Yes Hotel Rome Travel Blog: The Rome travel guide

Our Blogger: Rhodora

Polenta is loved by everybody…this dish has on the table of Italian families for generations!!

Polenta is a corn meal mush, but is more than that! It’s the staple food of the North of Italy, where after pasta, is one of the favourite dishes. It can be served in innumerable ways: as a first course, baked, with stews, or even as a bread substitute.

For citizens of Rocca di Papa , a small village near Rome, Polenta is too a unique and complete food, it is added to the usual simple condiments (with tomato sauce, sausages, meat, cheese etc), the condiments that the old farmers use to this day  to create to create dishes that satisfied the gourmets.

And it is in Rocca di Papa for the second year that will be a special gastronomic event in occasion of Valentine’s Day: “La Polenta degli Innamorati” ( The polenta of Lovers). The event will be surrounded by so many moments of entertainment with music and with “Il bacio più lungo” (The longest kiss), all the couples attending this event are invited, it consists in a kiss of mass to enter on the Guinness world record as the major kiss of mass ever!

La Polenta degli Innnamorati will be held on the occasion of Valentine’s Day, Frebruary 14 and February 15 at the center of Rocca di Papa, one of the many little towns that can be explored from Rome using as a base a well-located hotel like Hotel Des Artistes or Yes Hotel.

Our Blogger: Wanda

In the station Termini in Rome has just been inaugurated Convoglia, a quality restaurant  with 6 different areas: a gastronomic shop and osteria, a pizzeria and grill, a takeaway section, a wine bar and a fine restaurant.

Convoglia – roughly translated as “with joy” but also a play on the word convoglio, convoy in Italian- was opened with the aim of bringing back Romans to the Termini Station while offering to travellers and tourists, always afraid of falling into “tourists traps”, excellent Italian cuisine.

The smart structure of Convoglia is particularly convenient in a train station. If you have time you can decide to sit down and get a glass of wine, with one of the 13 types of pizza on the menu or if you are in a hurry on your way to the airport you can make a quick stop at the takeaway area –where “takeaway” doesn’t necessarily means lacking of imagination and care- to eat something on the run.

If you are curious enough to take some time and enjoy the restaurant you’ll be rewarded with many interesting surprises. The menu combines the Italian and Roman tradition with other culinary inventions of great quality. Everything from the meat and the wine to the furniture and the architecture has been selected meticulously to create a unique experience for the visitor.

For further information visit their website. Convoglia is open from 7 A.M to 1 A.M

The Termini station is a very convenient zone to stay while in Rome: in the area surrounding it you’ll find many good restaurants –Convoglia among them, of course-, cinemas, boutiques and pharmacies, not to mention the fact that from it it’s really easy to move anywhere in Rome or in Italy. Near the Termini Station, Hotel des Artistes and Yes Hotel are great choices for its quality and great prices.

The Summer is almost gone, we are now enjoying an indian summer and  one might think that  all the fun and entertainment are gone too? No, not at all… September offers plenty of wonderful events and appointments for all the tastes. Tomorrow starts a great initiative for the Wine Lovers in Riofreddo, Lazio, just 1 hour away from Rome.

The appointment In Vino Veritas, usually takes place in the early autumn, is sponsored by the Cultural Association La Voce della Valechetta, with the assistance of Lazio Region and the Municipality of Riofreddo.
In addition to tasting for free 6 different quality of wines of Lazio, a craft marketplace and a eco-sustainability projects of different associations will be present at this initiative. There will be also a banquet run by the volunteers of COOPI Lazio, with handicrafts from the South and other testimonies on the activities of COOPI.  COOPI is the biggest non-governmental Italian Association, with humanitarian projects in almost 50 countries of the world. The programme of the Initiative is full of cultural enterntainment as well. You will listen to great music. So, just come to Rome this weekend, take a train to Riofreddo, and enjoy useful and pleasantful!!! Here is the programme of the Event for you:
Friday, September 5
Hours 18.00: Opening of barrels and of gastronomic stands
21.30 hours: RED RUSH in concert
23.00 hours: LAND WITHOUT in concert
Saturday, September 6
Hours 18.00: Opening of barrels and of gastronomic stands

