The Real Italian Recipe to Cook Lasagne

 

Lasagne is a tasty and filling meal which is as suited to the main course of a dinner party, as it is for a quick and delicious family meal.

Step 1: You will need
200 g pre-cooked lasagne sheets; 70 g grated parmesan; 1 recipe for Bolognese sauce; 380 ml milk; 45 g butter; 3 tbsp flour; 1 pinch nutmeg salt and pepper; 1 baking dish; 2 saucepans; 2 spoons; 1 wooden spoon; 1 whisk; 1 tea towel; 1 tray; 1 bowl.

Step 2: Prepare the lasagne

Preheat the oven to 200ºC, that's 400ºF or gas mark 6. Put the sheets of pasta into a large bowl and cover them with warm water. Make sure they're all submerged. Leave them to soak for 5 to 10 minutes.

Step 3: Warm the milk

To begin making the béchamel sauce, pour the milk into a small saucepan and let it heat until warm, not boiling.

Step 4: Make the béchamel sauce

Place the other saucepan over a medium heat and add the butter. When it has melted, add the flour and mix well until smooth. Just before it starts to turn brown, slowly add the milk. Using the whisk, stir continuously until the sauce begins to thicken. When thick, season with salt and pepper and a pinch of nutmeg. Then give it one further whisk and remove from the heat.

Step 5: Dry the lasagne

Remove the lasagne sheets one by one from the water and place them onto a tea towel. Then turn them over to pat them dry on both sides. You may need to do this in batches to finish drying all of the lasagne.

Step 6: Make the lasagne

Start by layering lasagne sheets on the bottom of the baking dish. Next, cover with half of the Bolognese. Then spoon over some béchamel sauce, and finally, sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Now repeat the process: the lasagne, followed by the rest of the Bolognese, then the béchamel sauce and finally the parmesan cheese giving it a generous topping.

Step 7: Cook the lasagne

Place the baking dish in the centre of the oven. Cook for about 20 minutes.

Step 8: Serve

When the parmesan has turned golden brown, remove the lasagne from the oven and allow it to sit for at least 15 minutes before serving. Lasagne is delicious served alone or it can be accompanied by a freshly made green salad.

How to Make Pasta alla Carbonara

A wonderful Italian recipe from Rome, Pasta alla Carbonara takes its name from the old days of the coal miners (carbone=coal), but it was actually created only around the mid 20th century. It's a rich type of comfort food, made with eggs, guanciale (the meat from the cheek of the pork, cured like pancetta), Pecorino Romano cheese and black pepper. Many variations can be found around Italy, like in the North, where heavy cream is added to the sauce and Parmigiano substitutes the Romano. However, here is my own recipe, the way we make it in Rome.

Bring to the boil the water for the pasta (penne, spaghetti or fettuccine), add some salt, then the pasta and let this cook according to the instructions on the package.

Meanwhile, beat the eggs and mix with the grated cheese, a pinch of salt and a generous amount of cracked black pepper.Cut the guanciale or pancetta in small pieces and fry it in a pan with the oil until golden.

Drain the pasta and transfer it into a large serving bowl. Pour the egg mix over right away, and toss to combine it with the pasta. The heat will cook the egg. Add the guanciale and toss again. Serve immediately.

A Folkloristic Exhibition just outside Rome

In June, a great folkloristic and religious exhibition, the "Infiorata". A whole street (Via Italo Belardi) is covered with allegorical carpets of flowers and a masked parade walk on these, with medieval and traditional clothes realized by town's women. For more than 2 centuries  on Sunday and Monday following Corpus Christus feast the Infiorata a most suggestive manifestation of art, pride of the artists of Genzano has taken place . Each year the artists suggestions must conform to a previously agreed upon theme, such as The Colours of Michelangelo, or The Designs of Bernini. In the spring it has recently become tradition to have a "mini Infiorata" made by the children from the local schools.

