E in Europa anche!

Il 12 e 13 Giugno si vota contro il nucleare, contro la privatizzazione dell’acqua pubblica e per la difesa della democrazia!
Il 12 e 13 Giugno si svolge a Roma l’Europride 2011 per difendere i diritti negati a molti cittadini Italiani!

Se in quei giorni non si avrà la possibilità di essere presso il proprio comune di residenza, si potrà ancora votare registrandosi come Rappresentante dei promotori

Se in quei giorni non si sarà a Roma, ma si vorrà dare il proprio contributo alla difesa dei diritti gay, allora basta seguire questa bellissima ed originalissima iniziativa lanciata da Pink!

Scrivi sulle tue banconote “Be Proud. Europride. 2011 – Rome” ed esci a fare shopping!
Riempiamo di orgoglio le tasche degli italiani!

E’ tempo di appropriarci del nostro futuro!

Sì, sti tedeschi c’hanno na delicatezza nei termini da far cascare le braccia!

Polarkreis
“Allein Allein”

(è in inglese, il ritornello in tedesco), “Allein” ovvero “Alone”, “Solo”.

Si’, il tedesco è molto simile all’inglese, basta dire che “Qui” si scrive “Hier”! Come la pronuncia inglese!
E “Casa” si scrive Haus!!! No way!

Tokio Hotel:
La versione tedesca “Durch den Monsun”. “Attraverso i Monsoni”
“Monsun” è un sostantivo Maschile, ergo, l’articolo determinativo da usare è “Der”, ma nel titolo si fa uso del complemento di “Moto A Luogo”, si usa l’Accusativo, quindi l’articolo da usare è “Den”. (se fosse stato Dativo, per lo “Stato IN Luogo”, si sarebbe dovuto usare il “Dem”). Infine, tutti i sostantivi, vanno sempre scritti con la lettera Maiuscola!

Si’, sti tedeschi hanno delle regole che all’inizio spiazzano più del Latino!

Remmstein!
“Pussy”.
Ultimamente mi sto dedicando ai Remmstein, per fare l’orecchio alla pronuncia tedesca. Questa è l’unica canzone che per ora ho capito. Il video è VM18!!

Perchè l’ho capita? perchè è per metà in Inglese! Ed è pure orecchiabile!

Ecco il ritornello:
“You’ve got a pussy
I have a dick
So, what’s the problem
Let’s do it quick”

Cioè, vi lascio immaginare il resto del testo!

Sì, sti tedeschi hanno nà poesia e n’eleganza da galera!

I Tedeschi hanno una parola che viene usata per descrivere un certo modo di vivere, uno status di benessere mentale etc: “Gemütlichkeit”. Per essere esplicativi tradurrei la parola con la frase: “Le piccole cose che rendono piacevole la vita”.

Sì, ai tedeschi piace la vita semplice, peccato che se la complichino usando parole impossibili da pronunciare: Ghemiutlishkait!

E sì, sti tedeschi sono proprio personaggi complicati. E la loro cultura non è da meno… però sapete una cosa? Me piace!
Infine ci sarebbe tutto un discorso da fare sul sistema scolastico.. Ma per il momento sono nella fase di critica contro quello Lussemburghese

L’hiver été déjà arrivé. La pluie, la nuit et les Night Clubs au tour de l’Hotel me rappelaient la ville de Los Angeles, 2019, dans le film Blade Runner. Les façades des maisons très bien décorées, l’architecture de la ville bien organisée, les grands boulevards de Kirchberg, de Rue de la Liberté e de Rue de la Gare étaient un écho de la Paris Hausmannienne de Napoléon III. Conduire ma vieille voiture le long du grand tunnel qui traverse le ventre souterrain de l’ancienne ville, de Notre Dame jusqu’à le quartier de Limperstberg, ensable à les autres riches et élégantes voiture qu’on voix partout dans le Grand Duché me donnait la sensation d’être un pilote de Formule Un au Grand Prix de Monaco. Le Grund, les lumières, le panorama de la ville observé du Pont Adolphe c’était une vision plus moderne de Matera et de ses Sassi.
Luxembourg semblait une petite et endormie Londres. Le centre économique, linguistique et géographique de l’Europe contemporaine.

Pendent deux semaines depuis mon arrive, j’avais pas déballé…
J’avais encore envie de Rome.

