Latest news with #GalleriaBorghese
Sydney Morning Herald
3 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
I stayed in one of Rome's most crowded tourist spots
The Spanish Steps is one of the busiest corners of one of the busiest tourist cities in one of the world's most-visited nations. All day and evening tourists surge aimlessly up and down, as if wondering what they're supposed to do. Some sit exhausted on the steps to eat sandwiches, but will be moved on if police happen by. Others snap selfies using long sticks. Yet others in improbable fashions strike poses for social-media posts. Like everyone, there are times when I bemoan overtourism, but sometimes I just have to embrace it, and where better than on these whimsical steps, fronted by a baroque fountain and topped by a 16th-century twin-towered church? All these surging visitors are harmless enough. They're out in the sun, freed from routine and work, and excited about being in Italy. They chatter and hold hands and kiss and pose. Surely this celebration of life shouldn't be bemoaned. If you want a light-hearted, lively and lovely corner of Rome to stay in, the Spanish Steps beckon. You're right in the capital's most elegant shopping district, centred on Via dei Condotti, though if you're a fashionista you shouldn't miss Via Borgognona and Via Frattina, either. You can walk to the Trevi Fountain and Piazza Navona and (if you're a hearty walker at least) 2.2 kilometres to the Colosseum too. More esoteric sights are nearby, such as the Keats-Shelley house, the great sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini's house, and Rome's oldest coffeehouse, Antico Caffe Greco. And even here, in this busy Roman district, you can escape into the vast green space of the nearby Villa Borghese gardens, and find one of Europe's best art museums, Galleria Borghese, particularly unmissable if you're a fan of Caravaggio. In the evenings, I walk down the busy streets towards Piazza del Popolo, with its twin churches and obelisk. Crowds surge with me, but so what? I can stickybeak on the world and every nation's tourist habits.
Sydney Morning Herald
4 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
I stayed in one of the most overcrowded tourist spots
The Spanish Steps is one of the busiest corners of one of the busiest tourist cities in one of the world's most-visited nations. All day and evening tourists surge aimlessly up and down, as if wondering what they're supposed to do. Some sit exhausted on the steps to eat sandwiches, but will be moved on if police happen by. Others snap selfies using long sticks. Yet others in improbable fashions strike poses for social-media posts. Like everyone, there are times when I bemoan overtourism, but sometimes I just have to embrace it, and where better than on these whimsical steps, fronted by a baroque fountain and topped by a 16th-century twin-towered church? All these surging visitors are harmless enough. They're out in the sun, freed from routine and work, and excited about being in Italy. They chatter and hold hands and kiss and pose. Surely this celebration of life shouldn't be bemoaned. If you want a light-hearted, lively and lovely corner of Rome to stay in, the Spanish Steps beckon. You're right in the capital's most elegant shopping district, centred on Via dei Condotti, though if you're a fashionista you shouldn't miss Via Borgognona and Via Frattina, either. You can walk to the Trevi Fountain and Piazza Navona and (if you're a hearty walker at least) 2.2 kilometres to the Colosseum too. More esoteric sights are nearby, such as the Keats-Shelley house, the great sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini's house, and Rome's oldest coffeehouse, Antico Caffe Greco. And even here, in this busy Roman district, you can escape into the vast green space of the nearby Villa Borghese gardens, and find one of Europe's best art museums, Galleria Borghese, particularly unmissable if you're a fan of Caravaggio. In the evenings, I walk down the busy streets towards Piazza del Popolo, with its twin churches and obelisk. Crowds surge with me, but so what? I can stickybeak on the world and every nation's tourist habits.
