April in Rome

Beato Angelico tra Roma e Firenze
The first retrospective devoted to the masterful paintings of Domenican friar Beato Angelico (Vicchi circa 1395 - Rome 1455), who introduced the concept of central perspective to Roman art, adapting the characteristics of Roman architecture at a human scale to evoke classical memory. This exhibition commemorates the 550th anniversary of Beato Angelico's death.
Musei Capitolini, Piazza del Campidoglio 1,
April 5 through July 5 tel 06 399 67 800
Dialoghi con la città - Alberti Garuti
Albrto Garuti's light sculpture occupies the first hall in the new museum space, representing the second installation of its inaugural cycle of site-specific works. The project was developed to feature installations that will accompany the concluding phase of the museum's new construction, which is scheduled for completion later this year.
MAXXI - Museo delle Arti del XXI Secolo,
Via Guido Reni 6 (Flaminio) through May 17 tel 06 321 0181
Granet: Roma E Parigi, La Natura Romantica
An exhibition of 100 oils on canvas and water-colors by French portraitist François-Marius Granet (1775-1849). Though he was a formidable landscape painter, his excellence is critically linked to peintre des capucins for his ability to depict cloistral silence and solitude.
Accademia di Francia, Villa Medici,
Viale Trinità dei Monti, 1 (top of the Spanish Steps) through May 24
Youssef Nabil - I won't let you die
For his first exhibition in Rome, photographer Youssef Nabil (Cairo, 1972 - ) has selected a body of 50 photographs comprised of portraits, vestments, objects, landscapes and self-portraits.
Accademia Di Francia, Villa Medici,
Viale Della Trinità dei Monti 1 (top of the Spanish Steps)
Tuesday - Sunday, 11 am-7 pm; through May 24
I Sabini popolo d'Italia. Dalla storia al mito
The first comprehensive exhibition in Rome on the Sabine, the ancient population that neighbored Rome at its eastern border. This exhibition offers a scholarly examination of historic, archaeological and artistic manifestations of the Sabine, traced through a selection of 120 pieces, including artefacts, ruins, miniature drawings, manuscripts, maps, codes, sculpture and paintings. Complesso Vittoriano, Via Di San Pietro In Carcere (Piazza Venezia)
Tuesday - Sunday, 9:30 am-7 pm; through April 26 tel 06 678 0363
Roberta Pugno - Materia Energia Pensiero
A selection of recent paintings links Pugno's works to literature, the history of mythology and thought.
Palazzo Venezia   Via Del Plebiscito 118
Tuesday - Sunday, 9 am-7 pm; Apriil 10 through May 10
Michelangelo Lupone & Licia Galizia
A sound installation based on music adapted and created by composer Michelangelo Lupone with visual context contributed by artist Licia Galizia. Lupone uses the Planofoni, a technology developed at the Centro Ricerche Musicali, Roma in the 1990s.
Museo Dell'Ara Pacis, Lungotevere In Augusta
Tuesday - Sunday, 9 am - 7 pm; through April 5
DAB / Roma Design per Artshop e Bookshop
Objets d'arte and design proposed by emerging Italian artists for the museum's commercial space.
Palazzo Delle Espoziisioni, Via Nazionale 194 Tuesday-Thursday, 10 am-8 pm; Friday-Saturday, 10 am-10:30 pm; April 9 through May 3 tel 06489411
Futurismo - Avanguardia-Avanguardie
A retrospective on Futurism, the towering and innovative movement that took place at the onset of the 20th century. Futurist art formed an aesthetic language derived from the idea of velocity, and dynamism brought on by modernism, and the era of industrialization. The show celebrates the 100th year since the publication in Le Figaro, February, 1909 of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's "Il Manifesto", the driving force behind the movement. A collaboration with the Georges Pompidou Paris and the Tate Modern London.
Le Scuderie del Quirinale, Piazza Via XXIV Maggio 16
Sunday-Thursday, 10 am-8 pm; Friday-Saturday, 10 am-10:30 pm;
through May 24
L'arte della pubblicità. Il manifesto e le avanguardie 1920-1940
A survey of 100 works dedicated to early experiments in graphic design used as advertising-publicity material. The exhibition highlights works from a cadre of internationally known Italian artists linked to diverse movements from 1920 through 1940 - Adolfo Wild to Duilio Cambellotti - and Futuristic artists Despero and Giocomo Balla, Prampolini; Mario Sironi, Anna Villari, Lucio Fontana and others.
Casino Dei Principi - Villa Torlonia, Via Nomentana 70
Tuesday - Sunday 9 am-7:30 pm; through May 24
Arnaldo Gianni Corradini - Armonie e Disarmonie degli stati d'anima
In cooperation with the centennial celebration of Futurism arts. Gianni and his brother Bruno Corra were two of the most eclectic and charming artists at the beginning of the 20th century.
