Rome Culture

Rome's cultural life has blossomed in recent years. The city has high profile and innovative international performing arts festivals, such as the RomaEuropa Festival (see Special Events), a cutting-edge auditorium (see Music below) that attracts international talent, and RomaEstate - its collection of summer festivals. Massive city council spending on culture has powered the city's cultural rebirth, though this has slowed in recent years with the election of a right-wing mayor.

Rome's Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Via Nazionale 194 (www.palazzoesposizioni.it), a 19th-century exhibition space that features dance and art shows, has been brought into the 21st century through a recent large-scale renovation, and now includes a dramatic glass-roofed restaurant. Major exhibitions also have a spectacular venue in the Scuderie Papali del Quirinale, opposite the Quirinal Palace, renovated by famous Italian architect Gae Aulenti (tel: 06 3996 7500; www.scuderiequirinale.it). Past shows have included retrospectives of major works from St Petersburg's Hermitage Museum, Sandro Botticelli, and Antonello da Messina, but it also features contemporary art and photography.

New contemporary art museums include Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo (MAXXI) (tel: 06 321 0181; www.maxxi.darc.beniculturali.it), a national centre for contemporary art and architecture. The former military barracks were converted by well-known Anglo-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, and house some of the state collection of contemporary art and architecture. Also new is MACRO (en.macro.roma.museum), at Via Reggio Emilia 1, Rome's museum of contemporary art, designed by Odile Decq.

To explore the Roman underground, seek out the Centri Sociali, non-profit, self-governing ‘social centres' set up by left-wing students during the 1970s, with support from the Italian Communist Party, which host the most radical concerts, films, theatre and dance events that Rome has to offer. Admission costs are at a minimum here, as are the prices for drinks at the bar. Centri Sociali attract an alternative crowd aged 18-30 and while once they often started out as squats in public buildings, they've now been around long enough to become part of the establishment (see Live Music in Nightlife for more information).

It's wise to book ahead for cultural events, especially for big names, for whom tickets may start at around €30. Ticket agencies may save hassle. Orbis (tel: 06 474 4776) provides tickets for concerts, theatre and sporting events. Hello Ticket (tel: 06 4807 8400 or 800 907 080; www.helloticket.it) sells tickets by phone, online or at their main branch at Via Giolitti 34 (in the eastern wing of Termini train station).

The weekly Roma C'è and TrovaRoma publications (see Nightlife section), daily newspapers La Repubblica and Il Messaggero and fortnightly magazine Wanted in Rome (www.wantedinrome.com) provide more information on cultural events.

Music: Rome's state-of-the-art auditorium, Viale Pietro de Coubertin 30 (tel: 06 8024 1281 or 199 109 783; www.auditorium.com) designed by Genoese architect Renzo Piano, also known as Parco della Musica, features three space-age halls with remarkable acoustics and a large outdoor amphitheatre used for concerts and events. Everything from pop and jazz to dance and symphonic orchestras are hosted here, and the venue is the official home of Rome's principal and most prestigious classical music academy, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (tel: 06 8024 2501; www.santacecilia.it). 

Rome's Philharmonic, the Accademia Filarmonica (tel: 06 320 1752; www.filarmonicaromana.org) performs regular operas and concerts at the Teatro Olimpico, Piazza Gentile da Fabriano 17, Flaminio (tel: 06 326 5991; www.teatroolimpico.it). Rossini and Verdi were once members of this academy (founded in 1821) that offers a varied programme of chamber music, opera and contemporary music. 

There are many other venues for classical music including the main auditorium of Rome's La Sapienza University where the reputable Istituzione Universitaria dei Concerti, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5 (tel: 06 361 0051, www.concertiiuc.it) holds concerts, churches and in the summer parks and archaeological sites, many of which are part of the Estate Romana series of events (see Special Events). Some of the atmospheric summer venues for music include (classical and contemporary) are the Teatro di Marcello, the Fori Imperiali and the Colosseum.

The Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Via Beniamino Gigli 1 (tel: 06 481 601; www.operaroma.it), dominates the opera scene. The season runs from November to May. In summer the theatre hosts opera outdoors, set amidst the dramatic ruins of the Baths of Caracalla. Free concerts (choral, chamber and organ recitals) are held in churches (including Sant'Ignazio, the Gesù and San Paolo entro le Mura) year-round by the Associazione Internazionale Amici di Musica Sacra (tel: 06 6880 5816; www.amicimusicasacra.com).

Theatre: The theatre season runs from October to May. The city's official troupe, the Teatro di Roma (tel: 06 684 0001; www.teatrodiroma.net), is based in two locations: at the prestigious Teatro Argentina, Largo di Torre Argentina 52, which hosts lavish and often highbrow productions directed by renowned directors, and at the Teatro India, Via Pierantoni 6, Lungotevere dei Papareschi, a renovated former soap factory with three stages which puts on rather more experimental and multi-disciplinary offerings, also in summer.  

Musical comedies are performed at the fashionable Teatro Sistina, Via Sistina 129 (tel: 06 420 0711; www.ilsistina.com). Two other venues managed by the ETI (Italian Theatre Board), the Teatro Valle, Via del Teatro Valle 21 (tel: 06 6880 3794; www.teatrovalle.it), and the Teatro Quirino, Via delle Vergini 7 (tel: 06 679 4585; www.teatroquirino.it), put on an interesting and varied programme, the first of contemporary work, the second of classics and Commedia dell'Arte. Also worth mentioning is the Teatro Palladium, Piazza Bartolomeo Romano 8 (tel: 06 5733 2768; www.teatro-palladium.it) which is attached to Rome's third university (known simply as Roma 3) and offers a very interesting range of readings, films, dance and theatre events. Fringe theatre is well represented at the Vascello, Via Giacinto Carini 78, Monteverde (tel: 06 588 1021; www.teatrovascello.it).

In summer, look out for outdoor performances, in venues such as the Anfiteatro della Quercia del Tasso, Passeggiata del Gianicolo (tel: 06 575 0827; www.anfiteatroquerciadeltasso.com), with stunning views over the city, and the Teatro Romano di Ostia Antica, the Roman amphitheatre in Ostia Antica. It hosts, among other events, the international performing arts Cosmophonies festival (www.cosmophonies.com).

Dance: The Rome Opera Ballet performs at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Via Beniamino Gigli (tel: 06 4816 0255; www.operaroma.it), where the regular diet of classical ballet is enriched with guest performances of internationally renowned dancers. The Teatro Olimpico, Piazza Gentile da Fabriano 17, Flaminio (tel: 06 326 5991; www.teatroolimpico.it), has a strong dance season, ranging from classical to contemporary. Tickets for dance productions at the Teatro Argentina, Largo di Torre Argentina 52 (tel: 06 684 0001; www.teatrodiroma.net), are snapped up, so early booking is advised.

Film: Italy's grand history in film has been centred in Rome since the Cinecittà (Cinema City), Via Tuscolana 1, was opened by Mussolini in 1937. Scenes from Anthony Minghella's The English Patient (1996) and Jane Campion's The Portrait of a Lady (1996) were filmed in these studios. The Talented Mr Ripley (1999), Gladiator (2000) and Quantum of Solace (2008) are all recent Hollywood films that used Rome as a setting, but Italian cinema has failed to match the flowering of the 1940s, 50s and 60s.

Among the greats are Rossellini's Open City (1946) and Vittorio De Sica's The Bicycle Thief (1948), painting a harsh but touching picture of post-war Rome. And Jean Negulesco's Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), focusing on the quest for love and the Trevi Fountain, and Audrey Hepburn's Oscar-winning performance as an off-duty princess falling in love with Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday (1953). Fellini's films Roma (1972) and La Dolce Vita (1959) captured the beautiful people and Rome's swinging sixties era in a way that still illuminates the contemporary city.

