Looking for a room in Naples?

A friend of mine have a lovely place in the central Naples, in the south of Italy. and it is called Quattrogatti, four cat's.
You can find it on airbnb - the link further down here.

The quiet house is located in inner city and exactly in Corso Vittorio Emanuele scenic route. 
Here is a video of the city:

Read more here - on airbnb about Quattrogatti››

At the Altare della Patria

This is Altare della Patria one rainy night in Rome, it is like Altar of the Fatherland. It is also called Monumento Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele II.

It is a big monument of the former king Vittorio Emanuele and you can find it at Piazza Venezia.

On my late night walk I also took this photo of some of all the amazing runis of old Rome that you can find everywhere.

Chestnuts for sale

Some more pics from Rome this year in early january. Cold and rainy but still beautiful

Here is a chestnut vendor that sells his roasted treats in a corner of Via del Corso.

It still was a sense of Christmas in Rome, you see the decorations here.

And this is Piazza Di Spagna, the beautiful Spansh steps. Complete with a Christmas tree and all.

A night in Rome

Just returned from two nights in Rome. The eternal city, the capital of Italy and just an amazing place to see.

In the 80:s I used to live in Rome, and I still have friends there and I know my way around. But I love to revisit all the exiting sights.

And even if it was really bad weather, a rain storm we (my Italian girlfriend and I) took a walk along the streets of Rome at night.

And this is the eternal Pantheon as you all can see, in the rain.

This is the view from my hotel window, in the morning, with a clear sky, the same day I left....

Just an old painting

And here is one old painting I have on my wall, not shure who did it, just that it's not that valuable. But I really like it.

The painting reminds me about the old murals in some of the houses in the ancient city Pompeii, in Italy, just outside Naples. A roman city that was totally destroyed by an vulcano eruption - Vesuvio.

Napoli - in two photos

This lovely photo that I have on my wall is taken by Maurizio Recano, a famous photographer and a really good friend of mine. He is born in Napoli, Naples in southern Italy.

You can acutally spot him in the photo too, on the top of the stairs here.

And here is one more photo of the curch St:a Maria del Purgatorio. In Naples, Napoli, and from Maurizia Recano.

Selling mussels

This is a part of the neapolitan tradition of presepial art - nativity scenes - Presepe Napoletano. Here you do not only find the ordinary scenes, but also sellers of food, animals and markets, even soccer stars.

This is one of the mussel salesman, was a gift from a friend. But I seen the same ones for sale in the old city of Naples in Italy. They have one street where you can buy these "figurini" of all kind.
Found one shop online - see it here:
http://www.presepenapoletano.net/

And here you can read an earlier blog entry about things I found in Napoli:
http://agnetanisbeth.blogspot.se/2012/07/ex-voto-from-napoli.html

Ex-voto from Napoli

This is one thing that you come across rather often in Naples, or Napoli, in southern Italy. It is called an ex-voto, and if you ever visit the beautiful city do not forget to take a look at the chruch of Gesù Nuovo.

It has a lot of these, ex-voti. An ex-voto is an offering to a saint or a divinity. You can buy these in shops in churches and all over the city of Naples. This one in silver is an offering for someone that need help with a throat, neck or mouth. You could be sick and want to get better or just get a better singing voice really. In Gesù Nuovo you can see a lot of these ex-voti.
Here is a link to another photo from the church, not my photo thu, but you can se many more of them here:
http://flic.kr/p/7SjAdu

In Rome

Some month ago I was in Rome in Italy for a day, it is a incredible city. I have been living the in the 80:s and then I had plenty of time to understand it, because it is not lika any city really. In every corner almost you can find a historic monument or building. It take some time to really get to know it.

But the you also have the modern city, the one changing year by year. But not this, the Spanish Steps at  Piazza di Spagna. Always filled with turists.

Then I cant just leave out this wonderful island of Capri. One ofe the most beautiful places on earth.
Read more about Capri here in a earlier blog entry:
http://agnetanisbeth.blogspot.se/2011/10/my-capri.html

Nice place to stay in Rome

This in not what I normally do here at my site, but I love to travel and I was in Rome some month ago. I was at a trip in the middle of the country, as I have told you about before. I was looking at a house to buy but turned out to be a ruin. Here you see Monumento Vittorio Emanuele.

