RomaPolacchi

Williams Sonoma has a great resource for cooking Roman style at home. The informative and exciting website has recipes, wine, restaurant recommendations, and great photos. It definitely makes me want to work for Williams Sonoma and travel to Rome just to cook and EAT! Bringing Home Rome  is my newest obsession-as is this soup, pasta e ceci, which takes me straight back to lunch at my old school in Rome.

Rainstorms on Thursday caused flash floods all over Rome. For more pictures, click here. For videos, click here .

From now until December 28th, Museums in Italy will be open late (7-11 pm) and free on Tuesday (Martedi) evenings. Included are archaeological sites like Paestum in Campania, Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli, the Uffizi and the Accademia in Florence and the Borghese Gallery and Villa Giulia in Rome. For more details on museums that are participating around Italy, see the website.

Starting August 21st, the Colosseum will be open for night tours (9:00 pm to midnight) until October 2nd. Tickets cost 15 Euros and reservations are a must. Be sure to request an English-speaking tour. For more information (only in Italian, unfortunately) go to pierreci.it or ask your hotel concierge to call the ticket office for you. The Baths of Caracalla will have a similar program through October 23rd.

A friend who is taking a day trip to Rome recently asked me what he should see. What a tough question-you could spend a day in Rome just getting lost! But if your time is limited there are a few sites that you can easily do in one day and feel as if you have seen a lot. To start, I would visit the Roman Forum . Try to get there when the doors open or just before they close so that you can avoid the crowds. If you have time and you haven't seen it before, pop into the Colosseum . I would also visit the Capitoline Museum . It has recently been remodeled and the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius is on view in a spectacular gallery. The basement exhibit, with its fascinating collection of inscriptions, takes you out to the Tabularium to a gorgeous view of the Forum that I think you shouldn't miss. After your morning in Ancient Rome, walk over to Piazza Navona  (walk through the Jewish Ghetto and Campo dei Fiori to get there) for a light lunch and a few glasses of wine at Cul d...

Giambattista Valli is of my favorite Italian fashion designers and his decorating style does not disappoint. He takes his influences from all parts of Asia and, of all places, Texas! Take a look at his apartment in Rome on elledecor.com .  If only it was available for vacation rentals!

Aida and Rigoletto are on the program this summer at the Baths of Caracalla. See the New York Time s for an update on the shows and a link to the ticket website. Operas have been performed at the Baths since the 1930s-a truly Roman way to spend an evening.

Even the Romans love weekend brunch. Babette's (Via Margutta 1) has the best brunch buffet in the Centro Storico. For a 25 Euro fixed price you can enjoy the spectacular buffet, wine, dessert and coffee. The dining rooms and courtyard are beautiful in a casual and rustic way. The food is truly Roman with pastas, vegetables (fried cauliflower-amazing!), soups and breads. It's my new favorite restaurant in Rome! Be sure to make a reservation.

Garance Dore visited Santa Maria Novella in Florence recently. Gorgeous pictures! I just visited SMN in Rome which is not at all like the original farmacia in Florence, but is nevertheless always a pleasure. On this visit I discovered that they make honey in addition to perfume, soaps and all things fragrant. Divine.

I have 3 days in Rome coming up and have put together a short but sweet itinerary. I will be traveling with someone who has only been to Rome once, so I have included some must-see sights on this plan. We will also be visiting a few sites that I haven't seen in years. Day 1 : -Leonardo Express train to Termini -Lunch: Colline Emiliane near Trevi Fountain -Afternoon walk in Forum Romanum -Late afternoon visit to Capitoline Museum and a Jewish Quarter Walk -Dinner: Sora Lella on Tiber Island -Walk home through Campo dei Fiori and Piazza della Rotonda (Pantheon) Day 2 : -Morning visit to Borghese Gallery -Walk through Borghese Gardens, Pincio (perhaps a visit to Villa Giulia) -Lunch: Babette in Piazza del Popolo -Afternoon Via Condotti, Piazza Farnese, Via Margutta, etc. -Dinner: Trastevere (maybe-still TBD) Day 3: -8:00 am Vatican/St. Peter's -Villa Farnesina -Lunch in Trastevere at Checco or at Cul de Sac in Piazza Navona -Afternoon Castel S. Angelo, Piazza Navona, Via Condott...