More recently Rome's Woody Allen, Nanni Moretti, enjoyed considerable success at home and abroad with films called Caro Diario (1993), which showed a beautiful and virtually empty Rome in August, and La Stanza del Figlio (2001), the dramatic tale of a family that loses a son. Gabriele Muccino directed L'Ultimo Bacio (2001), about life for the city's 30-somethings, while Turkish-born Ferzan Ozpetek was responsible for Le Fate Ignoranti (2001), both of which feature rising Italian actor Stefano Accorsi. Muccino has gone on to make the successful The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) with Will Smith in Hollywood, while Ozpetek has remained loyal to Rome. His most recent film, Cuore Sacro (Sacred Heart) (2005) is also his strongest to date and is largely set in the medieval Monti district of the city.

Though in recent years many older and smaller cinemas in Rome have closed to make way for larger multi-screen cinemas in the suburbs, there has been a simultaneous renaissance in small art house venues. The Cinema Trevi (near the fountain of the same name), which had been abandoned in the 1970s for example, reopened in 2003 as a state-of-the-art screening room and archive for the Italian National School of Cinema; the historic Cinema Farnese in Campo de' Fiori has been refurbished and reopened; and the city has its very own Casa del Cinema (House of Cinema), which hosts screenings as well as Q&A sessions with leading actors, directors and scriptwriters (www.casadelcinema.it). Metropolitan, Via del Corso 7 (tel: 06 320 0933), and Warner Village Moderno, Piazza della Repubblica 45 (tel: 892 111), dedicate one of their screens to English-language films.

Films are also shown in their original language on Monday evening at Alcazar, Via Merry del Val 14 (tel: 06 588 0099), while Nuovo Olimpia, Via in Lucina 16G (tel: 06 686 1068), shows original-language films regularly. There are numerous open-air showings in the summer, including Cineporto, Viale Antonino di San Giuliano, Ponte Milvio (www.cineporto.com), close to the Olympic Stadium; Isola del Cinema, Piazza San Bartolomeo (Isola Tiberina) (tel: 06 5833 3113; www.isoladelcinema.com), which transforms the Tiber island into an atmospheric open-air cinema during August and September; and Notti di Cinema a Piazza Vittorio (tel: 06 4436 3324; www.agisanec.lazio.it), which shows films daily in Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II in the months of July and August. Weekly showings and details of film festivals are listed in the weekly publication, Roma C'è or in the daily press.

Literary Notes: Ovid's Ars Amatoria (Art of Love - circa 16-25BC) brings ancient Rome to life, with its vivid depiction of a trip to the Colosseum, the site of flirtation and grandiose spectacle. Those interested in political intrigue may turn to I Claudius and Claudius the God (1934), Robert Graves' portrayal of ancient Rome, or the more measured tones of Gibbon's History and Decline of the Roman Empire (1782). The dramatic poetry of Virgil's Aeneid (19BC) evokes the glory of the Roman Empire, blessed and cursed by the Gods.

The Romantics had a soft spot for Rome; a consumptive Keats came here to improve his health, to no avail - the house where he died is now the Keats-Shelley Memorial House (see Key Attractions). The tragic tale of Beatrice Cenci, beheaded in 1599 outside Castel Sant'Angelo for plotting to kill the father who had raped her, inspired Shelley's play The Cenci (1886). Shelley drowned off the coast of Tuscany, and, like Keats, is buried in Rome.

An excellent book about Ancient Rome is Marguerite Yourcenar's Memoirs of Hadrian (1951), a ‘ghost' autobiography of Emperor Hadrian's life that evokes daily life as well as more philosophical aspects of life in Rome back then. Also written in the 1950s, The Talented Mr Ripley (1955) by Patricia Highsmith is set mostly in Rome.

More recently, bestselling author Dan Brown's Angels and Demons (2003), the prequel to the acclaimed Da Vinci Code (2004) is set entirely in Rome and is crammed with Vatican intrigue and hi-tech drama.