Rome: Kings of Convenience Concert, 28 October 2009

“A friend is not a means you utilize to get somewhere”…not many people reading, or better, listening to this line can help singing along or whistling, recognizing one of the most popular songs of some years ago. Year was 2004 and the song was “Misread”, probably the best-known song written by the Kings of Convenience, a phlegmatic Norwegian duo that has become very popular thanks to the delicate melody of this song.

Five years after the publication of “Riot on an Empty Street”, the record that has made the Kings of Convenience famous, the duo coming from Bergen has finally released “Declaration of Dependence”, giving the lie to those who considered them expired after 5 years of apparent inactivity. In fact, after having devoted themselves to their parallel projects (Erlend moved to Berlin and founded the band The Whitest Boy Alive, while Eirik has given birth to the Kommode), Erlend and Eirik are back with the new album, which was preceded by the single “Mrs Cold”, but also with a tour that will take them to Italy too: two unmissable shows will take place in the capital city on the 28th of October and in Milan on the 29th. If you happen to be over there, you should leave your exclusive cheap B&B in Rome or Milan and enjoy the Norwegian duo live: with their quiet sounds and whispered songs they always succeed in creating an unmatchable atmosphere wherever they play.

It might sound strange that a Norwegian band has succeeded in keeping pace with their Anglophone colleagues, and it might be even more difficult to believe that a sweet and almost melancholic song (“Misread” again), written by two ephebic guys coming from the cold North has become a summer hit together with lively party-songs. However, although Anglophone countries, and England in particular, are in power as far as modern music is concerned, we should not forget that in years Norway has given birth to many famous bands belonging to many different music genres, which have become famous also outside Norway, from Black Metal bands, a genre which is very widespread in Scandinavian countries, to the famous band Motorpsycho, not forgetting Röyksopp’s electronic and chillout music.

Among the standard-bearers of Norwegian music in the world now there are also the Kings of Convenience, who have attracted the attention of critics and public in little more than 10 years. Their fans will certainly follow them on tour, perhaps planning a travel to Rome to enjoy their music in one of the most fascinating cities in the world. Besides the songs of the new album, the Kings of Convenience will probably play also the ones of the preceding records, like “Riot on an Empty Street” and “Quiet is the New Loud”, which was released in 2001 and is considered as one of the most representative records of the “new acoustic movement”. If you love this duo do not miss the chance to book 4 stars hotels in Rome and enjoy a magic show.


Tickets: various prices
Date: 28th October 2009
Location: Palalottomatica, Rome, Italy


This article was written by Francesca Tessarollo with support from online hotel booking engine. For any information, please visit cheap B&B accommodation or for travel information have a look to travel to Rome.

Rome: Progressive Nation, 27 October 2009

Progressive Nation, one of the most awaited events by those who have a passion for music, in particular for progressive metal, is coming to Italy!

Born of an idea by Mike Portnoy, the drummer of Dream Theater, one of the most representative progressive metal bands, who wanted to give birth to a music festival dedicated to the more progressive side of hard rock and metal, Progressive Nation is an event that gathers on the same stage Dream Theater and other important bands, who are not chosen because of their popularity or commercial success, but in virtue of their originality, uniqueness and musicianship. The first Progressive Nation tour has taken place in 2008 in various American cities, with the participation of bands like Opeth, Between the Buried and me and 3, while the second edition of the festival has taken place this year with a different line-up: besides Dream Theater, the large audience of the show has enjoyed the performances of Zappa plays Zappa, Scale the Summit and Bigelf. And to make also overseas fans happy, this year Progressive Nation will take place in Europe, too: the tour will kick off in Helsinki on the 23rd of September and end in Ljubljana on the 31st of October, with dates in many countries of the old continent: in Italy Progressive Nation will be held in 4 cities: Milan (26th of October), Rome (27th of October), Bologna (29th of October) and Conegliano (30th of October). If you are planning to travel to Rome or to another of these Italian cities, now you have one more reason to do that!

Besides Dream Theater, the protagonists of the European Progressive Nation will be Opeth, Bigelf, and Unexpected: all these bands are different from each other, although they have all be influenced by progressive metal. Book 3 stars hotels in Rome and grab the chance to enjoy the performance of Swedish Opeth, who play a music genre in which Scandinavian death metal meets progressive metal, progressive rock and even folk, jazz and blues. Also the Bigelf play a very peculiar kind of music, and also thanks to the intense interpretations of the singer their live performances are very special. Canadian Unexpected can be considered as a cauldron that gives space to everything, from various forms of metal (death, progressive, melodic…) to a number of other music genres, from ambient to medieval music.

