A Wish At Rome’s Trevi Fountain Could Soon Cost More Than The Coin You Toss

Seemingly every tourist in Rome knows the key to returning to the Eternal City is to toss a coin into the Trevi Fountain and make a wish. The result: Hoards of visitors packing the Baroque monument any given day, taking selfies and betting on a return trip.

Officials are now considering a plan to manage tourism to one of Rome’s most-visited sites: A 2-euro ($2.25) ticket to access an open-air fountain that has always been free of charge.

The proposal by city’s top tourism official, Alessandro Onorato, comes after the Italian lagoon city of Venice tested a controversial 5-euro daytripper access fee to the city this summer. It must be deliberated by the City Council before it takes effect, but the city’s mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, has already voiced support.

“Two euros is more or less the same amount that people toss into the fountain to make a wish,’’ Onorato told The Associated Press Friday.

Cities across the globe are grappling with how to manage the ever-growing number of tourists, who fuel the economy but can create inconveniences to residents by converging on the same top sites.

“We have to avoid, especially in a fragile art city like Rome, that too many tourists damage the tourist experience, and damage the city,’’ Onorato said. “We need to safeguard two things, that tourists don’t experience chaos and that citizens can continue to live in the center.”

Onorato said he hopes to test the entrance fee, which would be managed through a reservation system and a QR code, in time for the 2025 Jubilee Holy Year, and have the system operational by spring.

Passersby in the piazza overlooking the fountain will not have to pay. The fee would be charged only to those entering the nine stone steps leading up to the fountain’s edge. It would be free to Romans.

Onorato said the system would also help discourage people from eating on the steps overlooking the fountain and feeding pigeons or, worse, from reenacting Anita Ekberg’s plunge into the fountain in Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita,” a frequently repeated offense that carries a fine.

“It would happen less, or maybe it wouldn’t happen at all, because whoever would enter, we would know their names and where they live. It becomes more complicated,’’ he said.

By LEILA EL ZABRI

Work On New Rome Subway Line Under The Colosseum And Forum Enters Crucial Phase

A long-delayed and complex project to bring a subway line under ancient Roman ruins and through Rome’s historic center has entered a crucial phase, with the digging of an 85-meter (280-foot)) deep retaining wall around the flagship station.

During a tour Thursday of the construction site at Piazza Venezia, chief engineer Andrea Sciotti said work on the nearly 3 billion euro ($3.3 billion) project, considered one of the most complicated of its kind in the world, was likely to be completed by 2034.

The Metro C subway line has been in the works for two decades but has been slowed by bureaucratic and funding delays and, crucially, the archaeological excavations necessary given the underground ruins of Imperial Roman and Medieval civilizations in its way.

When completed, the subway line will run underneath some of the world’s most important cultural heritage sites -- the Colosseum, Trajan’s Column and the Basilica of Maxentius, the largest building in the Roman Forum -– as well as some of Rome’s prized Renaissance palazzi, churches and the Vatican.

As a result, Italy’s culture ministry has been involved at every step and will be on hand once the digging begins in earnest on the first 15 meters (50 feet) of the Piazza Venezia station, where the ruins from ancient Rome lie. During that phase, archaeologists will be guiding the excavations, taking objects for study, restoration and eventual placement in a museum within the station itself when it opens, Sciotti said.

“I think I can say it’s unique in the world because we don’t only have the Colosseum and the Basilica of Maxentius, but we have 15-20 meters of hidden archaeological patrimony -– known but hidden,” he told reporters at the site. “This obviously brings problems that must be resolved in the planning and realization phases.”

To underscore the delicacy and uniqueness of the Piazza Venezia hub, Sciotti noted that in the 10 years and 755 million euros ($818 million) it will take to dig and build the station, four other stations will be built along the Metro C line heading out of the center toward the Vatican and beyond.

“Twenty, thirty years ago, it would have been very difficult to do this,” he said. But thanks to new technology, it’s now possible to both dig underneath archaeological sites and protect above-ground patrimony, he said, adding that he has already presented the Metro C project to engineers in Ecuador who are also planning a subway line through Quito’s historic center.

For now, the work is in the preliminary phase of digging the 85-meter (280-foot) -deep retaining wall of reinforced cement around the perimeter of the Piazza Venezia station. A massive hydro mill trench cutter digs rectangular-shaped columns down that are then filled to make a retaining wall to keep water out and secure the site’s perimeter before the actual digging begins.

While Rome already has two main subway lines, including one with a stop at the Colosseum, the Metro C line will penetrate the heart of the historic center and connect it to the Vatican and beyond, providing new options for the Eternal City’s chronically insufficient public transport system.

Once the line reaches Piazza Venezia, the subway tunnels themselves will run at an underground depth of 45 meters (150 feet), to also spare the above-ground historic palazzi and churches from the vibrations that a subway closer to the surface might create.

When opened, the eight-level Piazza Venezia station will provide underground connections to the Vittoriano “wedding cake” monument at the heart of the piazza, the Palazzo Venezia museum on one side and the museum under Hadrian’s Athenaeum, built in 123 A.D., on the other.