The Age
4 days ago
- The Age
I stayed in one of the most overcrowded tourist spots
The Spanish Steps is one of the busiest corners of one of the busiest tourist cities in one of the world's most-visited nations. All day and evening tourists surge aimlessly up and down, as if wondering what they're supposed to do. Some sit exhausted on the steps to eat sandwiches, but will be moved on if police happen by. Others snap selfies using long sticks. Yet others in improbable fashions strike poses for social-media posts. Like everyone, there are times when I bemoan overtourism, but sometimes I just have to embrace it, and where better than on these whimsical steps, fronted by a baroque fountain and topped by a 16th-century twin-towered church? All these surging visitors are harmless enough. They're out in the sun, freed from routine and work, and excited about being in Italy. They chatter and hold hands and kiss and pose. Surely this celebration of life shouldn't be bemoaned. If you want a light-hearted, lively and lovely corner of Rome to stay in, the Spanish Steps beckon. You're right in the capital's most elegant shopping district, centred on Via dei Condotti, though if you're a fashionista you shouldn't miss Via Borgognona and Via Frattina, either. You can walk to the Trevi Fountain and Piazza Navona and (if you're a hearty walker at least) 2.2 kilometres to the Colosseum too. More esoteric sights are nearby, such as the Keats-Shelley house, the great sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini's house, and Rome's oldest coffeehouse, Antico Caffe Greco. And even here, in this busy Roman district, you can escape into the vast green space of the nearby Villa Borghese gardens, and find one of Europe's best art museums, Galleria Borghese, particularly unmissable if you're a fan of Caravaggio. In the evenings, I walk down the busy streets towards Piazza del Popolo, with its twin churches and obelisk. Crowds surge with me, but so what? I can stickybeak on the world and every nation's tourist habits.
Local Italy
24-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Local Italy
What's on in Italy: 11 events to look forward to this spring
Caravaggio 2025 exhibition, Rome, March 7th-July 6th The National Galleries of Ancient Art and Galleria Borghese have partnered up to offer one of the largest-ever displays of Caravaggio's works this spring as part of celebrations for the Catholic Church's Jubilee year. Held in Rome's Palazzo Barberini, the Caravaggio 2025 exhibition will feature over 20 artworks by the Italian master, including paintings never before displayed in Italy, such as Ecce Homo and Martha and Mary Magdalene, loaned by Madrid's Prado Museum and the Detroit Institute of Arts respectively. The exhibition will open on March 7th and close on July 6th. More information about times and tickets can be found here. Almond Blossom Festival, Agrigento, March 8th-16th The Almond Blossom Festival (or Sagra del Mandorlo in Fiore in Italian) is an annual event held in Agrigento, southwestern Sicily, to mark the arrival of spring and the blooming of almond trees. Originally started in the 1930s, the festival transforms the city into a vibrant scene of folklore, live music and cultural traditions every March. This year's programme features performances from folk bands, colourful parades and food stands giving visitors a chance to sample local almond-based delicacies. Rome Marathon, March 16th The 2025 edition of the Rome marathon will take place on Sunday, March 16th. The 42-kilometre race will start on Via dei Fori Imperiali at 8.30am, with runners passing by some of the city's most famous landmarks – from Piazza Navona to Castel Sant'Angelo and the Vatican – before crossing the finish line at the Circo Massimo. Another event will take place on the same date: the Run4Rome relay race, which allows teams of four people to collectively cover the full marathon distance by running one of four race segments each. Further details can be found on the marathon's website. Vinitaly, Verona, April 6th-9th This annual Verona-based fair draws producers and buyers from around the world for several days of talks, tastings and workshops. A man pours a glass of wine during the 50th edition of the Vinitaly wine exhibition in Verona in 2016. Photo by VINCENZO PINTO / AFP While Vinitaly itself is an event for industry professionals, its spin-off Vinitaly and the City, held in the days leading up to the main fair (April 4th-6th) specifically caters to amateur oenophiles. You can find more information about Vinitaly here. Milan Furniture Fair, April 8th-13th If you're short on inspiration on how to decorate your new Italian home or simply like to keep up with the latest home design trends, the Milan Furniture Fair (or Salone del Mobile) – a yearly benchmark event for the international furnishing and design sector – may just be what you're looking for. The event will run from April 8th to April 13th at the Rho Fiera complex. Access will be limited to industry professionals from April 