However, the most awaited band, the band that will convince many fans from all over Italy to book a youth hostel in Rome, is certainly Dream Theater, who will play also the songs of their latest album, Black Blouds & Silver Linings: released this year in June , it debuted at #6 on Billboard's Top 200 album chart, the best result ever achieved by the band. None of their records, indeed, had succeeded in entering the top ten chart. Do not miss their concert: Dream Theater members are proficient musicians, and their concerts are famous also because they pay a lot of attention to the songs they play, in order to ensure a unique and unrepeatable concert every time.


Tickets: various prices
Date: 27th October 2009
Location: Palalottomatica, Rome, Italy


This article was written by Francesca Tessarollo with support from accommodation booking system. For any information, please visit 3 stars hotels in Rome or for travel information have a look to youth hostel.

Rome: International Film Festival, 15 – 23 October 2009

Also this year Rome is ready to welcome the great Italian and international cinema, with the fourth edition of the International Film Festival.

The International Rome Film Festival will take place from the 15th to the 23rd of October in various venues and cinemas all around Rome (the headquarters of the event will be, as usual, the Auditorium Parco della Musica), which will host the screening of over 130 films, documentaries and short films. Such a big offer will certainly satisfy the great number of cinema lovers that have purchased about 20,000 tickets after the first week of pre-sale, and that will probably book 2 stars hotels in Rome, a city that now can offer something more to its tourists. The secret of the success of the festival, which makes it differ from other film festivals, is to be found in the variety of its programme, which includes both cultured and popular films, both works realised by emerging artists and movies featuring great international stars. And the festival, indeed, does not attract only those who have a passion for the seventh art, but also those people that cannot be described as the regulars of film festivals, and who might decide to travel to Rome for reasons other than watching films.

The films projected during the Rome festival are traditionally divided in different categories: besides the official selection, which includes those films that compete for Marc’Aurelio Awards (best film, best actor, best actress, Silver Marc’Aurelio Grand Jury Award), very interesting is also the section “L’altro cinema – Extra”, this year including a retrospective dedicated to Meryl Streep, the great American actress that has delighted and touched us with her brilliant performances, and who will be awarded the Golden Marc'Aurelio Acting Award during the festival, and a retrospective dedicated to Luigi Zampa (do not miss the screening of the restored version of “La Romana”, Zampa’s 1954 film starring Gina Lollobrigida). The section “Alice nella città”, including 12 films dedicated to children and kids, can be seen as a little festival inside the festival, in which budding film lovers will not be passive spectators, on the contrary, they will play an active role, awarding prizes to the best works. Last but not least, the section “Occhio sul mondo” will give visitors, who usually choose discount accommodation, the possibility to deal with some important nowadays issues. This year the focus will be on environment, with particular attention on climate change.

To make the programme of the event even richer and more diversified, many special events will take place during the festival: from the concert of Avion Travel, who will pay homage to Nino Rota 30 years after his death, playing 14 pieces taken from the soundtracks of some great movies, to various exhibitions (including one exhibition dedicated to Sergio Leone, one dedicated to Antonio Ligabue, and the exhibition “Cape Farewell: Art and Climate Change”), to a number of debates and workshops dealing with important themes about the world of cinema.


Tickets: various prices
Date: 15th – 23rd October 2009
Location: Rome, Italy


This article was written by Francesca Tessarollo with support from hotel reservation systems. For any information, please visit Travel to Rome or for travel information have a look to discount accommodation.

Rome: Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Party & Show, 14 – 18 October 2009

The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Party & Show, the greatest show in the world, finally comes to Italy!

From the 14th to the 18th of October Rome will host the first dates of the European tour of one of the most thrilling shows in the world, an event that mixes circus with interactivity, and that is characterised by the perfect match between tradition and innovation. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Party & Show is ready to leave the United States and to arrive in the Old Continent (the show will take place not only in Italy – Rome and Milan – but also in Spain, Germany and Portugal), to delight also the children – and adults, too – of this part of the world with an amusing, unique, breath-taking show. One more reason to make cheap hotel reservations in Rome and spend some days in the eternal city, which is not hosting the first date of the European tour by accident: it was in Rome, indeed, that Feld Entertainment signed the contract to purchase the Ringling-Barnum & Bailey Circus, in 1967, and do not forget that Rome is home to the Coliseum, which is somehow considered as the first great circus of history.