Sciotti said it was the work near the Hadrian archaeological site -– with its delicate Trajan’s Column standing upright -- that makes him most fearful, even if careful monitoring is underway and crews will use a buffering technique to limit above-ground vibrations that was used in London along the Jubilee tube line.

If anything happens to the Trajan’s Column, “I have my passport ready,” he said, joking.

BY NICOLE WINFIELD, AP

Vatican Opens Up A Palazzo Built On Ancient Roman Ruins And Housing Its Highly Secretive Tribunals

The Vatican on Tuesday opened the doors to one of Renaissance Rome’s most spectacular palazzos, normally hidden from public view since it houses some of the Holy See’s most secretive offices: the ecclesial tribunals that decide everything from marriage annulments to plenary indulgences.

The Palazzo della Cancelleria is located near the Campo dei Fiori market at the start of the Via del Pellegrino, named for the religious pilgrims who used it to walk towards St. Peter’s Basilica on the other side of the Tiber River. It was built in the late 1400s on the ruins of a paleo-Christian church as a residence for Cardinal Raffaele Riario, whose uncle, Pope Sixtus IV, is perhaps best known for having commissioned an even more spectacular masterpiece, the Sistine Chapel.

The head of the Vatican’s patrimony office, Monsignor Nunzio Galantino, invited television cameras into the imposing, block-long palazzo as part of what he said was Pope Francis’ call for the Holy See to be more transparent. For Galantino, whose office has published a consolidated Vatican budget for the past three years, that spirit of transparency extends to the Vatican’s vast real estate holdings.

“Transparency isn’t just quantitative knowledge of the patrimony; transparency also touches on knowing the qualitative patrimony,” he said, standing in one of the palazzo’s grand reception rooms that art historian Claudia Conforti said was decorated as a “colossal propaganda machine” for the then-reigning Pope Paul III.

Galantino has spearheaded the Vatican’s most recent efforts to clean up its financial act and be more forthcoming about budgets, revenue, investments and spending after a series of financial scandals again soured donors on writing checks to the Holy See. He presided over the opening to Vatican-accredited media of a palazzo normally closed to public view, but transparency doesn’t go much beyond that: The rooms aren’t being opened up to regular public tours, though they are occasionally used for conferences and private events.

Today, the Cancelleria palazzo houses three of the Vatican’s most important courts: the Roman Rota, which decides marriage annulments; the Apostolic Signatura, which handles internal church administrative cases; and the Apostolic Penitentiary, which issues indulgences, among other things. As Vatican property, it enjoys extraterritorial status equal to that of an embassy, in the heart of Rome.

During a tour of the building, which underwent a recent, years-long renovation, visitors passed by priests in cassocks pouring over canonical files in rooms decorated with frescoes of cherubs, gilded ceiling panels and tromp l’oeil columns. Off to one side was the wood-paneled library where Napoleon Bonaparte kept the imperial archives during the period in the early 1800s that Rome was his second capital.

At the end of a series of rooms where Rota-accredited lawyers are trained sat a small intimate, frescoed studio with a balcony pitched over Via del Pellegrino. Here, architect Maria Mari explained, Cardinal Riario would greet the pilgrims walking along the Pellegrino route but also the pope when he travelled from his seat across town at St. John Lateran to St. Peter’s.

The tour ended underground, where today the palazzo hosts a permanent exhibit of Leonardo da Vinci’s mechanical inventions.

In one room was a small pool fed by a canal built during the time of the Emperor Augustus (63 BC-14 AD) to drain the water from the periodic floods of the swampy area back into the Tiber. And behind a nondescript door off one of the Leonardo exhibit rooms were the ruins of the ancient paleo-Christian San Lorenzo in Damaso church, on which the palazzo was built.

BY NICOLE WINFIELD, AP

Ancient Roman temple Complex, With Ruins Of Building Where Caesar Was Stabbed, Opens To Tourists

Four temples from ancient Rome, dating back as far as the 3rd century B.C. stand smack in the middle of one of the modern city’s busiest crossroads.

But until Monday, practically the only ones getting a close-up view of the temples were the cats that prowl the so-called “Sacred Area,” on the edge of the site where Julius Caesar was assassinated.

With the help of funding from Bulgari, the luxury jeweler, the grouping of temples can now be visited by the public.

For decades, the curious had to gaze down from the bustling sidewalks rimming Largo Argentina (Argentina Square) to admire the temples below. That’s because, over the centuries, the city had been built up, layer by layer, to levels several meters above the area where Caesar masterminded his political strategies and was later fatally stabbed in 44 B.C.

Behind two of the temples is a foundation and part of a wall that archaeologists believe were part of Pompey’s Curia, a large rectangular-shaped hall that temporarily hosted the Roman Senate when Caesar was murdered.

What leads archaeologists to pinpoint the ruins as Pompey’s Curia? “We know it with certainty because latrines were found on the sides” of Pompey’s Curia, and ancient texts mentioned the latrines, said Claudio Parisi Presicce, an archaeologist and Rome’s top official for cultural heritage.

