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In this last part of the year and for the first months of next year, Rome celebrates 3 great artists with dedicated exhibitions. The spotlight is on Klimt, Caravaggio and Salgado.

Klimt. The Secession and Italy “at Palazzo Braschi

Gold and the innovative use of color, landscapes idealized in shapes and colors, and then the undisputed queens of his inspiration, bewitching, seductive, languid women, protagonists of some absolute masterpieces, such as the iconic Judith I ( 1901), The bride (1917-18), painted in the last creative phase, and the famous Portrait of a Lady (1916-17), stolen in 1997 and then found in 2019. It is an immersion in the artistic heritage of one of the best known and most loved painters in the world the great exhibition “Klimt. The Secession and Italy”, scheduled at Palazzo Braschi until 27 March 2022, which marks the return of the Austrian artist to our country and to Rome, and retraces in 200 works (including 49 by Klimt) the painter’s entire career, with the dual aim of underlining his role as co-founder of the Viennese Secession but also to investigate the close relationship he had with Italy.

At Palazzo Barberini the exhibition Caravaggio and Artemisia: Giuditta’s challenge

“Caravaggio and Artemisia: Judith’s challenge. Violence and seduction in painting between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries” is the exhibition scheduled at Palazzo Barberini until March 27, 2022. Celebrating the 70th anniversary of the rediscovery of Caravaggio’s painting “Judith who decapitates Holofernes” , created in Rome at the beginning of the seventeenth century and housed in Palazzo Barberini, the exhibition presents 31 paintings in four sections – almost all large-format – from important national and international institutions. The exhibition plays on the dramatic power of the encounter between the two famous artists: the violent and sensual vision that has returned to the biblical myth of Giuditta Caravaggio in a painting that has entered the collective imagination for its disruptive force, alongside the all-female interpretation of that same theme offered by a tenacious, courageous and passionate artist like Artemisia Gentileschi. The exhibition develops around the famous Caravaggesque canvas “Judith who decapitates Holofernes” to investigate its fortune and the ability to represent a breaking point in the history of painting precisely for its revolutionary composition, which has become a model to which many artists have inspired.

“Amazônia”

Until 13 February 2022 Sebastião Salgado is the protagonist at Maxxi with the exhibition “Amazônia”, curated by Lélia Wanick Salgado: through over 200 images, accompanied by the soundscape created by Jean-Michel Jarre, the path allows the visitor to confront himself with the fragile and fascinating Amazonian ecosystem, revealing how the forest has suffered almost no damage in the protected areas where Indian communities live.

On April 6th 2020 the Fenix Hotel celebrated its 60th anniversary. We are very proud to be hoteliers by tradition. We aren’t a historically important hotel but we are a hotel with a history: our grandparents, after having opened and run a hotel and restaurant near Via Cavour from 1920 to 1960, decided to move to this elegant neighbourhood and open the first hotel in the area.

 

Towards the end of the 1950’s, Francesca and Marialina eventually found the building they were looking for. It belonged to the Canadian Monks and had been the studio of a German painter before the war. They commissioned an architect, Mr Benni, to carry out the re-styling that was to give the building its more modern look, more in line with the trend at that time. The Hotel soon became a point of reference for local companies, embassies and care facilities. In 1972 it was decided to enlarge the Hotel and so the second wing was built. This wing was designed by the Architect Lorenzo Monardo, who was one of the first architects in Rome to design a building with a visible reinforced concrete structure.

During the building works, some paintings of allegoric scenes were found, that were probably the work of the German painter. They are now hung in the lounges and communal areas of the Hotel.

The Hotel has always been taken care of by the female members of the family. Today, Isabella and Francesca run the Hotel with the help of Anna and Alessia, the third generation of hoteliers.

Have fun deciding on which is the best homemade ice-cream in Rome. Let’s face it, no-one makes Gelato like the Italians. The story goes that Caterina de’ Medici took the recipe with her to France when she married Henry II in 1533.

Nowadays, we can find ice-cream in all corners of the world, a bit like pizza and,  like pizza, Italian ice-cream was, and is, the best on the planet, naturally!. For years groups of friends and families have been ranking the best home-made ice-cream vendors in Rome, based on personal favourites and the most popular flavours. Home-made is not so easy to find in the centre of the City but when located, the discussion begins as to who makes the best flavours where… “the pistacchio is better there” or “the vanilla (a Roman favourite) is best at that other one”.

