piazza cavour

Finally! The long awaited remodeling of Piazza Cavour was unveiled 3 weeks ago, and I for one was very happy about the new look. I'd had enough of the towering cranes and fenced off construction site, bus detours and loud noise surrounding the central Prati neighborhood square. Now Romans can finally admire the massive Palazzaccio again, salute the statue of Camillo Benso di Cavour, and enjoy the nice grassy areas between the gravel paths.

ponte #100

Ponte Sant'Angelo ~ Roma

I'm posting one of my favorite bridges to celebrate «Louis'» 100th Sunday Bridge Series, in which our dear bovine friend portrays the many souls of the Golden Gate Bridge from his window. Every Sunday, «Louis» invites participants from all over to world to share the bridges of their cities.
To see more images, head over to San Francisco Bay Daily Photo ans show some photo-love.

neve

Rome hadn't woken up to this in 27 years, but some say this year's flakes beat the 1985 snowfall. I certainly never remember Rome seeing anything like this before.
Here are a few images of my neighborhood and Villa Borghese, taken Saturday morning. I wish I could only portray the silence and the awe.

palazzetto dello sport

This photo's more about the incredible sky we were blessed with a few days ago, than the actual "palazzetto" in silhouette.
Built in 1957 and finished in time for the 17th Olympic Games of 1960, this curious steel and concrete "spaceship" arena was used for several sports, mostly basketball.

USA – Italy match held at Palazzetto dello Sport in 1960

The Palazzetto dello Sport was designed by engineer Pier Luigi Nervi, who is also responsible for the Sala Nervi in the Vatican.

foto con il telefono

You've probably been wondering where I've disappeared to. Sorry. It's just that I've been playing around with my new camera phone and enjoying a fun app called Instagram that allows you to shoot medium format photos from your iPhone, add filters and effects, and then share them on the web in matter of seconds. Here are a few test shots. Which do you prefer, viewing-wise, the bigger or the medium size?

foto dell'anno 2011

Buon Anno! Happy New Year!
I chose this photo as my 'Picture of the Year' because it captures the feeling and heat of Rome in my rather desolate neighborhood during summer. The air is still, while the child (my son) is in full motion.
This photo was also published on the online newspaper la Repubblica as part of a "Summer in the City" series.

Other contenders for best of the year were:
Specchio
Crepuscolo
Dolce far niente
Ponte Milvio
Signore che pranzano
Termini
Roma: epoche e stili

City Daily Photo has a theme day the first of every month. An impressive number of blogs participate in theme day. Click here to check out those that do.

cicerone_1

My family is in town, visiting from the United States, and we are touring the city during the holidays. The weather is unusually warm and beautifully sunny, and it's wonderful for me to see my city through their eyes. Here is a first batch of photos taken during a fantastic tour of the Palatine Hill, Forum and Colosseum, organized by the always reliable Context Travel. I may be biased (I work for them as culinary docent, leading gourmet tours of the city) but the knowledge, breadth of information, passion and expertise shared by the scholars at Context is boundless. Our docent introduced and revealed aspects of the sites I was not familiar with. It was a truly spectacular experience visiting them with my loved ones.