The temples emerged during the demolition of medieval-era buildings in the late 1920s, part of dictator Benito Mussolini’s campaign to remake the urban landscape. A tower at one edge of Largo Argentina once topped a medieval palace.

The temples are designated A, B, C and D, and are believed to have been dedicated to female deities. One of the temples, reached by an imposing staircase and featuring a circular form and with six surviving columns, is believed to have been erected in honor of Fortuna, a goddess of chance associated with fertility.

Taken together, the temples make for “one of the best-preserved remains of the Roman Republic,″ Parisi Presicce said after the Mayor of Rome Roberto Gualtieri cut a ceremonial ribbon Monday afternoon. On display in a corridor near the temples is a black-and-white photograph showing Mussolini cutting the ribbon in 1929 after the excavated ruins were shown off.

Also visible are the travertine paving stones that Emperor Domitian had laid down after a fire in 80 A.D. ravaged a large swath of Rome, including the Sacred Area.

On display are some of the artifacts found during last century’s excavation. Among them is a colossal stone head of one of the deities honored in the temples, chinless and without its lower lip. Another is a stone fragment of a winged angel of victory.

Over the last decades, a cat colony flourished among the ruins. Felines lounged undisturbed, and cat lovers were allowed to feed them. On Monday, one black-and-white cat sprawled lazily on its back atop the stone stump of what was once a glorious column.

Bulgari helped pay for the construction of the walkways and nighttime illumination. A relief to tourists who step gingerly over the uneven ancient paving stones of the Roman Forum. The Sacred Area’s wooden walkways are wheelchair- and baby-stroller-friendly. For those who can’t handle the stairs down from the sidewalk, an elevator platform is available.

The attraction is open every day except for Mondays and some major holidays, with general admission tickets priced at 5 euros ($5.50).

Curiously, the square owes its name not to the South American country but to the Latin name of Strasbourg, France, which was the home seat of a 15th-century German cardinal who lived nearby and who served as master of ceremonies for pontiffs, including Alexander VI, the Borgia pope.

By FRANCES D'EMILIO

In Rome, Church And State Agree To Pantheon Entrance Fee

Tourists in Rome checking out the Pantheon, Italy’s most-visited cultural site, will soon be charged a 5-euro ($5.28) entrance fee under an agreement signed Thursday by Italian culture and church officials.

Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano said the move was a matter of “good sense.” The introduction of an entrance fee comes five years after a previous government shelved plans to start charging visitors 2 euros.

Proceeds will be split, with the culture ministry receiving 70% and the Rome diocese 30%, officials said.

The monumental domed structure, originally an ancient temple, last year attracted 60,803 visitors, topping the Colosseum’s 38,360. The Pantheon was transformed into a church in 609, called the Basilica of St. Mary and the Martyrs, and Mass is regularly celebrated there.

Under the new plan, visitors under 25 years of age will be charged 2 euros. Entrance will be free to Rome residents, minors, people attending Mass and personnel of the basilica, among others.

No date was given for the introduction of the fee, as officials work out technical details. Currently, entrance is free and reservations are required on weekends and public holidays.

Ancient Home, Prayer Room Open At Rome’s Baths Of Caracalla

One the most spectacular examples of ancient Roman baths, the Baths of Caracalla, has become more spectacular. Authorities in Rome on Thursday opened to the public a unique private home that stood on the site before the baths, with a frescoed ceiling and prayer room honoring Roman and Egyptian deities.

The two-story home, or “domus,” dates from around 134-138 AD, during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. It was partially destroyed to make way for the construction of the Caracalla public baths, which opened in 216 AD. The site today is a big tourist draw for the multi-leveled brick remains of the Imperial Roman baths, libraries and gyms and the marble mosaics that decorated the floors.

The home, believed to have belonged to a wealthy merchant’s family given the quality of the frescoes, therefore represents what was at the same site before the baths, and shows how the city evolved in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, Daniela Porro, Rome’s archaeological superintendent, said at the opening.

The domus ruins were first discovered in the mid-19th century about 10 meters (yards) underneath the current ground level of the baths. They were excavated about a century later, with the inner prayer room and fragments of the frescoed dining room ceiling removed for restoration and conservation.

The prayer room had been briefly exhibited but has been closed to the public for 30 years. It reopened Thursday alongside some of the never-before-seen ceiling fragments that feature images of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and agriculture, using prized Egyptian blue and Cinnabar red pigments, conservators said.

“Both the subject type and the particularity of the painting are unique in the Roman panorama of the Hadrianic age” when the domus was built, said Mirella Serlorenzi, director of the Caracalla site.

The inner temple features images of the Roman gods Jupiter, Juno and Minerva on one wall, and silhouettes of the Egyptian deities Isis and Anubis on other walls, evidence of the religious “syncretism” — the blending of different belief systems — that was common in Roman public monuments but not in domestic ones of the period.

“It’s the first time we find something like that in Rome, but also in the world because it’s not like there are a lot of them,” said Serlorenzi.

She noted that what experts know about Roman-era painting comes primarily from the towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii near Naples, which were destroyed and their remains preserved under layers of volcanic materials when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD.