Poets and writers wrote about the Infiorata:

• Massimo d'Azeglio "...you see the fair, the people, the truly rare beauty of the town crowds of Roman, holiday makers from the nearby Castles....everything lively; and seen from the foot of the ascent it seems to be a magnificent carpet, that you regret to see spoilt by the feet of the procession".

• Richard Voss "One of the most beautiful Italian fairs is held in Genzano, the fair of flowers; the whole city seems to be a gigantic flower bed. A marvellous spectacle".

• Hans Christian Andersen "The whole street is a carpet of flowers.... Not even a breathe of air moves and the flowers lie on the ground as if they were heavy precious stones...".

Unforgettable Garden of Oranges in Rome

The Savello park, also known as the Garden of Oranges (Giardino degli Aranci), is located on the Aventine Hill and faces onto the Tiber River, affording a breathtaking view over the city of Rome as well as the Pincio and the Janiculum hill. This gorgeous park is often choosen to take pictures after having celebrated the wedding ceremony at the Basilica of Santa SABINA.

The park, a hanging garden with a surface of about 8000 sqm which can be seen from the Piazza di Monte Savello, is famous for its many bitter orange trees. The tranquil Garden of Oranges  affords fantastic views of the many monuments, roof tops and domes of Rome, encapsulating flavors of the modern and medieval on its shady walkways. The park itself fits neatly behind the ancient Basilica of Santa Sabina. Though they produce bitter fruit, they give a pleasant shady air to the garden, affording a lovely retreat from the bustle and noise of urban life. During the summer it is no surprise that the garden is the choice setting for theatrical productions, a favorite resting spot for visitors touring Rome and the haunt of lovers. Perhaps the inspiring view and romantic ambience offers the ideal prompt for falling at the feet of one's beloved!

Don't Miss this Cultural Centre

The Palazzo delle Esposizioni is a neoclassical exhibition hall, cultural centre and museum on Via Nazionale.

It has housed several exhibitions (e.g. Mostra della Rivoluzione Fascista, Mostra Augustea della Romanità, Gli acquerelli di Marc Chagall), and was temporarily modified during the fascist era due to its style being thought to be out of step with the times.

It has a 139 seat cinema, a 90-seat auditorium, a cafe, a 240-person restaurant, a library and a multi-functional room known as the Forum.

It's an amazing, outstanding PALAZZO right in the centre of rome: the most important and innovative exhibitions are held here.

http://english.palazzoesposizioni.it/mediacenter/FE/home.aspx

 

Remembering a Great English Poet !

The Keats-Shelley Memorial House in Rome is a museum commemorating the lives and works of the Romantic poets John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley. The museum houses one of the world's most extensive collections of memorabilia, letters, manuscripts, and paintings relating to Keats and Shelley, as well as Byron, Wordsworth, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Oscar Wilde, and others. It is located on the second floor of the building situated just to the south of the base of the Spanish Steps and east of the Piazza di Spagna. Keats Shelley Museum (Piazza di Spagna 26; www.keats-shelley-house.org) is an homage to the two Romantic poets, who spent their final years in Italy. In fact, the museum is housed in the building in which John Keats died in 1821.

The English poet John Keats, who was dying of tuberculosis, came to Rome at the urging of friends and doctors who hoped that the warmer climate might improve his health. The building at Piazza di Spagna 26 was remodelled as part of the project to build the Spanish Steps in 1724-25. The project was designed by Francesco de Sanctis, who wanted to frame the steps with an identical building on either side.

This is the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association: for further information visit the website

http://www.keats-shelley.co.uk/index.html

National Gallery of Modern Art

The National Gallery of Modern Art  is an art gallery in Rome dedicated to modern art.

It is located at Via delle Belle Arti, near the Etruscan Museum. With its neoclassical and Romantic paintings and sculptures, it marks a dramatic change from the glories of the Renaissance and ancient Rome. Its 75 rooms house the largest collection of works by 19th- and 20th-century Italian artists including Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Giorgio de Chirico, Giovanni Fattori, Amedeo Modigliani, Giorgio Morandi, Giacomo Manzù, Alberto Burri, Antonio Canova.