There are ways to see the Sistine Chapel (and Vatican Museums) without 5,000 other people-some of them costly, some more reasonable. The cheapest way is to book your ticket online for the first entrance of the day (8:00 am). Not only will you skip the line, but if you are a fast walker, you can get through the museum and to the chapel before anyone else. You won't be all alone in the chapel, but it will be a much more pleasant experience than waiting in line with thousands of other tourists. Another way to see the Chapel with fewer people is to book one of the after hours visits that the Vatican is hosting every Friday through June. Again, you won't be all alone, but you will see the Chapel in a different light with much fewer visitors. Both of these options cost 15 Euros (the regular price of admission) plus a 4 Euro online booking fee. For a REAL private tour, see Viator.com for their exclusive after hours tour of the Sistine Chapel. For the relatively low price of about ...

Happy 2,763rd Birthday to the Eternal City! In celebration of Rome's Birthday, entrance to all museums in Rome will be FREE from April 16th to April 25th! See the RomaPass website for more details.

Andrew McCarthy, one of my teenage crushes (okay, maybe an adult crush too) now writes occasionally for National Geographic Traveler . His most recent article, Three Faces of Rome , chronicles a visit to Rome during which he stays in three different neighborhoods. He starts with serious luxury at the Hotel Hassler and ends with authentic Rome in an apartment in Trastever e. McCarthy is my kind of traveler-his restaurant and cafe experiences are exactly what I look for when I visit Rome. He also has a great list of apartment rental resources. I will definitely be looking into them for my next visit!

Robert Harris wrote Pompeii and Imperium (about Cicero), two fascinating novels that really brought ancient Rome to life. Now his latest book, Conspirata , is coming out in February, and will certainly prove to be as riveting as his last works. Conspirata is the story of Cicero's consulship and the years that followed-years rife with intrigue and ambition. Buy it now in the UK (under the title Lustrum ) .

Two years ago I wrote about my favorite restaurant in Rome, L'Altro Mastai. But a recent visit to their website (now nonexistent) confirms that they are now closed. Does anyone know if they are planning to reopen in a new location? Where has the chef, Fabio Baldassare, gone? This is indeed a disaster! Read my post from two years ago and don't tell me that you aren't mourning the loss of this wonderful, elegant restaurant. "Tucked away on a tiny street near the bridge to the Castel Sant'Angelo on Via Giraud, 53, is a restaurant unlike the typical Roman trattoria. L'altro Mastai, opened four years ago, is innovative, unexpected, and truly a gourmet experience. The menu offers many interesting twists on Roman dishes such as hen soup with Jerusalem artichoke and braised veal with parsley sauce. There is always a tasting menu with wines to match. The wine list is extensive and offers selections from all over Italy and Europe in all price ranges. The chef often cir...

Festival International del Film di Roma is a week-long celebration of independent and Hollywood films. The festival is juried (there is even a kids' jury!) and celebrities and artists from all over the world attend. This year's winners are sure to cause a stir. Find out who won the coveted Golden Marcus Aurelius.

San Francisco's classical music station, KDFC, is hosting a contest to win a week-long trip to Rome (or London, Paris, Istanbul, or Spain). All you have to do is listen to KDFC (102.1 in SF) at 9, 11, 12, 2, and 4 when Rick Steves gives a few clues about "Where in the World" he is. If you can guess, log in to KDFC.com (you need to join ClubKDFC ) and enter to win! The contest runs through October 24 and you can enter everyday.

Thanks to eternallycool.net , news of recent archaeological discoveries in Rome have reached my long-deprived ears. Scholars think that they may have found the famous rotating dining room in the emperor Nero's Domus Aurea and a new amphitheater has been unearthed in Portus , just outside of ancient Rome's port, Ostia. The amphitheater could seat 2,000 people and may have been part of an imperial palace. I am anxiously awaiting more news from the summer's excavations. Stay tuned!

Atlas Obscura , a website devoted to the weirdest places on earth, has an extensive list of curious and extraordinary sites to visit in Italy . On the list are many churches housing the relics of saints, the Capuchin crypt of Santa Maria della Concezione in Rome, Santa Maria Novella Pharmacia in Florence, and the Park of the Monsters in Bomarzo (all places I have mentioned on MoltoItaly). The website offers great information on the history of each site as well as numerous images. It's a great resource for trip planning or for a few minutes' diversion. If you know about a weird and wonderful place in Italy, you can add it to the site too!