21.30 hours: VERBAMANENT in concert
23.00 hours: LE TARANTOLE in concert
Sunday, September 7
Hours 18.00: Opening of barrels and of gastronomic stands
21.30 hours: MYSTERY TRAIN BAND in concert
22.30 hours: Extracting lottery
Free Camping and Equipment

For info call: 340.3540337 – 347.9084474

For those who are in Rome and want to taste good wines, then you must try of the good wine bars in Rome

and for your stay in Rome, why not choose our Yes Hotel Rome right in the centre of Rome?

Related blogs : Wine Festival in Rome

Today I would like to talk with you about a small town, situated not too far away from Rome. ARICCIA!

Even if Ariccia is a small town, it is possible to relax spend some great time  there, something different and extremely delicious: to eat some “porchetta” in a Fraschetta a place that you can find only in Lazio region.

Ariccia was a pre-roman village situated inside the area called “ Roman’s Castles”.

The origin of Fraschetta goes back to the times of ancient Rome when people who where travelling needed some place to have rest, eat, in other words to gain energy to continue travels, but it was only during the Middle Ages that this place acquired the name of Fraschetta. It takes origin from another local town, named Frascati.

In fact, local viticulturists started to put fronds outside the doors to indicate the solace place and to let people know that the new wine was ready to be drunk. And so, originally, people could only drink there some wine and have some light snacks, like boiled eggs, but slowly the owners of these places started to sell bread and porchetta.

Porchetta is a very famous dish of Italian cuisine: the pork is staffed with aromatic herbs and entrails. I can assure you. It is really tasty! Yammiiiiii…..

Today the Fraschetta is a simple place where one can have a good lunch without frills, typical wine served in carafe and a lot of horse d’ouvre like: “mozzarella di bufala”, sausages, ham, onion, pepper, cheese ,fresh bread and porchetta. You will pay almost nothing for all this staff, and the portions are really big, so don’t exaggerate! Be moderate!

After that you can have homemade “Pappardelle al sugo di cinghiale” or “ Fettuccine al ragù” and finally some good Roasted meet.

How to prepare Porchetta?

Still some place in your stomach?

Wine again and Tozzetti….Here we go!

Enjoy your lunch!!!

And once you’re done with it, in order to digest all these enogastronomic masterpieces of Ariccia, why don’t you spend some time having a walk in the famous bridge of Ariccia or visiting Chigi Palace and Santa Maria Assunta, church designed by Bernini.

Why don’t go to have a walk in the Appia’s Park that comprises 15 villages and towns like Ariccia..

So, again, Enjoy the lunch and stay in perfect shape.

In celebration of the now approaching Easter and its chocolate frenzy going along with it, we have been looking into chocolate closer than usual even !

Chocolate in Rome

Around this time of year, the air around a particular Trastevere shop in Rome leaves us all astonished…the elderly couple who keeps us all supplied with made-on-request cannoli di ricotta (exquisite sweet cakes ornamented with candied peel) and beautifully packaged peppery dark chocolates, during the rest of the year, now pull out all the stops to produce Easter eggs for Rome’s most discerning palates… Mm, that would remind me of the Chocolate Factory motion picture by Warner Bros  !

You would find it hard to walk past without stopping by. Just think you may have arrived too late for temptation, but then you find Signor and Signora working away inside, mixing and moulding the Easter confections which appear in the weeks before Rome’s major festival are works of art, unchanged over the decades. And sometime after the April celebrations, fragments of broken Easter eggs appear in the shop for visitors to taste, and I can report that they are just as delicious…

Easter Egg Exhibition in Rome :

From 17^th march at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome takes place "L’Uovo d’Autore“ (Art and the Easter Eggs) where you will be able to admire an extensive art collection of easter eggs . The funds will be used to a charity to  fight the genetic disease which is fibrosis.