There are also a few notable works by foreign artists, including Calder, Cézanne, Duchamp, Giacometti, Braque, Degas, Wassily Kandinsky, Mondrian, Monet, Jackson Pollock, Rodin, Van Gogh and Klein.

This is the Official Gallery Site:
http://www.gnam.beniculturali.it/index.php?en/1/home

Villa Doria Pamphili

The Villa Doria Pamphili is a seventeenth century villa with what is today the largest landscaped public park in Rome. It is located in the quarter of Monteverde, on the Gianicolo, just outside the Porta San Pancrazio in the ancient walls of Rome where the ancient road of the Via Aurelia commences.

It began as a villa for the Pamphili family and when the line died out in the eighteenth century, it passed to Prince Giovanni Andrea IV Doria from which time it has been known as the Villa Doria Pamphili.

The exterior containing statues gives a rich allure that was architecturally somewhat conservative for its date, looking back towards the Villa Medici or the Casina Pio IV, and rather more Mannerist than Baroque. It offered a forestaste of the richly stuccoed and frescoed interiors, where the iconographic program set out to establish the antiquity of the Pamphili, a family then somewhat parvenu in Rome, with origins in Gubbio. Inside, Algardi provided further bas-reliefs and stucco framing for the heroic frescoes drawn from Roman history painted by Grimaldi.

Borghese Art Gallery

The Borghese Gallery  is an art gallery in Rome housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana, a building that was from the first integral with its gardens, nowadays considered quite separately by tourists as the Villa Borghese gardens. The Galleria Borghese houses a substantial part of the Borghese collection of paintings, sculpture and antiquities, begun by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the nephew of Pope Paul V (reign 1605–1621). The Villa was built by the architect Flaminio Ponzio, developing sketches by Scipione Borghese himself, who used it as a villa suburbana, a party villa at the edge of Rome.

Scipione Borghese was an early patron of Bernini and an avid collector of works by Caravaggio, who is well represented in the collection by his Boy with a Basket of Fruit, St. Jerome, Sick Bacchus and others.


This is the GALLERIA BORGHESE website:
http://www.galleriaborghese.it/

Villa Medici

The Villa Medici is an architectural complex centred on the villa whose gardens are contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in Rome. The Villa Medici, founded by Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and now property of the French State, has housed the French Academy in Rome since 1803. A musical evocation of its garden fountains features in Ottorino Respighi's Fontane di Roma.

In 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte moved the French Academy in Rome to the Villa Medici with the intention of preserving an institution once threatened by the French Revolution. 

From that time on, the boarders no longer belonged solely to the traditional disciplines (painting, sculpture, architecture, metal-engraving, precious-stone engraving, musical composition, etc.) but also to new or previously-neglected artistic fields (art history, archaeology, literature, stagecraft, photography, movies, video, art restoration, writing and even cookery.) Artists are no longer recruited by a competition but by application, and their stays generally vary from six to eighteen months.

Beautiful Borghese Gardens

Villa Borghese is a large landscape garden in the naturalistic English manner in Rome, containing a number of buildings, museums and attractions. It is the second largest public park in Rome (80 hectares ) after that of the Villa Doria Pamphili. The gardens were developed for the Villa Borghese Pinciana ("Borghese villa on the Pincian Hill"), built by the architect  Ponzio, developing sketches by Scipione Borghese, who used it as a villa suburbana, a party villa, at the edge of Rome, and to house his art collection. The gardens as they are now were remade in the early nineteenth century.

• Today the Galleria Borghese is housed in the Villa Borghese itself. The garden Casino Borghese, built on a rise above the Villa by the architect Giovanni Vasanzio, was set up by Camillo Borghese to contain sculptures by Bernini from the Borghese collection, including his David and his Daphne, and by Antonio Canova, with paintings by Titian, Raphael and Caravaggio.

• The Villa Giulia adjoining the Villa Borghese gardens was built in 1551 - 1555 as a summer residence for Pope Julius III; now it contains the Etruscan Museum.