Museo Andrea Blanceflor Boncampagni Ludovisi, Via Boncampagni 18
Tuesday-Sunday, 8:30 am-7 pm; March 12 through May 10 tel 06 42824074
Giotto e il Trecento
This is the first exhibition in more than 70 years dedicated to Giotto (born Giotto di Bondone, Florence, 1266/76-1337), the medieval artist who took sovereignty over painting in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. Only 20 of the 150 works in the current exhibition - in tempera on wood, sculpture, rare manuscripts and gold - were executed by Giotto. The remaining are works by artists of that period.
Complesso del Vittoriano, Via Di San Pietro in Carcere (Piazza Venezia)
Monday - Thursday, 9:30 am-7:30 pm; Friday-Saturday, 9:30 am-11:30 pm; Sunday, 9:30 am-8:30 pm; through June 28 tel 06 678 0363
Cy Twombly: Cicli e stagioni
The first retrospective in Rome dedicated to American-born artist Cy Twombly (Lexington, Virginia, 1928 -), this exhibition is structured around significant phases in the artist's oeuvre, presenting an opportunity to examine works created during the course of a long and important career in painting, design and sculpture. Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Viale delle Belle Arti, 131 (Parioli)
Tuesday- Sunday, 8:30 am-7:30 pm; through May 24 tel 06 322 98 221
Il Divo Vespasiano - Bimillenario dei Flavi
Celebrates 2000 years since the imperial rule of Flavio Vespasiano (69-79 A.D.), the outsider who came to power at 60 years of age. Set in two spaces which were of extraordinary historic and architectural importance in ancient Rome: the Curia del Foro, opened expressly for this occasion, and the Criptoportico neroniana
Anfiteatro Flavio, Colosseo,   Piazza Del Colosseo
Daily 8:30 - 5:30; through January 10, 2010   tel 06 399 67700
Utagawa Hiroshige - Il maestro della natura
The first exhibition in Rome of paintings by Utagawa Hiroshige (Japan 1787-1858), Japan's most celebrated artist and the most important exponent of ukiyo, the traditional Japanese school of etching.
Museo Del Corso (Museo Fondazione Roma) Via del Corso 320 Tuesday-Saturday; through June 7
Johann Martin von Rohden - (1778-1868):
Da Kassel alla campagna romana
A selection of 20 drawings and 11 paintings by German landscape artist Johann Martin von Rohden. Four works in large format representing a painting cycle of the various stages of "day" (executed from1829-1839) were commissioned by Prince Wilhelm von Hessen-Kassel to replace the homonymous painting cycle by Claude Lorrain pilfered from Rome during the French occupation. This is the first preview of von Rohden's works in the city where he lived and painted for the major part of his life.
Casa Di Goethe, Via del Corso 18, Tuesday-Sunday, March 19 through June 21
Giulio Cesare
This exhibition chronicles Giulio Cesare's rise to power while examining the social, political and cultural influences that impacted Egypt and Rome during the time of his reign.
Dart - Chiostro Del Bramante;   Via Della Pace (near Piazza Navona)
Tuesday - Friday, 10 am - 8 pm; Saturday - Sunday, 10 - 9 pm; through April 5
Omaggio a Bartolo Cuomo
Through a series of personal portraits, local artists pay homage to one of the city's most beloved personalities. Bartolo Cuomo, who died five years ago, was a familiar face throughout the seventies and eighties at Bar della Pace.
Dart - Chiostro Del Bramante, Via della Pace (Piazza Navona)
Monday-Friday, 10 am-8 pm; Saturday - Sunday, 10 am-9 pm; through April 14
John Margolies - American Roadside Architecture
For more than 30 years, photographer Margolies documented the American architectural style of the first half of the 20th century, chronicling its inevitable disappearance.
Museo Hendrik Christian Andersen Via Pasquale Stanislao Mancini 20 (Flaminio) Tuesday - Saturday; through May 3   tel 06 321 9089
Darwin 1809 - 2009
Celebrating 200 years since the birth of English naturalist, Charles Darwin, this exhibition displays biographical information and documentation of his life-long work in science and the humanities.
Palazzo delle Esposizioni Via Nazionale 194 (Esquilino)
Tuesday-Thursday, 10 am - 8 pm; Friday-Saturday, 10 am - 10:30 pm; Sunday, 10 am - 8 pm.
through May 3 tel 06 489411
Giorgio De Chirico - La magia della linea
De Chirico considered drawing to be 'the imprint of thought, a genre with dignity equal if not superior to painting'. A selection of 100 of his drawings, on loan from the private collection of Isa De Chirico joins other citywide exhibitions being launched over the next two years in honor of the 120th anniversary of his birth.
Museo Carlo Bilotti - Aranciera di Villa Borghese,
Viale Fiorello La Guardia 4 (Borghese gardens)
Tuesday-Sunday, 9 am-7 pm; through April 19

