As many of you may well know, today is the first day of Carnevale. And while festivities in other parts of Italy – ahem, Venice – are world famous, Rome is usually pretty stagnant at this time of the year. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll find confetti all over the...

Welcome to 2010! Coming from Massachusetts, land of strict laws against buying fireworks (among other things), I was shocked my first New Year’s in Rome when the entire night was marked by people setting off firecrackers. Every year it seems like something bad happens because of it,...

People browsing one of the many booths at the annual market in Piazza Navona that sell figurines for presepi (AKA nativity...

I took a photo of the annual Christmas decorations on the Fendi building again this year. As you can see, they’ve changed slightly since last year. The building no longer changes color, but they’ve added these “icicles”...

I took a long walk around the historic center today in order to stock up on some photos during the time when I’ll be in the US for the holidays. The holiday season is definitely gearing up, as it’s the weekend of the Immacolata and the center was filled with Italian families in...

And so it begins….this week will really be the official empty out of the city, which people gearing up for their vacations and many shops shutting down. It always amazes me that a lot of visitors still don’t know about the phenomena of late August vacation, so let me explain. ...