• The Villa Medici houses the French Academy in Rome. In the 1650s, Diego Velázquez painted several depictions of this Villa's garden casino festively illuminated at night. Before electricity, such torchlit illuminations carried an excitement hard to conceive today.

• Other villas scattered through the Villa Borghese gardens are remains of a world exposition in Rome in 1911.
  • The Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna located in its grounds has a collection of 19th and 20th century paintings emphasizing Italian artists.
  • Architecturally the most notable of the 1911 exposition pavilions is the English pavilion designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens now housing the British School at Rome.

Throw a coin in ....and you'll come back to Rome

A traditional legend holds that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to the Eternal City. Among those who are unaware that the "three coins" of Three Coins in the Fountain were thrown by three different individuals, a reported current interpretation is that two coins will lead to a new romance and three will ensure either a marriage or divorce. Another reported version of this legend is that it is lucky to throw three coins with one's right hand over one's left shoulder into the Trevi Fountain.

An estimated 3,000 euros are thrown into the fountain each day. The money has been used to subsidize a supermarket for Rome's needy. However, there are regular attempts to steal coins from the fountain.

Along the Spanish Steps

The Spanish Steps (Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti) are a set of steps climbing a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the church of Trinità dei Monti. The Scalinata is the widest staircase in Europe.

In the Piazza at the base is the Early Baroque fountain called Fontana della Barcaccia ("Fountain of the Old Boat"), built in 1627-29 and often credited to Pietro Bernini.
During May, part of the steps are covered by pots of azaleas. In modern times the Spanish Steps have included a small cut-flower market. The steps are not a place for eating lunch, being forbidden by Roman urban regulations, but they are usually crowded with people.

In the piazza, at the corner on the right as one begins to climb the steps, is the house where English poet John Keats lived and died in 1821; it is now a museum dedicated to his memory, full of memorabilia of the English Romantic generation.

At the top the Viale ramps up the Pincio which is the Pincian Hill, omitted, like the Janiculum, from the classic Seven hills of Rome. From the top of the steps the Villa Medici can be reached.

New Year's Eve in Rome

Fireworks, music, alcoholic beverages and other forms of noise making is part of the New Year's Eve celebration. New Year's Eve is celebrated with parties and social gatherings spanning the transition of the year at midnight.

Italians call New Year's Eve Capodanno (the "head of the year") or Notte di San Silvestro (the night of St. Silvestro). Traditionally there are a set of rituals for the new year, such as wearing red underwear and getting rid of old or unused items by dropping them from the window, but this is and old tradition, followed by quite nobody today.

Dinner is traditionally eaten with parents and friends. It often includes zampone or cotechino (a kind of spiced Italian sausage) and lentils. At half past eight pm, The President of the Republic reads a television message of greetings to Italians.

At midnight, fireworks are displayed across Italy. 

In Rome after having dinner with parents or friends, the rest of the night is meant to be celebrated in the streets with fireworks at midnight, music, alcoholics: everyone is greeting the New Year !

Italian Christmas celebrations

Christmas is celebrated in Italy in a similar fashion to other Western European countries, albeit with a stronger emphasis given by the media to the Christian meaning of the holiday and its celebration by the Roman Catholic Church, also reinforced by the still widespread tradition of setting up the presepe, a tradition initiated by Saint Francis of Assisi.

Christmas decorations, including the presepe, as well as the Christmas tree, are usually put up on the 8th December, a national holiday. On Christmas Eve in some areas it is a custom not to eat any meat. Some people, especially in the South, tend to celebrate on Christmas Eve; dinner traditionally consists of seafood, with the "feast of the seven fishes", followed by typical Italian Christmas sweets, such as pandoro, panettone, torrone, panforte, struffoli, caggionetti, Mont Blanc (dessert) or others, depending on the regional cuisine. It is quite common, for religious families, to attend midnight mass on the evening of the 24th of December. In Northern Italy it is more common to celebrate Christmas on the 25th with a family lunch, consisting of different types of meat dishes, cheese and local sweets. Traditionally, Northern Italy sees Christmas both as a secular and religious holiday, while Southern Italy puts a strong and deep emphasis on its Catholic meaning.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I WOULD LIKE TO WISH EVERYBODY A VERY MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS .......HOPING THAT THE NEW YEAR WILL BRING HOPE, LOVE, HAPPINESS TO ALL OF YOU.....!!!