Nella peccaminosa Olanda Babbo Natale e’ un Vescovo Ed ha dei piccolo aiutanti Neri!!

For sure I’m not the right person as I consider myself as an Italian in exile, but I would like to introduce you some futile information that maybe almost every Italian has about its own Modern Culture. My intention is to present you all the connections that there exist between Music, Cinema, Arts and History! Maybe it will be absolutely boring for you, but I have LOTS of memories related to all these things

The Music. (You should need high quality music, but I don’t have CDs with me)
1) Everything should start from Mina.
She started as Singer and Showgirl at the end of the 50′s and abandoned the scene at the end of the 70s. Now she lives in Lugano and she still sings, although she doesn’t want at all to appear in the TV again. She had collaborations with many important singers from all over the world and her songs are know to everyone.
My favourite songs:
- “Se Telefonando” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKSuG1LOaYI). It is considered as one of the most beautiful and famous Italian Song! The music is by Ennio Morricone (Oscar Prize for the career) and was inspired by the police sirens from Marseille (!!)
- “Brava” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbBb-YzK7Z8) funny song that shows all the ability of Mina’s voice

2) The High School/University are marked by Fabrizio de Andrè, Rino Gaetano, Vasco Rossi, Eugenio Finardi
Every Italians know at least one song from these songwriters. If nearby you there is someone with a guitar, if you are on a beach around a bonfire, it’s mandatory to sing something from them!
“Bocca di Rosa” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7NjnFVYzok&feature=related)
“La ballata dell’amore cieco” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXahj7lXkTU&feature=related) so cruel so beautiful!
“Gianna” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScsxXxq-1IQ)
“Ma il cielo è sempre più blu” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB3TfBXUOKw)
“Vita Spericolata“, by Vasco Rossi. Everyone Loves Rossi, me, I’m not crazy about this singer but he influenced lots of generations and actually the old songs are very Good. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg_D_hrSO-I)
“Amami Lara” by Eugenio Finardi; this singer in Italy is famous for other songs, but I love this one because is very geek: it’s about Lara Croft (!!). Yes!! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdj7h06dHhg)

3) Some disco music (a Must for summer vacations on beaches, in discos and elsewhere) from the carefree 80′s! by Antonella Rettore, Jo Squillo, Raffaella Carrà, Lorella Cuccarini, Heather Parisi
- “Lametta” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVqGf2clvxo)
- “Kobra” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHlO5nt__qM)
- “Splendido splendente” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G5Xxk-hEcU)
- “Violentami [Rape me (!!)] (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8trsJKUvPhQ&NR=1)
- “La notte vola” when I was 4(!) I was in Love with this woman! Then I realized that all the Country was in Love with her
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GHgG5cHvfg)
- “Cicale” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDjQL8EO5EQ)
- “Ballo Ballo” Raffaella Carrà is not only a big gay Icon, but also very famous and loved in Spain where she worked for some years (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJRBpw4sOd4)
- “Tanti Auguri“, the gayest way to learn the Italian Geography. The main line of the lyrics says “How beautiful is to make love from Trieste and below” [from North to South]; the Spanish version says “If you want to make good love you have to go to the South” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljw-Kl1WHiE)

Cinema

Rome has a famous dream factory where lots of movies where made from the early ’900s: Cinecittà.
The big success of the Italian cinema started after the second world war, when Italian directors used to tell the life of people living in a Country devastated by the Mussolini’s dictatorship and the war; this is the “Neorealismo”.

From Vittorio de Sica:
- Sciuscià
- Ladri di Biciclette
- Roma città aperta
- Mamma Roma
- La Ciociara (that made Sofia Loren famous and let her to win the Oscar)
…

From Federico Fellini (he has a dreamlike style, his movies are choral and always leave you a sense of bitterness for the time that goes by and the life that have no sense):
- Amarcord
- 8 1/2
- La Dolce Vita (where the surname of the main Character, PaparazzO, created a new word now famous everywhere!)
…