“So Roman painting after the 1st century AD has remained a mystery because we just haven’t had rooms so well conserved up to the ceiling,” Serlorenzi said.

The domus exhibit, entitled “Before the Baths: The House where Gods Lived Together” is now a permanent part of the Caracalla itinerary.

By NICOLE WINFIELD

Italy Creates New Museum For Trafficked Ancient Artifacts

Italy has been so successful in recovering ancient artworks and artifacts that were illegally exported from the country it has created a museum for them.

The Museum of Rescued Art was inaugurated Wednesday in a cavernous structure that is part of Rome’s ancient Baths of Diocletian. The Octagonal Hall exhibition space was designed to showcase Italy’s efforts, through patient diplomacy and court challenges, to get valuable antiquities repatriated, often after decades in foreign museums or private collections.

Exhibits in the new museum will change every few months as the objects on display return to what experts consider their territory of origin, many of them places that were part of ancient Etruscan or Magna Grecia civilizations in central or southern Italy.

The inaugural exhibit revolves around some 100 of 260 artifacts recovered by the nation’s paramilitary Carabinieri art squad from the United States and brought back to Italy in December 2021.

The pieces on display, which were found during clandestine digs and illegally exported, include exquisitely carved Etruscan figurines and imposing painted jars from several centuries B.C. The items previously were held by museums, auction houses and private collections.

The new Rome museum is exhibiting objects “never before seen in Italy,″ said Massimo Osanna, director general of Italy’s state museums. In his previous role, Osanna had long been in charge of reviving the fortunes of Pompeii, the ancient Roman city near Naples, one of the world’s most famed archaeological cites that itself was heavily looted by antiquities thieves of past generations.

The recently recovered antiquities are from before the Roman era, dating back to the 8th to 4th centuries B.C. Many of them came from the area near modern-day Cerveteri, which is awash with remnants of the flourishing Etruscan civilization in west-central Italy.

One particularly striking piece, from the 7th century B.C., is a ceramic jar, painted red on white and towering more than a meter (40 inches) high. Decorated with images of horses and cats, it depicts the mythological scene of the blinding of Polyphemus, a man-eating one-eyed creature.

The choice of the jar’s decoration probably indicates that the Etruscan elite were bilingual and “fascinated with Greek myth,″ Osanna told The Associated Press in an interview. They were ”Etruscan heroes that identified with Greek heroes,” he said.

Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini explained the decision to opt for a series of rotating exhibits in the new museum instead of establishing a permanent collection of rescued art.

“We thought it’s right to have the pieces return to the places where they were stolen from,″ Franceschini said.

In some cases, experts don’t know the exact original location of the antiquities, underlining the irreparable damage done when archaeological treasures are clandestinely snatched away. Pieces with unknown origins will be returned to the general geographic area.

The exhibition space is part of the National Roman Museum. Its current exhibit runs until October 15, then the museum will display a different batch of recovered antiquities.

Among the show-stoppers at the current exhibit of “rescued art” are two terra cotta heads, sliced vertically in half, part of a group of Etruscan votive pieces from the 4th-to-3rd centuries B.C.

Another striking piece is a well-preserved, intricately decorated Etruscan funeral box, decorated with images of a warrior, horse and a cat.

While Italy proudly boasts of regaining some 3 million artifacts and artworks since a special Safeguarding of Cultural Heritage unit of the Carabinieri was established in 1969, it is also trying to inspire countries to give back ancient pieces that are identified with other cultures.

Earlier this month, Italy returned to Athens a frieze fragment of the Parthenon that had been in an archaeological museum in Sicily. Franceschini, Italy’s culture minister, contended that the so-called “Fagan fragment” was in Italy legitimately but said his country wanted to “affirm the principle of the restitution of cultural wealth to reconnect artistic historical patrimony with the places and peoples of origin.”

Carabinieri Commanding Gen. Teo Luzi spoke wistfully at the new museum’s debut of hopes that Italy’s would one day reclaim “Victorious Youth,” a footless bronze statue that was found by an Italian fishing boat in the Adriatic Sea in 1964. It was eventually purchased by the J. Paul Getty Museum in California.

In 2018, Italy’s highest court ruled that the museum had to surrender the statue to Italy. But the museum, insisting that the statue was fished out of international waters, has challenged the order.

Some treasures have so far eluded Italy’s efforts to obtain them.

Contributed by By FRANCES D'EMILIO

Colosseum Tourists Can Go Underground To See ‘Backstage’

ROME (AP) — After 2 1/2 years of work to shore up the Colosseum’s underground passages, tourists will be able to go down and wander through part of what what had been the ancient arena’s “backstage.”

Italy’s culture minister on Friday formally announced the completion of work to shore-up and restore the underground section in the presence of the founder of Tod’s, the shoe and luxury goods maker, who has footed the bill.

During the centuries when spectators filled the Colosseum to watch spectacles replete with gladiators and wild animals, the public was forbidden from venturing below stage level. The ban lasted from 80 A.D. when the amphitheater was inaugurated, until the last show in 523.