However, the history of this new touring show begins long before 1967, at the end of the 19th century, with the fusion of the two entertainment companies led by James Anthony Bailey and P.T. Barnum, a fusion that soon achieved a great success. In 1907 the Barnum & Bailey Circus was purchased by the Ringling Bros., but it went on organising its shows independently until 1919, when it merged with the Ringling Bros. Circus. Since 1919 the circus, which has hosted also many well-known people (Buffalo Bill, just to make an example), has achieved a great success and has become famous all over the world, and is now ready to make its debut in Italy with the “Circus & Party Show”, a show that has already been seen by 1,200,000 people in just two years (it was held for the first time in West Palm Beach, Florida, in 2007), and which will certainly be sold out also in Italy (book now a discount guest house in Rome, to be sure not to miss the event).

The main feature of this new show is the fusion of typical circus performances, which keep fascinating both children and adults, with new ingredients, which make the show keep pace with the times: besides clowns, stilt walkers, trapeze artists and exotic animals, the tourists who will travel to Rome will enjoy the performances of a daredevil cyclist and sensational motorcyclists. And this is not all: as the title of the event suggests, the event is not only a “show”, but also a real “party” for the audience: if you arrive half an hour before, you will have the possibility to live a real circus experience, wearing circus costumes and discovering the secrets of circus artists.


Tickets: various prices
Date: 14th – 18th October 2009
Location: Palalottomatica, Rome, Italy


This article was written by Francesca Tessarollo with support from online hotel reservation system. For any information, please visit discount guest house in Rome or for travel information have a look to travel to Rome.

Rome: Organic Fair, 15 – 18 October 2009

From the 15th to the 18th of October Rome will host the 4th edition of Biofiera (Organic Fair), a big event entirely dedicated to organic products.

Organic farming, green building, biotextiles, bioconstruction, biocosmetics and bioenergy are certainly expanding fields, which should be more and more supported to give us and future generations a cleaner world, sustainable development and a healthier lifestyle. The Organic Fair that has taken place in Rome, Parco della Resistenza, since 2006, is a big chance for all those who want to learn something more about all the features of this fields, and who would like to know how to improve their life starting from small things, like food and self care. And there is no better place than Italy’s capital city to get in touch with the “bio” world: Italy, indeed, is the leading country in Europe as far as bio-production is concerned (over 1/3 of bio-firms in Europe are Italian), while in the world chart it is at the 3rd place, preceded only by Australia and Argentina; moreover Latium is the Italian region with the highest consumption of organic products. If you book a 4 stars hotel in Rome from the 15th to the 18th of October you will have the chance not only to visit the wonderful monuments and buildings of the city, but also to discover the good products which contribute in making Italy famous all over the world, and to understand that it is possible, through simple devices, to improve our life.

Like every year, the tourists who travel to Rome will have the possibility to visit a number of stalls or to have a break in the refreshment areas, which are all dedicated to organic products, and to enjoy high-quality, and above all healthy, food and wine. One of the aim of the fair, indeed, is promoting, since childhood, a healthy lifestyle, which cannot exist without a balanced diet. Not only food, though: the fair will deal with many other fields, and if you rent holiday apartments in Rome and visit the fair you will have the possibility to take part in debates and meetings and to visit exhibitory spaces dedicated to green building (which uses natural materials and eliminates indoor sources of pollution) and to bioconstruction (buildings compatible with the environment in which they rise). Particularly interesting are also the spaces dedicated to biotextiles and biocosmetics (body care and beauty products realised only with natural ingredients), which attract above all women, but not only them. Last but not least, do not miss the stalls dedicated to organic farms, which follow the rules of organic farming, and to bioenergy (energy from organic material).

The fair is meant as an informative space, but it will also feature many entertaining and amusing events, some of them dedicated to children, too: with games, educational workshops and shows, the fair will turn into a huge party which will give children the possibility to discover the organic world and have fun at once.


Tickets: free event
Date: 15 – 18 October 2009
Location: Parco della Resistenza, Rome, Italy



This article was written by Francesca Tessarollo with support from free booking software. For any information, please visit 4 stars hotels in Rome or for travel information have a look to Holiday apartments in Rome.

Rome: Tori Amos concert, 30 September 2009

In the 90s Tori Amos was one of the most appreciated rock songwriters by both critics and the public. Succeeding in selling millions of copies all over the world, her records marked an epoch and have made Tori Amos go down in rock’s history.

Some might say that the success of Tori Amos, of her music, of her voice which can whisper and make harrowing high notes at once, of her personal style in playing the piano, is fading if compared to the past, but this does not mean that the goddess of rock, as her more affectionate fans like to call her, has stopped, or that her original artistic talent has run out: an evidence of this is given by the recent publication of the latest album of the American songwriter and pianist, Abnormally attracted to Sin. The artist will present her latest work to Italian fans on the 30 of September in the capital city and on the 1st of October in Milan, and cheap B&B accommodation in Rome will certainly be fully booked. Abnormally attracted to Sin is the 10th album in an almost twenty-year career: her first work, Little Earthquakes, was published in 1992, and with this album Tori succeeded in catching the attention of both critics and music lovers and selling 5 millions records all over the world. The piano, that the artist plays since she was a child, is one of the main features of the record, and soon it becomes a protagonist also of the live performances of the artist, who plays it with a unique transport.