Then:
- I Soliti Ignoti, from Mario Monicelli
- Il Sorpasso, from Dino Risi with Vittorio Gassmann (I LOVE this movie)! It shows the new face of Italy, during the economic boom, with its first high way, the Agip Petrol Station, the first holidays on the sea affordable from every Italians end so on.
- L’Eclisse, from Michelangelo Antonioni. In the first minutes of the movie you will see all the most important places of the EUR a big “modern” (1940) area in Rome! My favourite area!
- Boccaccio ’70 from De Sica, Fellini, Monicelli and Visconti. Four episodes about four different social classes in the new enriched Italy of the ’60s, I LOVE this stupid song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHaXHqZ-uhE (enjoy the choral style from Fellini)

Then we have more recents movie like the ones from:
- Alberto Sordi and Vittorio Gassman (Roman Amazing Actors)
- Roberto Benigni (From Florence)
- Totò, Peppino and Massimo Troisi (from Campania)

And the recent actors and directors:
- Muccino (He is not so special as the others, but I like the way he describes the modern life in Italy)
- Carlo Verdone (Unfortunately you can’t enjoy his movies because it’s amazing for his Roman accent and dialect)
- Gigi Proietti; try to understand this funny joke!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grogqppSbrM
- Margherita Buy
- Ferzan Ozpetek with his movies about the life of gays in Italy and Rome (enjoy this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dScxDY10blM)
- Luigi Locascio
- Sergio Rubini (from Bari, enjoy the dialect http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJp1ofC78wo&feature=related)
- Luca Zingaretti, famous for acting as “Il Commissario Montalbano”, inspired by the yellow stories from the Siclian Writer Andrea Camilleri.
And MANY more!

There are still many other things to say about Italy.
About Poets, Artists, Heroes, Saints, Thinkers, Scientists, Navigators…
But this is a good beginning

..
…
…

Il provinciale!!!
Ovvero:

lavorare poco
passare il tempo a lavoro cazzeggiando
tornare a casa e raggiungere i vicini/amici/colleghi per passare il tempo a bere, mangiare, cazzeggiare e parlare di politica/cultura e tutte quelle cose inutili che ti fanno però sentire tanto figo ed acculturato
navigare in barca a vela di tanto in tanto: che non è altro che un concetrato dei punti sopra (con l’aggiunta dei bagni al mare)!!

Adoro il cinema francese. Ho visto “Bienvenue chez les ch’tis” ovvero “Giù al Nord”.
Très Très Drole!!

My car is dead.
If I’m lucky I will be able to repair it, otherwise I will leave it where it is now. Somewhere in France.

I’ve read a wonderful book: “Le cose fondamentali” by Tiziano Scarpa.

It’s about a father.

We found a cheap place where to sleep in Orleans. A quite different city from the ones we where used in these days: ugly, old, disordered, but with a lot of charm.

The mechanic called me this morning, the “joint de culas” is broken, I need to leave my car somewhere far from Paris for the rest of the month!! Fuck!!

After spending one hour to understand what it is broken and how to solve the problem of coming back without wasting the holidays, we started our daily visit.

Amboise: here François I hosted Leonardo da Vinci for the last three years of his life
Villandry: wonderful castle with a incredible garden.
Chenonceaux: where we rowed under the bridge of the castle.
Loches: medieval city with a nice atmosphere

Still don’t know where we will sleep tomorrow!

Tecnologia non invasiva: ci muoviamo usando la tradizionale mappa stradale, una bussola (dell’iPhone), ed il Gps solo in caso di emergenza e scatto foto/documentario con il cellulare.
Organizzazione: un pilota ed un copilota (a turno io e mio padre), due responsabili cibo e bevande (mia madre e mia sorella) ed io addetto all’itinerario (con assistente) organizzato “on the fly”.
Visite fatte:
Azay le rideau: splendido castello circondato dall’acqua
Ussé: castello che ispiro la bella addormentata nel bosco. Non ci sono entrato proprio per via della trovata toppo commerciale per sponsorizzarlo
Saumur: siamo entrati a scrocco Splendido paesaggio della valle della Loira
Langeais: ultimo castello medievale (fine 1400), costruito nei primi anni del rinascimento! Sembianze di una fortezza, con i comfort di un castello moderno (1500).

Stanco morto
Trovata camera per domani notte: a Loches.

