RomaPolacchi

To find out all sorts of tidbits of travel information for Rome, see transcripts from the live Trip Coach session with Time Out Rome' s Ann Hanley on March 4th. Get tips on getting to Rome from the Amalfi Coast, seeing the Pope, pickpockets and renting apartments, to name just a few topics!

The April issue of Gourmet Magazine spotlights a little-known neighborhood in Rome: Pigneto , just outside the Porta Maggiore (pictured in this engraving by Piranesi). In the past, Italian film directors used the neighborhood to depict a poor Italian village. Now it has been rediscovered by artists and students-and there are great restaurants and bars for you to visit. Gourmet recommends Bar Necci (Via Fanfulla da Ludi 68) for lots of movie memorabilia and the restaurant Primo (Via del Pigneto 46) for roasted pig and linguine with octopus. The April issue of Gourmet is chock full of all sorts of recipes , restaurant recommendations, and gorgeous pictures from all over Italy.

A recent article in the New York Times Travel section highlights some of the incredible palaces in Rome that have been turned into museums for public viewing. More often than not, these palaces were built by popes or their relatives and house exquisite collections of classical sculpture and paintings and frescoes by Italian masters. Not only is the artwork contained in the palazzos a draw, but the gardens and architecture of the residences themselves are also worth seeing. Some of the palazzos are quite famous already, like the Galleria Borghese , but others are just beginning to be noticed by the amateur traveler, like the Palazzo Colonna and Palazzo Altemps (pictured). Mentioned in the article are also several artists' workshops, such as the Museum-Atelier Canova-Tadolini. You can use the Roma Pass to visit most of these "house" museums.

For travelers to Rome who are planning on visiting several museums, it may make sense to invest in the RomaPass. The pass gets you free admission to the first two museums and/or sites and then gets you entrance to every subsequent site within 3 days at a discounted rate. Also included on the Roma Pass are free bus, subway and train rides! The pass costs 20 Euros and includes admission to some theater, musical and cinema events.

Hurray! This week, all museums and archaeological sites in Rome are offering free admission on the occasion of the "Week of Culture." Of course, this time of year-just after Easter- is notoriously crowded, but certainly free admission to the most famous museums and sites (and the not-so-famous museums and sites) will alleviate some of your frustration with the crowds. The Modern Traveler's suggestion is to get in to museums and sites like the Capitoline Museum or the Roman Forum early-when the doors open. Or wait until the last admittance of the day. Tourists tend to hit the shops in the late afternoon!

As you can imagine, building a subway line through one of the world's most archaeologically crowded cities is not easy. The new Metro Linea C which began construction last year is expected to be completed in 2015 after years of careful research, excavation and construction. Each time they break ground, new discoveries will be made, new routes will have to be chosen, and history could potentially be rewritten. The construction of the new subway, while unfortunately resulting in quite a bit of destruction, will enable archaeologists to see what lies beneath the Medieval and Renaissance city. Read the article in April's Travel and Leisure and stay tuned for what are certain to be exciting revelations!

April's Town and Country Magazine has an article on the revitalization of Rome's heretofore unknown neighborhoods. The restoration and cultural projects begun to celebrate the Great Jubilee year at the Vatican 8 years ago and the election of Walter Veltroni as mayor have inaugurated a new era in cultural expansion and development. Neighborhoods like Testaccio , Trastevere and the Via Giulia (pictured) now attract visitors who used to confine their sightseeing to the Centro Storico. New hotels, restaurants, shopping and galleries have opened in central and peripheral neighborhoods alike. As Georgia Spogli, the wife of the US ambassador to Italy puts it, "People used to go to Paris; now they come to Rome." Unfortunately, the article is not available on-line, but stay tuned for recommendations from the magazine via Modern Traveler.