After the success achieved with the first album, in 1994 Tori releases her second work, which is still considered as her masterpiece, Under the Pink. Also thanks to a great, strange, original and enthralling song like Cornflake Girl, it sells 8 millions copies all over the world, making Tori one of the most important prophetesses of rock in the 90s. Also Boys for Pele and From the Choirgirl Hotel, published respectively in 1996 an 1998, achieve a good success, and they are an evidence of Tori’s desire to keep experimenting with music and with her unmistakable voice. And the experimentation goes on also with To Venus and back, an album that does not sell as much as the previous ones, and which closes the golden decade of Tori Amos.

The new millennium starts with Strange Little Girls, released in 2001, an ambitious album containing covers of songs of famous artists, and which does not achieve the desired success, marking also the end of the collaboration with Atlantic. Then Tori publishes Scarlet’s Walk in 2002, The Beekeeper three years later and American Doll Posse in 2007. The songs of the latest album, Abnormally Attracted to Sin, that the artist’s fan will have the possibility to listen to booking 3 stars hotels in Rome and attending her concert on the 30th of September, are characterised by her desire to explore new themes, while her voice has kept her unchanged charm. The concert in Rome (it is almost sold out, book now your ticket and travel to Rome) is only one of the dates of the long tour that will take Tori to America, Europe and Australia, an evidence of the fact that, even 20 years after her debut, and after few albums that were not very successful, Tori Amos is still one of the best representatives of good rock.


Tickets: various prices
Date: 30th September 2009
Location: Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome, Italy

This article was written by Francesca Tessarollo with support from online booking engine. For any information, please visit cheap B&B accommodation or for travel information have a look to travel to Rome.

Rome: The most beautiful 24 Hours in the world, 25 – 27 September 2009

Many 24 Hours mountain bike races take place all over the world, but if one of these is hosted in a wonderful city like Rome, its name cannot but be “The most beautiful 24 Hours in the world”!

The most beautiful 24 Hours in the world is a mountain bike relay that has taken place in the eternal city since 2006, and which is now become an unmissable event not only for the cyclists that want to compete against other sportspeople coming from all over Italy and from abroad too, but also for all those who take advantage of the race to travel to Rome and enjoy, while riding their bike, the view of some of the most beautiful sights of a city that always succeeds in taking your breath away. The course includes some of the most interesting landmarks of Italy’s capital city, like the baths of Caracalla, Appia Antica and the Circus Maximus, and for this reason this mountain bike relay can be considered as a unique event.

However, this bicycle race is considered as an unmissable event not only for the charm that the eternal city has, but also for the festive atmosphere that characterises the event, and that turns it into a good chance to have fun, eating something tasty or listening to live music. The 24 hours of Rome, indeed, is a very diversified happening: a sport, fun, music and gastronomic event at once, ant it is probably for this reason that many tourists decide to book 2 stars hotels in Rome just in the days when the race takes place (this year from the 25th to the 27th of September). Fun is guaranteed starting from the 25th, when the village and the refreshments stalls will be open. On the 25th also the “Bicycle Ride through History” will take place (this is a tour on the streets of Rome under the fascinating evening light) and the day will end with the toga party, the best way to get ready to the race having fun. During the evening the election of Miss Rome 24 Hours will take place too.

The 24 Hours race begins on Saturday, the 26th of September at noon and ends on the 27th of September at the same time. The prize-giving ceremony will be held at 2 p.m.: the 24 Hours Trophy will be awarded to the first classified team, no matter its category (in the race various team categories can take part: teams with only one participant or with 2 to 12 members), but prizes will be awarded also to the three first classified teams of each category, as well as to the team with the most fanny outfit, to the one that has set the most original camp, to the eldest, the youngest and the heaviest participant, and to the cyclist that comes from furthest. To sum up, everyone in a way or another, and using their sport ability or their imagination, will have the possibility to compete for a prize, and this is an evidence of the fact that the 24 Hours of Rome is not only a sports competition, but also an amusing event. Book now a youth hostel in Rome!


Date: 25 – 27 September 2009
Location: Parco degli Acquedotti, Rome, Italy



This article was written by Francesca Tessarollo with support from hotel booking engine. For any information, please visit 2 stars hotels in Rome or for travel information have a look to youth hostel.