Stanotte dormiamo a Azay le Rideau, Poi ancora non lo so!
Amo la Francia! Qui la natura è stupenda, i francesi tutti adorabili e gentili, i castelli magici
Tocca tornarci in bici!
Favoloso

Con i miei amici del Lussemburgo, a cui ho mostrato in questi giorni le meraviglie ed i misteri della Città Eterna (mi staranno ancora odiando per quanto li ho fatti marciare!), abbiamo sempre chiamato un taxi per rientrare a casa a fine giornata. Era simpatico sedere al fianco del tassista e chiacchierare del più e del meno facendo da interprete tra lui ed i miei amici stranieri

L’ultima notte abbiamo conosciuto un tassista che tra una chiacchiera e l’altra si é offerto di vernici a prendere il mattino seguente per accompagnarci all’aeroporto di Ciampino; tariffa onesta, puntuale, gentile.  Io, come al solito seduto al fianco del guidatore, instauro con lui un rapporto di cordiale amicizia. Arriviamo presto a Ciampino, paghiamo, salutiamo, scendiamo dal taxi che parte verso casa (il suo turno si era appena concluso). Dopo pochi minuti mi sento richiamare alle spalle. Il tassista era ritornato in dietro… Il mio iPhone mi era scivolato di tasca e caduto sul sedile dell’auto!!!

Ora mi sento in colpa per non avergli dimostrato tutta la mia gratitudine (ero troppo shockato dal gesto e mi son quindi limitato ad urlargli un “Grazie” con occhi gonfi di commozione) e decisamente in debito verso tutta la categoria dei tassisti romani!
Ogni volta che prenderete un taxi a Roma e l’autista sara’ romano, chiedete se tra i suoi clienti ha mai avuto un certo italiano che lavora in Lussemburgo, che in estate ha visitato Roma con una Polacca preoccupata dello strano rumore che fa ogni mattina la sua Alfa Romeo, una bella biondina che portava con se una Pigna come ricordo della città ed un ragazzo che, anche se nero, era svedese! E se sa della storia dell’iPhone dimenticato sul sedile anteriore della propria auto ed immediatamente restituito al legittimo proprietario!

In caso affermativo fatevi dare il suo numero di telefono! Voglio poterlo incontrare per esprimergli tutta la mia gratitudine e per instaurare un rapporto di amicizia simile a quello tra Daniel Auteuil e Dany Boon nel film francese ‘Il mio migliore amico’!!!
Ed anche questa volta Roma mi ha dato il colpo di grazia.
La mancanza di questa città tanto odiata ed amata torna a farsi sentire!

Il mio bagaglio, uno zainetto con dentro
Biancheria intima (slip e calze a sufficienza per tre giorni)
Due magliette semplici
Due pantaloncini corti
Due camicie estive eleganti
Asciugamano per la doccia
Pigiama
Cellulari
Documenti
Occhiali da sole

Particolare:
Porterò lo zainetto Sempre in giro con me, In modo da esser pronto a dormire sotto Qualsiasi tetto che mi verrà offerto!!

Itinerario:
Venerdì: Partirò direttamente da lavoro
A Ciampino mi viene a prendere un amico, bevuta in un pub e poi a ballare in centro.
Sabato e domenica: in giro per musei, locali e disco. Si celebra anche Caravaggio con musei aperti tutta la notte
Lunedì rientro: dall’aeroporto al lavoro, doccia in palestra e pronto a mettermi all’opera!

Pur di non vedere la torre Eiffel cambiava strada! E sta cosa non mi piace perché io AMO follemente quell’ammasso di ferro il cui equilibrio é un miracolo dell’ingegneria! Nonché ottima antenna per le TLC!

Itinerario

Partito per i Caraibi!!

Per cinque giorni sarò in compagnia di 4 amici e non faremo altro che andare al Mare e girarci l’isola in auto; la settimana successiva sarò invece in Barca A Vela in torno all’isola con altri 8 colleghi. Si tratta di una regata, l’Arian’s Cup, organizzata annulamente dalle varie aziende che lavorano nell’industria dello spazio (ESA, Astrium, Astra ecc), il che significa che ci saranno più di 40 imbarcazioni con equipaggi provenienti da ogni parte del mondo!!

Mio personale obiettivo è quello di imparare le basi della Vela (è una cosa che volevo fare già da un annetto) ed immagino non sarà facile tradurre i termini marinareschi dall’inglese all’italiano e soprattutto, lo stesso italiano non mi sarà molto d’aiuto considerando che ho imparato a distinguere la Poppa dalla Prua solo un po’ di tempo fa, ed il concetto di Sotto Vento e Sopra Vento non mi è per nulla chiaro!