Being ice-cream lovers, we have our own ranking for the best home-made ice-cream in Rome. Here it is:

In third place comes Fassi, a historical ice-cream parlour near the Termini station.

This iconic ice-cream shop was the first to be opened in Rome in 1880. One of the first in the world to deliver long-distance, it is said that Fassi even delivered as far as the UK!

They offer a variety of great flavours and some specialities too, such as Sanpietrino, here in the photo, Caterinetta and many others. The atmosphere here is great too. It is located in a spacious historical building that takes you back to the beginning of the 20^th century and resembles an old-school ice-cream parlour. Fassi makes some of the best home-made ice-cream in Rome.

Alternatively, in second place, there is a new one in the Testaccio neighbourhood called Brivido.

Small and not particularly well-known outside the Testaccio neighbourhood, Brivido makes one of the best home-made ice-creams in Rome. Just like the Fenix Hotel, it is all-female. The amount of passion and fantasy they put in to making their ice-cream is unique. They create flavours for both adults and children. Their Zabaione is to die for!

But for us, Fata Morgana comes in first

The first Fata ice-cream shop, whose owner is Maria Agnese, opened a few years ago near us, in via Lago di Lesina, and the ice-cream became so popular that other shops were opened up all over Rome, carefully maintaining the same high quality of ice-cream. Maria Agnese Spagnuolo is always looking for new recipes and every season she creates unusual, new flavours such as Pampinella, with fig milk, or Aglio nero (Black Garlic) or ice-cream made of  Taggiasche Olives or Pensiero, with pink grapefruit and ginger. For children, the names of the flavours are taken from fairytales, like  Il Bacio del Principe (the Prince’s kiss), Pollicina (Thumbellina) and  Biancaneve (Snow White). Truly wonderful ice-cream….you have an ice-cream lovers word for it! In our opinion the best home-made ice-cream in Rome is right here.

 

The biggest art exposition ever dedicated to the genius Raphael Sanzio opened in Rome on March 4th 2020.

Raphael is thought to have moved to Rome towards the end of 1508, when, on the recommendation of Donato Bramante, he was summoned by Pope Julius II in person to make up the team of artists from all over Italy who were to work on the reconstruction of the Vatican and the city of Rome.

Shortly after his arrival in Rome, Raphael was commissioned to fresco the private residence of Julius II. The frescoes of the Vatican Apartments were already being carried out by other artists such as Perugino, Bramantino and Sodoma. However, on seeing his work, the Pope decided that Raphael should be the one to complete the Apartments.

Raphael created absolute masterpieces such as the four Raphael Rooms, including the Room of the Segnatura, the Room of Heliodorus and the Room of the Fire in the Borgo.

Soon after, Raphael was called by the Sienese banker Agostino Chigi to decorate Villa Farnesina, a suburban villa designed by Baldassare Peruzzi. Here, between 1511 and 1518, he painted the Triumph of Galatea and the fresco of the Loggia of Cupid and Psyche. He also designed the decoration of the bedchamber, that depicts scenes from the life of Alexander the Great, including his marriage to Roxana.

During his stay in Rome, Raphael brought great innovation to the art of portrait painting, as shown in his Alterpieces and  in the Madonna and Child. Although many of his Roman works are kept in various museums in Italy and around the world, Rome still houses many of Raphael’s masterpieces. The Vatican Pinacoteca houses the  Oddi Alterpiece, the Madonna of Foligno, his ten tapestries, the Transfiguration and some parts of the Baglioni Alterpiece, while the double Portrait of Andrea Navagero and Agostino Beazzano is housed in the Doria Pamphilj Gallery. The Borghese Gallery houses other parts of the Baglioni Alterpiece, as well as Raphael’s Portrait of a Man and the Young Woman with Unicorn. Following Bramante’s death in 1514, Raphael was appointed chief architect for St. Peter’s and also designed the Chigi Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo. In 1518 he began the design of Villa Madama and continued the work on the Vatican Loggias begun by Bramante. Raphael died on April 6th 1520 at the age of 37 and, according to his last wishes, was buried in the Pantheon in Rome, where his tomb is still to be found today.