Chocolate in Italy :

A chocolate beauty parlour and a chocolate igloo are just some of the attractions at the Eurochocolate Festival in Perugia.

Last year in Perugia over three tonnes of dark chocolate bricks were cemented together with melted milk chocolate – much to the disagreement of the chocaholics hanging around : why couldn’t they just eat it instead ?

Fair G r Cinzia, Italian, reports that chocolate is a translation of hugging and cuddling because it represents all sweetness in life. It seems it also means smooth skin, tasty fingers and very sticky hair if you believe in alternative beauty dos  : Because here every treatment  uses chocolate, including facials, massages and fancy hair dos.

Organisator of the Eurochocolate Filippo Pinelli, says that they also take time to explain to the small Italian children that unfortunately many of the chocolate bars they enjoy are made with the cocoa that underage children of Africa, South America and Asia have to produce when forced to work. The Unicef  puts lots of effort to help children get away from these terrible situations and so should we be aware of what we are buying too to help prevent some of the exploitation.

A curiosity is also the Armani Easter Egg, which is not a perfume or a top fashion accessory or shoe but an actual Chocolate egg which you –yes- eat.

The origins of the Chocolate Easter egg :

Since ages the easter egg has had an important symbolic value. Romans would name it “omne vivum ex ovo” which meant that it was the symbol of fertility and life itself. Christians also believed that the egg represented the life after passing over and Nowadays the real meaning of the egg got lost : indeed when given an egg it was a present to convey love and friendship.

It is said that the French King François I was presented the first Easter chocolate egg in history around 1500 and it is believed tradition of putting a small present inside started then.

However it is the Tsars in Russia who made the Easter Eggs to be an important present since they would decorate them with precious stones. Think of the Fabergé Egg  , which is not made of chocolate but of gold and precious jewels : Peter Carl Fabergé was appointed jeweller and goldsmith to the Russian Imperial Court.

Other meaning of Easter egg  : Some softwares have hidden functions or extra programmes such as videogames not advertised and which you discover when striking a particular key. They are a bonus, and are called therefore an Easter Egg, because it is a welcome surprise, a present. A famous example is Microsoft Office where sometimes you would bargain a videogame while using your Office package, but alas no longer it seems.

Sweet tooth will want to stop over for a few days, and staying in the centre of Rome is the easiest way to get around; Try our brand new 3 star hotel Yes Hotel Rome

Italy affecionados have probably heard of the Spumante at least once, and as the Christmas festivities are drawing closer, there is an even wider choice in the italian and roman supermarkets and roman wine bars, but also in the italian delicatessen scattered worldwide.

Indeed the spumante , which means literally “foaming�, is a white sparkling wine, which can be dry or sweet , and the choice depends on the food accompanying it or, more simply, of your preference.

The Spumante is the symbol in Italy of partying and recurring occasions, such as birthdays and winter holidays.

If until recently it was believed that the technique of the sparkling wine had been invented by the French , with the famous Champagne as a result, new studies prove that in fact, the method was developed even at an earlier stage in Italy.

Spumante wine can be produced by different types of grapes, but we nowadays tend to use the same technique as the French counterparts by using mostly the Pinot Nero and the Chardonnay quality, which are broadly renowned.

One the most famous Italian spumante is the Asti, produced with the Moscato.

Curiosity : Most of the time, the bottles of spumante do not bear the year of production because they usually are a mix of wines of different years and therefore only good years will be specified.

Best before : Unlike most wines the Spumante has a short life span and you should drink it shortly after the purchase. And forget the popular belief of the spoon in the neck of the bottle which is useless.

Is best served at around 6° C and is ideal while having a good dessert such as the yummy all italian tiramisu, which you may just taste in one of our Yes Hotel‘ recommended Rome restaurants.