Book Cover

www.romaonline.net/ENG/

The Stations of the Cross, the Via Crucis, is the most significant ritual of the Settimana Santa, the holy week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. A popular devotion of both eastern and western churches, the pageant was developed during the Crusades, when knights and pilgrims began to follow the route of Christ's journey to Calgary. The tradition spread through Europe, diffused by Franciscan friars during the 14th and 15th centuries. Some scholars believe that scenes from the Way of the Cross have been inspirational in the visual arts since the middle ages. Since the 16th century, communities throughout Catholic Europe have replicated Christ's final journey with shrines commemorating the places along the route.
The fourteen stations follow a biblical outline based on text drawn primarily from the Gospel of St. Mark. These are the fourteen Stations of the Cross:
1. Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane; 2. Jesus is betrayed by Judas and arrested; 3. Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin; 4. Jesus is denied by Peter; 5. Jesus is judged by Pilate; 6. Jesus is scourged and crowned with thorns; 7. Jesus takes up his cross; 8. Jesus is helped by Simon to carry his cross; 9. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem; 10. Jesus is crucified; 11. Jesus promises his kingdom to the good thief; 12. Jesus entrusts Mary and John to each other; 13. Jesus dies on the cross; and 14. Jesus is laid in the tomb.

Rome
The stations are celebrated today in the Coliseum in recognition of the death of Christian martyrs under the Roman Emperors. In 1964, Pope Paul VI re-initiated the traditional celebration of the ritual of the Via Crucis al Colosseo, which was originated in the Jubilee year of 1750 by San Leonardo da Porto Maurizio. This year, Pope Benedict XVI will preside over the celebration on Good Friday, April 10th, 9:15 pm.
The Pope and church officials will be joined by Christians from communities worldwide, while many others will follow the procession via satellite TV.

Throughout the region, cities and towns stage pageants replicating Christ's passion. Most can be reached by car from Rome in about an hour. In case you want to make it a weekend event, we've included some links to area hotels.