8th to April 11th, and open to all on Saturday, April 12th, and Sunday, April 13th. Tickets can be purchased here. Fuorisalone (literally, 'outside the fair') – a series of smaller shows, events and parties held across the northern city – will run parallel to the main furniture fair. Explosion of the cart, Florence, April 20th All of Italy will be celebrating Easter Sunday on April 20th, but only Florence will do so by blowing up a cart right in front of its cathedral in what's known as scoppio del carro ('explosion of the cart'). Every year, a two-story cart full to the brim with fireworks is pulled from the Church of Santi Apostoli to the central Piazza Duomo by four white oxen followed by a crowd of people dressed in 15th-century garb. There, a dove-shaped rocket flies into the cart via a cable, setting off a spectacular fireworks display overhead. The 'explosion' generally takes place at around 11am. No booking is required. Rome birthday celebrations, April 21st Italy's capital celebrates the anniversary of its founding on April 21st every year (legend has it that the first king of Rome, Romulus, ploughed the city's boundaries on April 21st, 753 BC). The 2025 programme hasn't been unveiled yet, but celebrations generally include talks with historians and writers, art exhibitions and historical reenactments, including a traditional parade of centurions marching through central Rome. Happy birthday, Roma! 🎂 Here is my video of the day in Rome on April 21: Forum, Atrium Vestalium for the Parilia, Fori Imperiali procession, Circus Maximus spectacle! Watch! #nataledirome #roma753 @Gru_Sto_Romano @_MiBACT @museitaliani @SaveRome — Darius Arya (@DariusAryaDigs) April 20, 2020 Giro d'Italia, May 9th-June 1st This year's Giro d'Italia will start in Durres, Albania, on May 9th and pass through two other Albanian cities (Tirana and Vlore) before returning to Italy. Once in Italy, riders will weave their way up across the peninsula from Lecce, Puglia, riding through cities, lakes and mountain ranges all over the country on the way. Rome will once again host the closing stage of the Giro, with the riders set to cross the finish line on Via dei Fori Imperiali. If you're in Naples on May 15th, Siena on the 18th, Modena on the 22nd, or Rome on June 1st, you'll have the opportunity to see a leg of the race in person. More information is available here. Venice Architecture Biennale, May 10th-November 23rd Curated by architect and engineer Carlo Ratti, Venice's 19th International Architecture Exhibition will focus on the evolving role of architecture in response to climate change, calling on architects to harness a variety of intelligences – natural, artificial and collective – to rethink their designs' impact on the environment. Displays will be spread across two venues: the Central Pavilion at the Biennale Gardens and the Arsenale complex. Turin Book Fair, May 15th-19th The Salone Internazionale del Libro in Turin is Italy's largest book fair and will once again be held in the Lingotto Fiere exhibition space. The event brings more than 1,000 publishers to the Piedmont capital. While open to anyone (not just publishers and editors), this is primarily a commercial trade fair; so if you're looking for something on a smaller scale, literary festival Una Marina di Libri ('A Shore of Books') will take place in Palermo from June 6th to June 9th. More information on the Turin Book Fair can be found here. Infiorata di Noto, May 16th-20th The Infiorata di Noto sees the main street of this Baroque southeastern Sicilian city decorated with a carpet of colourful blossoms stretching for over 700 square metres in total. The event will unfold over four days – from May 16th to May 20th. According to the Noto town hall's website, access to the display will cost €5. This year's event will celebrate themes of peace and hope. l'incantevole infiorata di noto, sicilia — James Lucas (@JamesLucasIT) June 29, 2022
Local Italy
24-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Local Italy
What changes about life in Italy in March 2025
Carnival celebrations reach their peak Carnival celebrations started in mid-February but will peak in the run-up to martedì grasso (Shrove Tuesday), which falls on March 4th this year. While Venice holds the most famous carnival in the country, it's not the only part of Italy known for its celebrations. Plenty of other Italian cities and towns host their own carnevale, putting on anything from colourful parades and live music performances to mask-making workshops and food-sampling experiences. Last chance to pick up a bargain in Italy's winter sales Italy's popular winter sales ended in February for five Italian regions (Bolzano, Lazio, Liguria, Puglia and Veneto) but will continue into at least part of March in the rest of the country. You can find the exact end dates of each region's saldi here. During both winter and summer sales, Italian shops apply discounts that generally range between 20 and 30 percent. New Caravaggio exhibition in Rome The National Galleries