Dozens of mobile platforms and wooden elevators were employed in ancient times to haul up to stage level vivid scenery as well performers and animals for dramatic entrances.

Colosseum director Alfonsina Russo said tourists will be able to stroll down a walkway 160 meters (530 feet) long to view some of what were originally 15 corridors that circled the underground levels.

Restoration work by teams of engineers, surveyors, construction workers, architects ad archaeologists was interrupted during part of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tod’s founder Diego Della Valle responded several years ago to an Italian government call for private sector funding for restoration projects in light of the country’s inability to come up with the cash to care for its immense art and archaeological treasures.

Della Valle also paid for a multi-million-euro (dollar) cleaning of the Colosseum, a monumental project which removed decades of soot and grime which made the arena look dull and dreary.

Last month, Culture Minister Dario Franceschini detailed a project to build a lightweight stage inside the area so visitors can admire the ancient monument from a central viewpoint. The stage will be retractable.

The original arena had a stage, but it was removed in the 1800s for archaeological exploration of the underground level. The new stage will also allow for holding cultural events that the minister said would be respectful of the Colosseum as a symbol of Italy.

New Stage In New Stage In Rome’s Colosseum Will Restore Majestic View

ROME (AP) — A project to build a high-tech, lightweight stage inside the Roman Colosseum will allow visitors a central viewpoint from within the ancient structure “to see the majesty of the monument,” Italy’s culture minister said Sunday.

Dario Franceschini announced a 18.5 million euro ($22 million) contract to build and install the retractable structure that will restore the traditional “arena,” or stage for combat for gladiatorial shows in ancient Rome.

The stage was original to the first-century amphitheater and existed until the 1800s when it was removed for archaeological digs on the subterranean levels of the ancient structure, Franceschini said.

The project should be completed by 2023. The mobile system will be able to quickly cover or uncover the underground structures below, to both protect them from rain or allow them to be aired out. The project is reversible, meaning it can be removed if plans for the Colosseum change in the future.

The new stage will allow visitors to stand in the center and view the Colosseum’s vaulted walls as they would have been seen by gladiators in ancient Rome. It also will permit the staging of cultural events that are respectful of the Colosseum as a symbol of Italy, Franceschini said.

The Colosseum reopened to the public last week after a 41-day closure because of rolling pandemic restrictions. Officials have set up a one-way itinerary as part of safety measures, and visitors are limited to 1,260 a day, compared with as many as 25,000 a day in 2019, pre-pandemic.

Rome Airport Poised To Try ’COVID Tested” Flights From US

ROME (AP) — Italian authorities will soon approve an experiment with “COVID tested” flights from three U.S. airports with the aim of eliminating the required 14-day quarantine for passengers arriving in Italy, Rome’s main airport said Thursday. ADR, which operates Leonardo da Vinci Airport, said that similar “COVID tested” corridors were also expected to be approved for flights between the airport and the German cities of Munich and Frankfurt. An ADR statement said that pending approval from Italy’s transport, health and foreign ministries, starting sometime in December passengers coming from New York, Newark or Atlanta airports wouldn’t have to quarantine if they test negative for the coronavirus within 48 hours of departure and also upon arrival in Rome. The experiment involves Alitalia and Delta Air Lines.

Under pandemic rules in effect in Italy through at least Dec. 3, the only passengers who can enter the country from the United States are citizens of European Union nations, relatives of EU citizens, holders of Italian residency permits or those coming for reasons of study or a few other, essential purposes like health care. Coming from the United States to Italy for tourism isn’t allowed. Nothing in the ADR statement indicated that is about to change, even as Italy reels under plummeted tourist revenues during the pandemic. ADR expressed hopes that the limited, experimental program will prove workable and be expanded by next summer. Delta Air Lines said in a statement that along with Rome’s airport and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, it has joined in a “first-of-a-kind trans-Atlantic COVID-19 testing program that will enable quarantine-free entrance into Italy.” It quoted Delta executive Steve Sear as saying that “carefully designed COVID-19 testing protocols are the best path for resuming international travel safely and without quarantine until vaccinations are widely in place.” The airline’s statement said Delta’s “dedicated trial” involving testing customers and crew would begin Dec. 19. In contrast with the ADR statement, Delta said testing would be threefold: Passengers would be tested up to 72 hours before departure; a rapid test would conducted at the airport in Atlanta; and another rapid test administered upon arrival in Rome. Travelers also would undergo one more test at Rome’s airport before departing for the United States.

Sofitel Rome Villa Borghese Opens July 1st Following Extensive Renovations by Jean Philippe Nuel

The redesign will transform the property into an elegant Roman retreat, fusing La Dolce Vita heritage with modern French art de vivre

  

Rome (April 17, 2019) – Situated in the heart of Rome, Sofitel Rome Villa Borghese will reopen on July 1st, unveiling extensive renovations by contemporary architect and interior designer, Jean-Philippe Nuel. Modern luxury travelers are invited to eat, sleep, enjoy, travel, stay, celebrate and live the French way at Sofitel Rome Villa Borghese.