When I was in Italy, in Rome, I stayed at this place, Hotel Capitolium - Town House Suite in Via Montebello 104. Just close to the station, Stazione Termini. I paid just 55 euro a night for a very nice double room.

Comfy bed, a nice shower room and some sweets and slippers on your pillow.

Art in my garden

I do have art from some other artists than my mother Gunvor. Like this one in rusty metal that stands in my garden during the summer.

It is an italian artist - from Naples - Lino Ajello that made it, he also have one bigger that was a decoration in a restaurant in Stockholm over 10 years ago.

In Italy - after the quake

Here we are in the town of L'Aquila in the region of Abruzzo in Italy. The city shook badly in the big earthquake three years ago, in april 2009. This photo is taken this spring but what you don't see is the old city, that still today is completely in ruins. Sad.

That is also why I could not come close enough to take photos.

So therefore I bring you this photo of another beautiful landscape in central Italy, Le Marche.

A painting I love

This is a painting I really love, it is an old copy of a painting that you can find in a museum in Napoli, Naples, in Italy: Galleria Nazionale di Capodimonte.

The painting is orginally a Parmigianino, an Italian painter born 1503. The painting is called, Ritratto di
Gian Galeazzo Sanvitale.
You can see the original painting here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Parmigianino_024.jpg

St Bridget of Sweden in Italy

This is another work of my mother Gunvor, a saint again, St Bridget of Sweden. As you may remember I did show you another piece before of St Bridget that mom did.

This art piece is made of ceramic and show her in Italy. In 1350 she went to Rome. She died in Italy 1373.

And an Italian view

Some weeks ago I was in Italy, in Le Marche and Abruzzo, for a holiday. But also for something very different - to look for a house to buy.

One of the houses I looked at had this view from one of the windows. Unfortunately that was the only good point the Italian cottage had.

It was more or less a ruin, close to another ruin, not included in the price. Anyhow, it was an amazing journey.

We also visited the closest town, Amandola. It was small but very nice, you can look at one street here.

Greetings from a palace

Just returned home from Italy. Had a lovely vacay there, and one night I stayed in this lovely hotel, Palazzo Guiderocchi in Ascoli Piceno in Le Marche.

This is one of the halls in the old palace that now is transformed in to a posh hotel.

The ceiling was high everywhere in the hotel. And I must say it was a really, really pleasant stay!

Will come back later here and show more photos from my recent trip to Italy.

The streets of Pizzo

Here is some photos from Italy, from the small southern town of Pizzo. It is in Calabria, almost on the toe of the Italian Boot.

During the summer the city blooms, and a lot of turist come to the town, a lot of them try out the famous ice cram, the Tartufo of Pizzo, as you can see an this picture below.

And when it is hot you can go down to the beach below and cool off a bit. Really nice.

Me and myself

Some years ago, at a birthday I got a really lovely present, a painting - of myself, made by the Italian artist Marco Cecioni that lives in Sweden. He is a fantastic person, and a dear friend. But most important - a really good artist.

You can se me here, holding my lovely gift, the portrait. It is an oil painting, and it has my astrological sign on one shoulder, I am born in may... and is as you maybe can see - a Taurus.

And here he is, the artist Marco Cecioni himself. He is born in Napoli, Naples, and he lives in Stockholm Sweden and in Vietri Sul Mare in the Amalfi Coast, Italy.
You can look at his work here at his own website:
http://cecioni.com/

Memories of Italy in the bathroom

This is a wall in my bathroom, all white tiles exept this one space - or two actually but I did only take one photo - where I have some nice memories of Italy.

This is some pieces of ceramic tiles that I have found on my walks on the beaches of southern Italy in beautiful The Amalfi coast.
I collected them during a holiday in Positano some years ago, and thought that could come handy one day.
And here they are now, in my bathroom so I can remember Italy every day.

Homemade pizza al forno a legna

Missing this - making my own pizza. It is just to cold now, it is almost november, to make pizza at my own pizza owen. You can see it here.

I bought one from Toscana in Italy last year, so we made pizzas the whole summer, and I must say they are really yummy.
You heat up the owen with wood, chopped in to small pieces.
And then you make the pizzas traditionally, with homemade tomatosauce, olive oil, mozzarella, basil and all the rest.

One of the pizzas is here - at my plate and ready to eat. Buon Appetito!