BEST WISHES TO EVERYBODY..!!!!

Best Rome Typical Events

Romans and Italians like very much to celebrate holidays. They like traditional holidays.

Rome's public holidays include Liberation Day (25 April), Labour Day (1 May), the Feast of the Assumption (15 August), All Saints' Day (1 November), the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (8 December) and the Feast of Santo Stefano (26 December).

Carnevale, week before Lent, children dress up and throw confetti around; nightclubs put on special parties, various venues.

Mostra delle Azalee, April, 3,000 vases of azaleas adorn the Spanish Steps to mark the arrival of spring.

During Holy Week (Easter) Catholics from around the world make pilgrimages to Rome's various basilicas and to hear the Pope give his address at the Vatican. On Good Friday there's a procession of the Cross from the Colosseum to Capitoline Hill.

Natale di Roma (Rome's Birthday), 21 April, fireworks on the Aventine Hill.

Settimana dei Beni Culturali (Week of Culture), April, free entry to all state-owned museums, public monuments and excavation sites.

Festa della Repubblica, first Sunday in June, military Parade, Via dei Fori Imperiali.

Ferragosto, 15 Aug, feast of the Holy Assumption, shops and restaurants closed.

Messa di Natale (Christmas Mass) and ‘Urbi et Orbi' Blessing, 25 Dec, St Peter's Basilica. 

Best museums of Rome

Rome is an ancient city, therefore is full of interesting museums to visit but I would like to suggest you the main ones of rome:

Borghese Museum Art Galery
Via Prenestina, 685

The Vatican Museums
(the Sistine Chapel, the Etruscan and Egyptian Museums, Raphael’s Rooms, the Gallery of Tapestries)
Viale Vaticano, Città del Vaticano

Galleria Doria Pamphili Via del Corso, 305

Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna
Via delle Belle Arti 131

Palazzo Massimo
Piazza dei Cinquecento, 68

Rome Modern Theatres

Romans give great importance to culture: here you have a list of the main theatres of rome:

Opera House Roma
Piazza B. Gigli 7 - 00184 Roma

Piazza Beniamino Gigli, 1 - 00184 Roma
tel. 06 48160255 - 06 4817003
e-mail: ufficio.biglietteria@operaroma.it

Teatro Nazionale
Address: 51 Via del Viminale, Rome, 00184
Phone: 06 481 601

The Teatro Nazionale hosts an important part of the Teatro dell'Opera's programme.

Teatro Sistina (Musicals)
Address: 129 Via Sistina, Rome, 00187
Phone:  06 420 0711

Teatro Palladium Piazza Bartolomeo Romano 8
Phone: 06 57 33 27 68

VILLA ADA

This beatutiful  garden is  often chosen to organise jazz concerts in summer.

Villa Ada
The beautiful grounds are located just north of Rome and are both an ideal place to relax on a bench and enjoy the sunshine, or participate in the many activities that are available, such as the roller-skating rink, bike paths, playgrounds or to simply sit by the ponds.Villa Ada is the largest park in Rome with a surface of 450 acres/182 hectares. It is located in the northeastern part of the city. Its highest prominence is Monte Antenne, 7 m (220 ft), an ancient archeological site.

The public portion of the park is much larger than the private area. It contains an artificial lake and many trees, including stone pines, holm oaks, laurels and a very rare metasequoia, imported from Tibet in 1940. Entrance to the park is free. One may rent canoes, bicycles, or riding horses. There is a large swimming pool.

Since 1994, during the summer the park hosts the world-music festival and the "Roma incontra il mondo" (Rome meets the World) festival, against racism, war and death penalty.