Situated on a quiet street in the epicenter of Rome, this former 19th century Roman palazzo lies within walking distance of some of the city’s best-known cultural landmarks and parks, including the Trevi Fountain, Villa Medici and Spanish Steps. Evoking the feel of a Roman home, guests will appreciate the hotel’s relaxed and laid-back atmosphere and the sense of being truly immersed in the essence of this picturesque Italian city.

The hotel will offer 78 rooms and suites, with the unveiling of larger suites, a new fitness center and wellness program, and three large event rooms. Sofitel Rome Villa Borghese will also be home to Settimo, an elegant rooftop lounge and restaurant, offering panoramic views overlooking the picturesque Villa Borghese gardens and St. Peter’s Basilica. Adorned with eclectic furnishings and lush green interiors, Settimo will provide a garden escape on the 7th floor and serve contemporary Roman cuisine using locally-sourced ingredients. Paying respect to local mastery and heritage, while highlighting the personality of the hotel’s Executive Chef, Giuseppe D’Alessio, signature dishes will incorporate traditional Roman culinary styles such as ‘cucina povera’ and ‘Tripolina.’

Jean Philippe Nuel’s chic redesigns will combine the heritage and classicism of ‘La Dolce Vita’, with the modernism and design of French ‘art de vivre.’ The hotel entrance will feature an iconic display of chromatic counterpoints and vibrant colors, creating a modern lounge with a classical feel. Guest rooms will also exhibit an iridescent ceiling masterpiece, creating the illusion of the bright sky above.

At Sofitel Rome Villa Borghese, guests will feel instantly at home, with dedicated and personalized attention through thoughtful gestures and delightful surprises. The hotel will feature a dedicated candle ritual, inspired by the lighting of the streets of Paris during the reign of Louis XIV, which provided citizens with a sense of welcoming and safety. At sunset, the hotel will light giant candles outside the entrance to welcome guests back from their evenings out touring the city, accompanied by atmospheric music.

The ‘home away from home’ atmosphere with personalized wellness and fitness therapies with the SofitelFIT Wellness Programme, and the Sofitel MyBed Sleep Menu, a signature in-room service, transform the bathroom into a private sanctuary with luxurious options for relaxation. Guests can choose between two complimentary baths – a therapeutic Soothing Bath that invites a lazy soak with calming essential oils, or a Bubble Bath that injects fun into the bath time experience. Sofitel Rome Villa Borghese also provides guests with personalized bathrobes to enhance the bespoke nature of the experiences.

The French joie de vivre and the Roman carpe diem of the renovated hotel will create a uniquely sophisticated, yet simple and contemporary experience where desires are magnified after a day of exploring the historical Roman streets.

Sofitel Rome Villa Borghese is now accepting reservations for stays from July 1st. Rooms start from $390 per night (excluding breakfast). For more information, visit:sofitel.accorhotels.com/gb/hotel-1312-sofitel-roma-reopens-renovated-in-summer/index.shtml

Sofitel Rome Villa Borghese joins more than 120 Sofitel Hotels & Resorts strategically positioned in key destinations around the world. Sofitel will also introduce stunning new properties including Sofitel Mexico City Reforma, Sofitel Legend Panama Casco Viejo, Sofitel Dubai Wafi, and Sofitel Adelaide. Sofitel is a global ambassador of modern French luxury, where passionate travellers can indulge in chic experiences that artfully blend the essence of each destination with the brand’s French art de vivre spirit.

About Sofitel

Sofitel Hotels & Resorts is an ambassador of modern French style, culture and art-de-vivre around the world. Established in 1964, Sofitel is the first international luxury hotel brand to originate from France with over 120 chic and remarkable hotels in the world’s most sought-after destinations. Sofitel exudes a refined and understated sense of modern luxury, always blending a touch of French decadence with the very best of the locale. The Sofitel collection includes such notable hotels as Sofitel Paris Le Faubourg, Sofitel London St James, Sofitel Munich Bayerpost, Sofitel Rio de Janeiro Ipanema, Sofitel Washington DC Lafayette Square, Sofitel Sydney Darling Harbour and Sofitel Bali Nusa Dua Beach Resort. Sofitel is part of Accor, a world-leading augmented hospitality group offering unique and meaningful experiences in 4,800 hotels, resorts, and residences across 100 countries. 

sofitel.com | group.accor.com

Colosseum From Above: Upper Floors Open To Visitors After More Than 40 Years

After more than 40 years, the 4th and 5th floors of the Colosseum have re-opened to the public.

One of the most popular ancient buildings in the world, visited by more than 6.4 million people in 2016 alone, has inaugurated two new levels that promise a view like no other.

Curio Collection By Hilton Opens First Hotel In The Eternal City, Aleph Rome Hotel.

Al Rayyan Tourism Investment Company’s (ARTIC’s) Newly Renovated Aleph Rome Hotel Reopens as Part of Hilton’s Collection of Distinctive, One-of-a-Kind Properties

 

ROME  – Following an extensive restoration,  Aleph Rome Hotel – an elegant property in the heart of Rome – has reopened as part of the exclusive Curio Collection by Hilton, a global portfolio of upper upscale, independent hotels and resorts.

