The Matthew Online

Libraries in Rome

Looking for a good library in Rome where you can explore, learn and relax. Here’s a list of my favorites – by Rehanna Minooei

Biblioteca Romana Sarti: San Luca is no longer an Academy, but it maintains the library. Located right behind the Trevi Fountain, you have to first pass through the Academy to get to the Library.  You need a document (passport or permesso di soggiorno) and two passport photos to access their stock of books on painting, sculpture and architecture.  You can’t check books out, but once you get inside you may not want to leave.

Address: Piazza dell'Accademia di San Luca, 77

Telephone: 06 6791155  

Palazzo della Giustizia -  To become a member you must be a university student (in law) writing your thesis. For the rest of us, we can get a one day pass, but can only visit once a month. The library is huge, with cavernous ceilings and giant carved pillars. There are 3 floors of law books, a few copy machines and wooden tables and chairs.

Address Palazzo di giustizia, Piazza Cavour

Telephone: 06 68834900

Biblioteca Nazionale-   It is a large, modern building with a sprawling lawn and lots of people reading on the grass and steps.  Once you go inside, the mood changes. It’s very serious and formal.  They have books about every subject and even a small library for the blind.

Address: Viale Castro Pretorio, 105 (In front of the metro stop Castro Pretorio)  

Telephone: 06 49891

Villa Mercede-  To get in you go through the gates and there’s a garden with a winding path. Walking straight ahead, the library is up a few stairs to the right.  This is one of the few libraries where you can get a free “Bibliocard,” which is like a VIP for libraries in Rome, or a 5€ “Bibliopass” that lets you use Internet there and in other libraries that also accept the pass.  

Address: Via Tiburtina, 113

Telephone: 06 45460631

Rispoli-  This was one of the few libraries that was clearly marked and simple to find. It’s another place that accepts the “Bibliocard” and “Bibliopass. Also, it’s one of the few libraries in Rome still open after 8pm.

Address: Piazza Grazioli, 4

Telephone: 06 45460561

Bibliothe’ – This library is small - one large wall covered with books. Hidden inside of an Indian restaurant, Bibliothe’, it has  books in English, Italian and Hindi. Most of the books are about philosophy, religion and Ayurveda, which is a Hindu philosophy on health.  The space may be small but you can also get food, read a book, take a yoga class and listen speakers discuss a variety of topics. The day I found it, an Indian man was presenting his experience cycling around the world.

Address: Via Celsa, Piazza Del Gesu, 5

Telephone: 06 6781427

Tango fever catches Rome

By Christiana Rein

ROME, Sept. 18 - Rome's Parco della Musica Auditorium will host this evening the final show of the very successful Buenos Aires Tango Festival.

The "Milonga Finale" will be filled with famous dancers such as Carlos and Rosa Perez, sure to fascinate the audience with their sensual steps to the rhythm of the Orquesta Tangovia Buenos Aires and the smooth voice of Adriana Varela.

The doors will open at 10:30 p.m. and entrance is free. Classes and workshops are for novices and old pros. The festival, in its second year, is not only an opportunity to witness the best dancers and musicians from the tango capital itself; it is also a great cultural immersion into the vivid nights of Argentina, as with the famous milongas. There will be tables and seats where you can order drinks and appetizers, or tapas. There are photography exhibitions that tell the history of tango with pictures from photographer Eduardo Torres.

The "Godfather" wedding march? Listen up

By Alison Graham

ROME, Feb. 12 -- Monday night's concert program for The Filarmonic Orchestra di Roma promised “young music for the young in all of us,” and it delivered.

The concert, entitled “Hollywood Blockbusters”, included scores from movie hits such as “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”, "Pirates of the Carribean” “The Gladiator”, “James Bond”, “The Godfather”, “Titanic” and “Apollo 13”.

“The music always sends a message to the people, young or [not so] young,”  principal conductor Ezio Monti told the Matthew Online in an interview after the performance. “The music can change the people. The music can change the country. The music can change the world.”

Art fans flock to Rome for Gauguin's greats

By Coralie Mevs

ROME, Nov. 19 - In a first for the Eternal City, an unprecedented collection of the French master Paul Gauguin's pieces have been gathered from museums around the world for a new collection at Complesso Del Vittoriano. The Matthew Online toured “Paul Gauguin: Myths and Dreams” at the Vittoriano last week.