Cercherò di aggiornare periodicamente l’andamento del viaggio usando SMS via twitter.

Ansiaaaaaa

From the Airport to the city
Fiumicino: with a train ticket of 5 € is possible to reach the central railway station of Tiburtina (time required: 45 min), or other stops before and after the main one; if you are in hurry you can buy the Leonardo ticket for 10 € to arrive in Termini in 30 min (with no other stops).
Ciampino: there are buses that goes directly to the city center or cheaper buses that goes to Anagnina Metro Station.
Important: from both the airports a taxi ride is NO MORE then 30 € to reach the city center, delimited by the “Mura Aureliane”.

Some information about Transportation.

The company in charge for public transportation in Rome is Atac.
On the web site www.atac.roma.it is possible to find the list of buses and metros to take to go from a place to another.

There are only two metro line in the city: Lina A (orange) and Line B (blue) they pass across the city from Nord-West to South-East (Line A) and from Nord-East to South-West (Line B) and they meet only in one station: the central railway station of the city, Termini.
On Fridays and on Saturdays the Metro closes at 1.30 am.
From the machines in the Metro and at the newsagent you find on the streets you can buy for about 4 euros a daily ticket that allows you to use all buses and metros in Rome until midnight.

Eating (in the center)

Near Piazza Navona:

1) “Lo Zozzone”,
Don’t be scared by the name (it’s up to you to discover the meaning). It is a very small place where for 3 euros (or 3.50 euros) you can buy a “Pizza Romana” and put inside up to three different ingredients (mushrooms, mozzarella, porchetta etc).
Maybe only one piece is not enough for a lunch, but it is a good way if you don’t want to invest too much time for eating at noon.

2) “Caffe’ Sant Eustacchio”
In Piazza dei Caprettari, 65.
It is a very famous place in Rome where  you can drink a very good coffee. It is near the Phanteon. Ask for the Caffe’ Eustacchio of course!

3) Pasticceria “Giolitti”
In via Uffici Vicario, 40. (near the Pantheon)
Here you can find very good pastries and ice creams

4) “La Palma”,
via degli Orfani, (near the Pantheon)
Maybe quite commercial and touristic, but here you can find every kind of ice cream.

5) “Baffetto”
Piazza del teatro di pompeo, 18 (near Piazza Navona).
Tel. +39 0668210807
One of the most famous place in Rome for eating pizza! I have never been there because is quite impossible to enter… but you could try. Who knows!!

6) “Caffe’ Greco”
Via CondottiGo inside, order a coffee and then enjoy the paintings all over the caffe’!
So chic!

Eating (in the rest of the city)

1)“Pompi”

Metro Stop: Re di Roma. (Line A)

Via Albalonga 7B
It’s the king of the Tiramisu!! For 3 Euros you can have a very good single, big portion of this dessert (with different variants, classical, with fruit etc) that you can eat outside.

It is always full of people outside coming from all part of the city just to eat the tiramisu and chatting on the street.
The neighborhood is not the best one, but on the same street of Pompi you can find some nice place:
- “Shanti”
For smoking a Narguile’ and see some nice bally dance
- “Latte+”
Nice, original and a bit expensive place for cocktails. It reproduces the “A Clockwork Orange” movie style.

2) “Al Grottino”
Metro Stop: San Giovanni (Line A)Via Orvieto, 6
Tel: +39 06 7024440

You can find Pizza everywhere in Rome but you have to know that none of them is the Original one. A good and cheap place where you can find a good version of it is this restaurant.

It is open only in the evenings.

You need to book it in advance because it is always full of people!!

3) “Mizzica”

Metro Stop: Bologna (Line B)

Via Catanzaro, 30
If you want to try Sicilian food and ice creams and granita and cannoli and so on you just need to come here! Not in the center of the city, but I really suggest it.

4) “Gallo Brillo”

Metro Stop: Ottaviano (Lina A)
Via delle Milizie, 116
Tel: +39 063724088

If you go to visit Saint Peter Church and you want to avoid the expensive touristic restaurants, I suggest this place. I went only once, but I enjoyed it.