Acquired by Al Rayyan Tourism Investment Company “ARTIC” in early 2015, Aleph Rome Hotel, Curio Collection by Hilton, is now an 88-room hotel based just a short stroll from the legendary Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Villa Borghese and many other key attractions. The 1930s-built property is the first in Rome and the second in Italy for the rapidly growing Curio Collection by Hilton of locally authentic hotels.

Sheikh Mohammad Bin Faisal Al Thani, Vice Chairman of ARTIC, owner of Aleph Rome Hotel, commented: “We are excited to announce that Aleph Rome Hotel, Curio Collection by Hilton, is now open. We are very proud of this property which has undergone substantial renovation and restoration work to transform it into one of Rome’s most distinctive and iconic hotels. This project reflects ARTIC’s strategy to add value to its portfolio properties, enhancing their growth and development and increasing the returns on our investments. We are confident that Aleph Rome Hotel will be another long term successful investment and another step in strengthening our position as a growing international hotel investment group.”

“We’re proud to bring Curio Collection to Rome, a city full of classic treasures,” said Mark Nogal, global head, Curio Collection by Hilton. “Aleph Rome Hotel – with its historic yet modern charm and prime location – epitomizes our commitment to allowing guests to discover and experience distinctive hand-picked properties, each with its own character and story to explore.”

Mr. Tarek M. El Sayed, Managing Director and CEO of Al Rayyan Tourism Investment Company “ARTIC” also commented:

“This project reflects ARTIC’s commitment to maintaining a strong investment presence in the world’s leading hospitality markets. The renovation of the Hotel adds significant value to its existing attributes, its central location and beautiful architecture.  As part of the Curio Collection, our partnership with Hilton will now ensure it operates to the highest standards, further enhancing its value and demonstrating the continuing momentum of ARTIC’s growth as a global hotel investment company.”

Roman Charm, Contemporary Features

The property-wide renovation of Aleph Rome Hotel focused on blending its Roman charm with contemporary features, while preserving its spirit, grandeur and historical treasures, including authentic Cipollino marble. Guests will enjoy a distinctly remarkable experience, taking advantage of a wide range of uniquely re-designed guest rooms and suites, restaurants and bars, along with a rooftop pool overlooking the city of Rome. The hotel is conveniently located near the Barberini metro station, between Via Veneto and Piazza Barberini.

Hotel Highlights

Comfort with Style

·         Spacious Guest Rooms: The hotel offers 88 guest rooms, including 14 suites and a junior suite, each featuring modern Italian furniture, high ceilings and marble floors. Guests may also enjoy contemporary comforts, such as an interactive TV, Nespresso® machine and walk-in shower.

·         Rooftop Swimming: Guests can enjoy the rooftop swimming pool, overlooking the city of Rome. The hotel also offers a wellness spa, fitness center and indoor pool.

·         Exquisite Meeting Space: The hotel has a meeting room adorned with marble flooring. With a 100-guest capacity, it is well-suited for both business meetings and events. A private suite on the fifth floor can accommodate up to eight guests in a more intimate setting.  

Delectable Dining Options

·         Dinner with a View: Sky Blu Restaurant is the hotel’s rooftop dining option, serving a creative reinterpretation of Italian cuisine featuring local ingredients. It offers fantastic views of Rome from its private outdoor terrace.

·         Bountiful Buffet: Restaurant 1930 serves creative local dishes, including a sumptuous lunch buffet.

·         After Hours: The late-night cocktail bar, Onyx Bar, offers fantastic dining and drink options – such as the signature Aleph cocktail.

·         Cognac Lounge: Guests are invited to make their choice from the sizable collection of cigars and spirits in the hotel’s own Cognac Lounge. 

Patrick Fitzgibbon, senior vice president, development EMEA, Hilton said: “Italy remains one of the most attractive destinations in the world for tourists, yet less than 5 percent of its hotel stock operates under an international brand. Curio Collection by Hilton offers owners the chance to become part of Hilton and enjoy the benefits of our global network, while maintaining the unique identities of their individual properties.  With two Curio Collection hotels now open in Italy we look forward to sharing the benefits of this approach with the market and laying the foundations for further growth.”

To receive instant access to the benefits they care about most – including exclusive discounts, free Wi-Fi and Honors Points towards free nights – guests are encouraged to join Hilton Honors and book directly through preferred Hilton channels.

Vatican, Rome's Jewish Museum, Team Up For First Joint Show

ROME (AP) — The museums of the Vatican and Rome's ancient Jewish community

 are hosting their first joint exhibit, building on decades of improved Catholic-Jewish

 relations following centuries of mistrust.

The focus of the exhibit opening in May will be the menorah, the seven-armed

 candelabrum described in the Jewish Torah and depicted in Jewish, Catholic

 and secular art over the centuries.

Through figurative art, the exhibit "recounts the multi-millennia, incredible and

 suffered history of the menorah," organizers said in a statement Monday announcing 

the initiative.