Stepping into the gallery, visitors are greeted by a bold Gauguin statement: "Everything I have learnt from anybody else has always been an impediment to me. Hence I can say: Nobody ever taught me anything. It is true that I know little! But I prefer the little I have created which is
truly mine."

Just inside, there are 150 of Gauguin's best works to see.

Rome's Museo Carlo Bilotti offers a cheap day with celebs

By A. May

 

ROME, Nov 15 –  More than half way through the seven-week exhibition of Timothy Greenfield-Sander’s celebrity portrait art at Museo Carlo Bilotti, there was less noise coming from the halls of the museum than the portraits themselves this week.

 

There was no red carpet, no flashing lights, and no celebrity fanatics anticipating a personal view of one of their favorite celebrities. There was just the simplistic style of Greenfield-Sanders' iconic portraits.

 

Canova, the last of Italy's great sculptors, returns to Rome

By Natalija Dimitriyevitch,

ROME, Nov 15 - 250 years after his death, the spirit of famed sculptor Antonio Canova still lives in the halls of Galleria Borghese alongside such giants as Titian and Bernini.

The city of Rome is dedicating an exhibition to the well-known sculptor of the 19^th century in the splendid Villa Borghese gallery. Until Feb. 3 art lovers can fully appreciate a large number of his masterpieces on display, thanks to the collaboration of some of the most important museums of the world.

Visitors can compare Canova’s work with the pieces that inspired him; the gallery's director Anna Coliva and Fernando Mazzocca tried to recreate the atmosphere of Canova's day through a wise mix of Bernini masterpieces, ancient marbles, clay objects and drawings.

What makes this exhibition unique is the inclusion of such famous works as the Three Graces, the Naiade and Italian Venere. They stand next to the statue of Paolina Bonaparte Borghese. This piece is permanently shown in the gallery and is regarded as Canova at his best.

A shadowy striptease and a roller coast of lights? Must be the annual RomaEuropa festival

By Alexa Magdalenski

ROME, Nov. 14- How can an exhibit force us to think about our own feelings about art and the world, yet leave us utterly confused?

This is exactly what Swedish artist Christian Partos art does in his exhibit, Partos 10, taking place from now until Nov. 21 at Rome's Palazzo Fendi. 

Partos uses mediums like light, shadows, and water and combines them with technology to create his own style of art. The pieces range from a portrait of Adam and Eve formed by air and dust to a giant roller coaster of lights to a striptease show with shadows. 

The exhibit, part of the annual RomaEuropa Festival, spans an entire floor of the grand Palazzo Fendi, a setting that contrasts with the flashiness of the neon lights and sharp designs and creates an edgy work of art in itself.

A piece of contemporary culture comes to Rome with Rothko exhibit

By Pauline Horwits
ROME 12 Nov- The first floor of Rome's Palazzo delle Esposizioni filled with visitors on Saturday night. They came to see a vast selection of works by Mark Rothko, one of the greatest artists of the post-war era.

Rothko emerged during the 1940s part of a group regarded “as a new collective voice in American art.” With a career spanning five decades, Rothko created a new structure for abstract painting. 

The Rothko exhibit is important for Rome, marking the re-opening of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni after a five-year renovation project.

Italy's local dialects are cool again thanks to youths

By Monica Carolan

ROME, Nov.8 - Young Italians are returning to the roots of their culture by keeping the local dialects of their region popular, a linguistics expert told a gathering at John Cabot University on Wednesday. 

In the northern part of Italy it is most pronounced. The Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Veneto are the dominating regions in this trend, Professor Arturo Tosi said in a lecture entitled "I Giovani e la pubblicità: Come parla l'Italia d'oggi". In the south, Puglia and Sicily take the lead, he added.

JCU's InVerse poetry festival shines through a steady downpour

By Ashley Boyd

ROME, Oct. 31 – Courageous professors, students and fans of the written word braved the storm
on Tuesday night to hear renowned poets exchange poetry.

Standing in front of a room of about 40, American poet Susan Stewart and Italian poet Mariangela Gualtieri alternated between translating each other’s poetry in an orange-lit Aula Magna auditorium.

Stewart and Gualtieri translated about 10 poems written by the other poet, mesmerized the audience with their calm, melodic interpretations.