Outside the city

Rome is big, but the near cities can offer a lot of interesting attraction as well.
The most famous of them is ARICCIA!

If you want to have fun with tens of friends, to eat a lot in one of the restaurants, get drunk, play guitar and singing on the street to wait the end of the hangover you just need to come here.

And “L’aricciarola” is the best place where to eat.

But you need a car.

—————————————————————————————————-

Nightlife

Well, in Rome for sure you can’t get bored in the night. There are so many place where to go that it is impossible to list them. I should better suggest some area where to go, than it is up to you to choose the pub that fit with your taste.

1)Trastevere.

It is of course the most famous area in Rome. You can go there for an after work in Piazza Trilussa, go to some restaurant in the evening, or go to the pubs and bars in the night. Of course you can’t miss a walk along the river Tevere and you HAVE TO get lost in the small streets of this ancient, ex poor and now really expensive neighborhood!

2)Campo de’ Fiori.

It’s a square surrounded by pubs, bars, people and drunken people! In the middle of the square there is the statue dedicated to Giordano Bruno, a pantheistic philosopher burned by the Church in this square because of his revolutionary ideas!

3)Testaccio

Metro Stop: Piramide (Line B)
It is an old Neighborhood (like Trastevere), now become attraction for night life! You can come here to dance, drinking or listening live music.
I’m particularly attached to “Contestaccio”, it’s a disco pub where I celebrated my Laurea degree J

From the metro station you should pass near the Piramid, put inside the graveyard of non catholic persons. Here Giolitti, Shelley and Keats are buried!

4)Rione Monti

Metro Stop: Cavour (Line B)

It is a neighborhood near the Colosseo, the San Pietro in Vincoli Church and one of the Engineer Facoulties.

Here there is also a pub made with ice!! But I have never been there so I don’t have information.
In Via Cavour there is a gay friendly Chinese good restaurant, and near the Colosseo there is the gay street of the city.

5)San Lorenzo

Metro Stop: Vittorio Emanuele (Line A)

The metro stop is not so close to this neighborhood, you should need a bus to reach it. Here is full of students for two main reasons:

- full of extremely cheap bars and pubs

- possibility of finding any kind of drug

Maybe it is not a romantic place where to go.

Some Touristic Secret

A very good Italian journalist, Corrado Augias, wrote a nice book about this city: “I segreti di Roma” (The secrets of Rome). In one chapter he speaks about one of the Italian painter I love the most: Michelangelo Merisi, better known as Caravaggio.

His paintings are wonderful, so full of bright colours, life, passion and (sometimes) violence, they are spread all over Europe and Italy, some of them are in the Louvre, some other in the National Gallery in London, some other in Museums in Rome, BUT you can find some of them just walking around the city, FOR FREE!
Corrado Augias wrote in his book that this 5 paintings you can see for free in Rome, would make famous and important any other city in the world, but they are in Rome, where is so common to have monuments around you that they pass quite unnoticed!

In “Piazza del Popolo”, in the church of “Santa Maria del Popolo” you can see “la Conversione di San Paolo” and “la Crocifissione di San Pietro” while in “San Luigi dei Francesi” church, in Piazza San Luigi dei Francesi it self (Near Piazza Navona) you can learn about the story of San Matteo from three very nice paintings:, “La vocazione di san Matteo”, “S. Matteo e L’Angelo” and “Il Martirio di san Matteo”.

On the web site you can see all these works, and much more!

Regarding the Pantheon, in Piazza della Rotonda (near Piazza Navona): its name comes from ancient Greek, Pan = All, Theo = God. The monument was in fact a Roman temple dedicated to all the gods. Then it became a Church, and now it is a mausoleum where Rafaello and some Italian King are buried.

The original monument had in the front some very nice sculpture in bronze; when the Church had the power, it fused the bronze and used it to build the famous Baldacchino by Bernni in Saint Peter church.
After this episode, people from Rome used to say (referring to the havoc made by the Vatican to the Pantheon): “Quod non fecerunt barberi, fecerunt Barberini” (What Barbarians didn’t, Barberini did). Barberini is an old family from Rome that gave many popes to the Vatican.

For a romantic view of Rome, you should good on the Pincio (above Piazza del Popolo) in the evening and from there you could walk up to Trinitia’ dei Monti and then go down in Piazza di Spagna using its famous and fashionable stairs.