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Have you ever met a professional tour guide? A board certified professional that can explain art, history, and culture in the city you’re visiting? 😍🇮🇹
Click the link in my bio and let me plan your dream trip to Rome! 🫶
Rome | Italy | Tour Guide | Travel
Join me on a gelato adventure through Italy’s culinary wonders! 😋🍨
❄️ We do know, however, that in ancient Palestine reapers of the harvest where offered refreshments made of compressed snow, which had been taken from the Lebanese mountains and had been stored in special containers to keep it through the summer.
🇪🇬 In ancient Egypt, the Pharaohs offered their guests a slush made of snow and fruit juices. Cleopatra reportedly even offered Caesar and Anthony such a “drink” in silver goblets when they met. Later in Rome is when the first recipe of a sort of gelato pops up, even though it was more of a slushy, thanks to General Quintus Fabius Maximus.
🌋A brisk sea trade of compacted snow from Mt. Etna and Mt. Vesuvius to Rome flourished for centuries. The concoction was not only popular with the aristocracy (emperor Nero was a fanatic), but also with the general population who were provided with the delicacy by street vendors.
🍧 During the fall of the Roman empire, many of the custom and the delicacies enjoyed by the people disappeared. During this time, the frozen delight also disappeared from the Italian peninsula.
🍒 We also must look to the Arabs to follow the thread of gelato history. It was they, it appears, who made the first leap of producing frozen fruit juices by placing in containers surrounded by crushed ice. This was a more refined and lighter form of the early gelato, and they called it “sherbert,” which translates to “sweet snow” in Arabic.
🇮🇹 Starting with the Renaissance, our story becomes an entirely Italian one.
✨There are three figures who carried forward the progress of gelato, and who can properly be called the first gelatieri (gelato makers). These men are Ruggieri, Buontalenti and Coltelli.
Who wants to know more about the history of gelato?🍦
Rome | Italy | Tour Guide | Gelato
Exploring the lasagna of Rome is easier than you think; just click the link in my bio! 😉✨
💦 Everyone knows the famous Trevi Fountain; less well known are the underground passages that stretch beneath the Trevi district.
💦 Of this intricate maze of ancient vestiges, the underground archaeological area of Vicus Caprarius—the City of Water—is part: the structures of an imperial imperial domus, the castellum aquae of the Virgin Aqueduct, and the evocative exhibits discovered during the renovation of the former Cinema Trevi.
Did you even know that this existed? 🤭
📍 Vicolo del Puttarelli 25
Rome | Italy | Tour Guide | Hidden Gems
🚨Last night, the occupation gave an evacuation order for an area they had deemed safe. Once again, our people were forced to scramble for their lives.They left behind whatever temporary shelters had offered small moments of reprieve and took only what they could carry.
Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to take to the streets on foot, as there is almost no transportation left here, in search of a new safe zone. The problem is there is no safe place here.
The occupation sends these orders and demands that we move around like we are animals being herded. But even the herder cares more for his animals, moving them only to provide food, shelter, and safety from danger. The occupation, on the other hand, moves us around in order to ki|| us and destroy our land.
‼️In response to last night's events, we are asking those who stand in solidarity with us to help us provide tents to our displaced brethren. Although these tents are not home or offer any real sense of safety, they are a vital part of survival in these moments. They offer temporary shelter and reprieve from harsh conditions and some basic privacy. Without these tents, people are left to live, sleep, and exist in the open air.
⛺️ 1 Tent = $1000
🍊 Food basket = $60
Please give what you can and help us ease the suffering of our people.
Link in bio 🤝
In Rome there are thousands of churches, old buildings, villas, and each one has an incredibly ornate, decorative design, be it churches with images of Jesus Christ and the saints or famous paintings of the Renaissance.
👹But perhaps the most unusual, hilarious, and quirky building is Zuccari Palace, AKA The Monster House.
👾This “Monster House” is so called from one facade of the building, which features large monster faces with their mouths gaping wide, in the process of swallowing the doors and windows.
🎨This palace was built by the famous Baroque artist Federico Zuccari in 1590 as a studio for himself and his children. For the facade facing Via Gregoriana, Zuccari drew inspiration from the Gardens of Bomarzo, located in northern Lazio, Italy. The architectural style of the building, both praised and criticized, soon became the hot spot for aspiring artisans in the area.
👑After Zuccari’s death, the building changed hands many times. The Queen of Poland lived here in 1702 and for decades the house was a center of high society in Rome. Later on, the palace became an inn for foreign artists.
📚In 1900, Henrietta Hertz, the last owner, left her collection of paintings to the Italian state, allowing the creation of the famous Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History, which is housed in the building today. You can visit by booking a guided tour on their website.
Did you know the Trevi is named after the goddess of crossroads? 😍🇮🇹
⛲️ The location of the fountain dates back to ancient Roman times, since the construction of the Aqua Virgo Aqueduct in 19 B.C. that provided water to the Roman baths and the fountains of central Rome.
💦 The fountain was built at the end point of the aqueduct, at the junction of three roads. The Roman crossroads were often game paths and popular places for hunters to spread their nets and traps, in the hope of catching small animals.
👨🏼🎤 Traveling at night was dangerous for all the normal reasons, but added to this, humans could also be caught in the hunter’s traps only guided by the deceptive light of the moon.
⚔️ Crossroads, in the symbolic term, were also seen as points of danger where the path of life split representing the moment of decision in strange surroundings and unknown circumstances.
🙏🏼 An effigy of Trivia was placed on crossroads where votive offerings were left. The goddess Trivia would be called upon for help, protection and guidance when danger threatened.
⛲️ The new fountain was built in the same spot in the 1700’s.
💶 Luck or no luck, your money goes to a good cause. Pre pandemic times an estimated 3000€ daily went into this fountain!
The best sausage fest in all of Rome and where to find it! Well, one of them. Every neighborhood has their favorite but this is just my humble opinion. And make sure you try their lasagna from the tavola calda, their home made prosciutto and my favorite- goat cheese Camembert! 🤗
📍 @norcineriacecchini , via merulana
🌳 The Savello Park or Orange Garden stands on the Aventine hill, in the area of the ancient fortress built by the Savelli family towards the end of the 13th century at the church of Santa Sabina; the fortress was built on a pre-existing 10th century castle belonging to the Crescenzi.
🍊 The large medieval walls of the fortress now surround the Park or Orange Garden, a small rectangular garden very popular because from the belvedere overlooking the river you can enjoy a splendid view of Rome from the bend of the Tiber to St. Peter’s Basilica.
🌳 The park, characterized by a symmetrical layout with a median avenue aligned with the belvedere, was built in 1932 on a project by the architect Raffaele De Vico, who enhanced the space enclosed between the ancient walls. In the enclosure wall, on the side opposite the side wall and the apse of Santa Sabina, the traces of the towers and the drawbridge of the castle are clearly recognizable.
🔑 Leaving the Orange Garden and turning right, you reach Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta, designed by the famous engraver Giovan Battista Piranesi in 1765. From the lock of the door that leads to the Villa dei Cavalieri, you can see Saint Peter’s dome, framed by the garden hedges.
📍 Save this post for your Rome visit! 🥰
English puts a century after the date, Italian does not. After 20 years I still make this error of forgetting to “add” a century 😅🫣 - anyone else??
👁️🗨️The pillars of the colonnade between the nave and the aisles are said to come chiefly from a temple of Isis, but there are some few which are of a different pattern to the rest - spolia from the baths of Caracalla around the 3rd century AD.
📍 located right in Piazza Santa Maria di Trastevere, save this post for your visit ☺️