Part of the show will explore the legend of a solid-gold menorah that was kept in 

the first Temple of Jerusalem. The menorah was taken to Rome after the 70 A.D.

 destruction of the temple by troops of the Roman emperor Titus.

The historic trail of the menorah seems to have been lost during the 5th century,

 when it was possibly hauled off by the Vandals who sacked Rome in 455.

Arnold Nesselrath, a Vatican Museums official who is one of the show curators,

 called the exhibit about the menorah's history and symbolism a fruit of "intense

 dialogue" developing between the Holy See and the Jewish community in the

 last three decades.

Representations of the menorah throughout the centuries helped "Christians

 recall their Jewish roots" in faith, he said.

Nesselrath noted that an image of a menorah is frescoed on a wall of the Vatican's

 Borgia Apartment built for Pope Alessandro VI. His papacy began in 1492, the

 same year Jews in Spain were ordered expelled.

Since Rome's Jewish Museum is tiny, most of the 130 works on display will be

 hosted at the Vatican Museums' Carlo Magno exhibit space in St. Peter's Square.

One of the highlights is expected to be a recently discovered bas relief from a 1st

 century Galilee synagogue. Ancient Roman glass, sarcophagi and memorial stone

 tablets from Rome's Jewish catacombs also we be featured.

Marc Chagall and Nicolas Poussin are among artists to be represented in the exhibit.

The Jewish Museum flanks Rome's main synagogue. The late Pope John Paul II

 became the first pope to visit a synagogue when he went there in 1986. On that

 occasion, he referred to Jews as "our older brothers in faith."

Lending museums for the exhibit, which runs from May 15 to July 23, include

 the Louvre and London's National Gallery.

___

This version has been corrected to show the exhibit's closing date is July 23, not July 27.

Travelore Update: Second Stronger Earthquake Strikes Italy

An earthquake has struck near the Italian city of Perugia. Credit: Reuters

After a 5.4 earthquake struck Italy today at 1710 GMT, 2 hours later an even stronger quake struck with a 6.2 magnitude.

The earlier quake was shallow and located in the province of Macerata, and the second earthquake shook buildings in the country’s capital, Rome, rattling doors and windows.

A spokeswoman for Italy’s civil protection agency, Ornella De Luca, said a portion of highway north of Rome had to be closed due to a landslide.

In one town, the mayor reported that residents were now without power and some buildings had been damaged.

Italy Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is on his way to Rome to review the damage.

Travelore Breaking News: New Earthquake Has Rattled Rome

Just 2 months after a powerful earthquake toppled villages in central Italy, killing nearly 300 people, another quake is now hitting Rome. While there are no immediate reports of damage, the quake shook centuries old plazzi in Rome's historic district.

5 Outrageously Expensive Dishes You Can Order From Room Service

 by Michele Laufik

Posted in:

• Food And Wine
• Honolulu
• Las Vegas
• Paris
• Rome

High Roller Bento Box/Nobu Hotel

Room service may be on the chopping block at some hotels, but many continue to view in-room dining as a luxury that’s worth dishing up to guests. Here are some of the over-the-top menu items that have our mouths watering:

1. High Roller at Nobu HotelAt the Nobu Hotel, a 181-room boutique property inside Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, hungry guests can cough up 185 bucks for the High Roller bento box, which includes lobster, king crab, Wagyu steak, sushi rolls and nigiri, and a baby spinach salad. The dishes on chef Nobu Matsuhisa’s in-room dining menu are prepared in the same kitchen as the on-site Nobu Restaurant & Lounge.

2. Beluga Caviar at the Four Seasons Hotel George V, ParisThe in-room dining menu at the famed hotel says the Beluga caviar from Bulgaria “releases a large, smooth finish with finesse” for approximately $873.13. And for the near 1K price tag, you’ll get condiments and your choice of blinis or toast.

3. Imperial Breakfast at Rome CavalieriThey say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and at Rome Cavalieri, part of Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, it may be the most expensive. The Roman hotel’s morning meal includes a smorgasbord of items, such as rye bread with quail eggs, prawns, and oranges caprese; tuna fish and mango tartare on pineapple carpaccio; a foie gras terrine with pistachios on a bed of tropical fruits; canapés; an assortment of bread, brioches, and croissants, plus Champagne and juices. This feast feeds two for approximately $218.14.

4. Ribeye for Two at Trump International HotelChef Jean-Georges Vongerichten serves up a 28-day dry-age ribeye with crunchy potato, herbal spinach, and house steak sauce for $138 on the New York hotel’s room service menu. For an extra chunk of change, you can arrange for a chef from his fine-dining restaurant to prepare and present your meal, course-by-course, in your suite.

5. Mauka at the HalekulaniThe five-star Halekulani in Honolulu offers in-room candlelit dinners from its award-winning La Mer Restaurant. The Mauka selection (which means “heading towards the mountains” in Hawaiian) includes two choices: lamb loin marinated in red wine with Jerusalem artichokes and date chutney, accompanied with foie gras with shiitake mushrooms and a marinated mushroom salad to start, or a filet of prime beef with foie gras and truffle mousseline, served with coconut with matcha ($110 per person).

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