06) 320 0933), and Warner Village Moderno, Piazza della Repubblica 45 (tel: (06) 477 791), dedicate one of their screens to English-language films. Films are also shown in their original language on Monday evening at Alcazar, Via Merry del Val 14 (tel: (06) 588 0099), while Nuovo Olimpia, Via in Lucina 16G (tel: (06) 686 1068), shows original-language films regularly. There are numerous open-air showings in the summer, including Cineporto, Viale Antonino di San Giuliano (Ponte Milvio) (tel: (06) 323 2063; website: www.cineporto.com), close to the Olympic Stadium; Isola del Cinema, Piazza San Bartolomeo (Isola Tiberina) (tel: (06) 581 1060; website: www.isoladelcinema.com), which transforms the Tiber island into an atmospheric open-air cinema during August and September; and Notti di Cinema a Piazza Vittorio (tel: (06) 445 1208; website: www.agisanec.lazio.it), which shows films daily in Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II in the months of July and August. Weekly showings and details of film festivals are set out in the weekly publication, Roma C'è or in the daily press.

Literary Notes: There is nothing like Ovid's Ars Amatoria (Art of Love - circa 16-25BC) for bringing Rome to life, with its vivid depiction of a trip to the Colosseum, the site of flirtation and grandiose spectacle. Those interested in political intrigue may turn to I Claudius and Claudius the God (1934), Robert Graves' portrayal of ancient Rome, or the more measured tones of Gibbon's History and Decline of the Roman Empire (1782). The dramatic poetry of Virgil's Aeneid (19BC), evokes the glory of the Roman Empire, blessed and cursed by the Gods. The Romantics had a soft spot for Rome; indeed Rome is the place where Keats breathed his last and the Keats-Shelley Memorial House is situated here (see Key Attractions). The tragic tale of Beatrice Cenci, beheaded in 1599 outside Castel Sant'Angelo for plotting to kill the father who had raped her, inspired Shelley's play The Cenci (1886).

A very good book about Ancient Rome is Marguerite Yourcenar's Memoirs of Hadrian (1951), a ‘ghost' autobiography of Emperor Hadrian's life that evokes daily life as well as more philosophical aspects of life in Rome back then. Also written in the 1950s, The Talented Mr Ripley (1955) by Patricia Highsmith is set mostly in Rome.

More recently, bestselling author Dan Brown's Angels and Demons (2003), the prequel to the acclaimed Da Vinci Code (2004) is set entirely in Rome and is crammed with Vatican intrigue and hi-tech drama.
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History


753BC Romulus kills his brother Remus and founds Rome
c. 616BC Tarquinius Priscus is made king
507-6BC The Etruscans are expelled; the Roman Republic is declared
494BC The Plebeians revolt against the Patrician, or ruling, class
450BC Codification of Roman laws into Twelve Tables
390BC Rome is invaded by the Gauls
312BC Construction starts of the Appennine Way
219BC Following his crossing of the Alps, Hannibal takes control of most of Italy
168BC Rome conquers Greece
146BC After more than a hundred years of war, Rome destroys Carthage
100BC Emperor Julius Caesar is born
55BC The Roman invasion of Britain
44BC Brutus and Cassius assassinate Caesar on the Ides of March
31BC Anthony and Cleopatra are defeated by Octavian at the Battle of Actium
AD37-41 Reign of Emperor Caligula
64 Nero fiddles while Rome burns
80 The Colosseum is completed
125 Pantheon is rebuilt
313 Following years of persecution, Constantine promulgates the Edict of Milan, which guarantees toleration of Christianity
410 The Visigoths march on Rome
475-6 Byzantium is proclaimed the centre of the Empire
800 Alliance with the Franks results in the crowning of Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor
1300 First Holy Year
1309 The papacy under Clement V moves to Avignon
1423 Holy Year
1450 Holy Year
1475 Holy Year
1508 Michelangelo begins the Sistine Chapel ceiling
1527 Charles V’s troops sack Rome
1563 Council of Trent leads to the start of the Counter-Reformation
18th C Construction of Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps
1798 Pope is abducted by the French who declare Rome a republic
1808 Napoleon Bonaparte annexes the city
1814 Napoleon falls and the papacy is restored
1860 Kingdom of Italy is established. The French remain in Rome
1870 Unification of Italy
1922 Mussolini’s ‘Blackshirts’ descend on Rome
1929 Creation of the Vatican State
1943 Mussolini is ousted
1946 King Umberto II goes into exile following the referendum that proclaims Italy as a republic
1959 Release of Fellini’s La Dolce Vita
1960 Rome hosts Olympic Games
1981 Pope John Paul II is wounded in a gun attack
1990 Italy hosts the World Cup
1994 Berlusconi’s right-wing coalition lasts just a few months
1995 Andreotti, Italy’s former Prime Minister, is put on trial charged with colluding with the Mafia
1996 Prodi wins the general election and forms a left-wing coalition
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