of Ancient Art and Galleria Borghese will offer one of the largest-ever displays of Caravaggio's works this spring as part of celebrations for the Catholic Church's Jubilee year. Held at Palazzo Barberini, the Caravaggio 2025 exhibition will feature over 20 artworks by the Italian master, including paintings never before displayed in Italy, such as Ecce Homo and Martha and Mary Magdalene, loaned by Madrid's Prado Museum and the Detroit Institute of Arts respectively. The exhibition will open on March 7th and close on July 6th. Further info about times and tickets can be found here. International Women's Day March 8th is International Women's Day (or Festa della Donna in Italian) and, though it's not an official national holiday in Italy, it's recognised in the form of celebrations and parades all around the country. You can also expect to see Italian florists work overtime on the day as, according to a uniquely Italian tradition, men give the women in their families yellow mimosa flowers as a token of appreciation. Transport strikes Transport strikes are something of a regular occurrence in Italy as most months of the year count at least two or three nationwide walkouts. March will be no exception as three national protests are set to affect travellers in the coming weeks, according to the Italian Transport Ministry's strike calendar. Air, rail and public transport services are set to be impacted by a 24-hour general strike on March 8th. This will be followed by a national baggage handlers' strike on March 16th and a national rail strike affecting both Trenitalia and Italo services on March 18th. Keep up with all the latest news about transport strikes, delays and disruption in Italy in The Local's strike news section. Last Six Nations match in Rome Italy's national rugby team will take on Ireland in the final match of its 2025 Six Nations campaign. The game will be played at Rome's Stadio Olimpico on March 15th, with kickoff set for 3.15pm local time. Currently in its 131st edition, the Six Nations Championship is one of the most prestigious national team competitions in rugby. It sees England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales compete for the title over five rounds. Tickets for the March 15th match can be purchased here. National Unity Day Though it isn't an official holiday, meaning you won't get time off work, March 17th is one of the most patriotic days of the year in Italy, as the country celebrates the Day of National Unity, or Giornata dell'Unità Nazionale in Italian. March 17th is Italy's birthday, as the Kingdom of Italy was officially founded on March 17th 1861 (before then, the peninsula was split into multiple rival states and regions). Official ceremonies are held every year to mark the occasion, including the laying of a laurel wreath before Rome's Altare della Patria monument by the president. Father's Day While most countries in the world, including English-speaking ones, celebrate Father's Day on the third Sunday of June, Italy does so on March 19th. That's because March 19th marks the Feast of Saint Joseph – the patron of family men, according to Catholic tradition. Father's Day stopped being a public holiday in Italy in 1977, but it's still widely celebrated today, with Italian children giving their fathers small gifts and families eating homemade sweets known as dolci di San Giuseppe. Spring equinox The spring equinox, which falls on March 20th this year, will mark the first day of astronomical spring in the earth's northern hemisphere. After the equinox, daytime will gradually increase up until the summer solstice on June 21st. Clocks go forward Italy will make the switch to Daylight Savings Time (also known as ora legale in Italian) at 2am on March 30th. Clocks will jump forward by one hour, meaning a lost hour of sleep that night but one more hour of sunlight during the day. In 2019, the EU voted to scrap Daylight Savings Time by 2021, but the move has been postponed indefinitely. EasyJet adds 21 Italy routes British budget airline EasyJet will inaugurate two new Italian bases – one at Milan Linate and the other at Rome Fiumicino – on March 30th. This will translate to 16 new direct links with Linate (including three UK-Italy routes) and five new links with Fiumicino. Milan Linate: Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, Brussels, Frankfurt, Vienna, Barcelona, Lisbon, Copenaghen, Figari (Corsica), Ibiza, Maiorca, Tenerife, Oslo, Split (Croatia), Luxembourg. Rome Fiumicino: Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, Zurich, Brussels. Flight tickets for the new routes can already be booked on EasyJet's website or mobile app, according to the carrier. France's state-owned operator SNCF will resume popular high-speed rail services linking Paris with the northern Italian cities of Turin and Milan on March 31st following a 19-month closure forced by a landslide. Italy's state-owned operator Trenitalia, which is competing with SNCF on the line, said its own connections would resume on April 1st.