Maenza (Latina)
One of the most ambituous and spectacular events in the area, during the Holy Week of Easter, the historic center of Maenza will be converted into a replica of Jerusalem, where 300 local residents will stage a re-enactment of the Passion of Christ.
April 5 through April 10
www.passionedicristo.eu
Where to Stay: Ostello San Tomaso D'Aquino
In a beautifully restored palazzo in the historic center.
www.ostellomontilepini.it
Getting there
Take the Autostrada A1 towards Napoli; exit at Frosinone; bear right at the fork onto SS156 for 22 kilometers; bear right onto SS609 (Via Carpinentana) for five kilometers; turn right onto Via Madonna delle Grazie/Strada Scuola Taverna, for about half a kilometer; then at the rotary, take Via Dante Alighieri, exit 5a
Bassano Romano(Viterbo)
In this historic 12th century village, between Lake Bracciano and Lake Vico, a procession of religious organizations in hooded costume, wearing chains at their ankles, carries the Christ figure, accompanied by the Città di Bassano Romano band. Leaving from the Chiesa di Maria SS. Assunta, it travels through the historic center, returning to the church.
Friday, April 10, 9 pm, tel 0761 636919
Getting there
From the GRA take the Cassia Bis (exit 5 Cassa Veientana/Viterbo, SS2BIS) which becomes the SS2. After about 25 kilometers, turn left onto SP40 for 3,8 kilometers, then turn right onto Via Roma.
Bolsena (Viterbo): Rievocazione della Passione di Cristo
This ancient town sits at the edge of beautiful Lake Bolsena. The procession leaves from piazza Matteotti in front of the San Francesco Theater, with a re-enactment of Judas' betrayal of Christ, then proceeds through the historic center, with stops along the way where scenes from the various stations of the cross are performed.
Friday, April 10 tel 0761 795412
Where to Stay
Hotel Columbus, Viale Colesanti, 27 tel 0761 799009
A well-priced hotel with comfortable and well-appointed rooms, just fifty meters from the lake and a short walk from the historic center.
www.bolsenahotel.it
Getting there
Take the Autostrada A1 towards Firenze; exit at Orvieto km 24
Torre Cajetani (Frosinone): Via Crucis Vivente
On a hill top with spectacular views of the surrounding countryside, this tiny medieval town is dominated by the 12th century Chiesa di Santa Maria. On Good Friday, the local inhabitants stage a retelling of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ, with some 70 participants in an elaborate setting, leaving from the Piazza Italia, and winding through the historic center to the Chiesa di Sant'Angelo where the final scenes are played.
Friday, April 10, 9 pm
www.comune.torrecajetani.fr.it/
Getting there
Take the Autostrada A1 south towards Naples, to the Anagni-Fiuggi Terme exit (about 42 kilometers); stay to the left at the crossroads, and follow the signs towards Gavignano/Carpineto Romano; turn left at Via Anticolana/SS155 and continue for about 19 kilometers; bear right into Via Prenestina Sud/SS155

and continue for about 2 kilometers, then turn left at SP43 and continue for 2 additional kilometers into the town center.

Orte (Viterbo): Processione del Cristo morto
In ne of the oldest Christian rituals celebrating Easter., Orte residents create an elaborate re-enactment of the death of Christ. The town is illuminated only by candlelight while the Christ figure, is carried through the streets of the historic center, in a silent procession. Four-hundred and fifty religious organizations participate in this event.
Orte (Viterbo) Friday, April 10
Tel 0761 403 240
Where to Stay: La Grotticella
A tiny but atmospheric B&B with a restaurant and wine bar, offering two large suites.
Via Magenta 5 (historic center) tel 0761 493 544
www.lagrotticellaorte.com
Or try La Scaletta, at Via Garibaldi 22 tel 0761 498007
Getting there
By train: From Stazione Termini take the Roma-Firenze or Roma-Ancona lines, both of which stop at Orte.
By Car: Autostrada (freeway) A1 direction Firenze; exit 33 Orte, direction SS20
Tarquinia (Viterbo): Processione del Cristo Risorto
The Resurrection of Christ is celebrated by a procession carrying a gigantic 18th century statue of Christ through the city's historic center.
Tarquinia was an important Etruscan city, with the largest collection of Etruscan painted tombs dating from the sixth to the eight centures B.C. About 600 tombs have survived from the Tarquinian Necropolis.
Where to Stay: Tarchon B&B
Via Giampietri Leoni, 18 tel 329.003.88.93
www.tarchonclub.com
Getting there
By car: Head toward A12 up the coast to Civitavecchia, S.S. Aurelia, direction Grosseto; follow signs for Tarquinia. Approx 1 hour from Rome.
By train: Tarquinia is on the Roma Ventimiglia railway line - From St. Peter's Rail Station take the train to Tarquinia-Viterbo. Direct train service is available from Roma-Ostiense - Metro B, Ostiense/Piramide line. Approx. 50 minutes.
Nerola (Roma) Via Crucis Vivente
The township of Nerola presents a live event from the Gospel of St. Mark. A charming medieval town, Nerola is dominated by the tenth century Orsini Castle. The town rises in the Sabine hills between the western slope of Monte Sabina and Monte Lucretili west of the Tiber river near the Fosso di Corese.
Piazza San Sebastiano 7, Friday, April 10, 9 pm