Rome: a visit to the Protestant Cemetery

Finally, after years that I watched from outside along the way back home from college , I finally visited the Protestant Cemetery in Rome, which is located in the district of Testaccio . It is a small cemetery where were buried non-Catholics people (I'm not sure if it is still possible to be buried there). There are also some famous people: Keats, the English writer, Goethe's son, Gramsci and Miriam Mafai (the first was an Italian politician and journalist, Miriam Mafai was an italian writer). As "entry ticket", who is responsible for the maintenance of the cemetery asks for a donation of 3 € and groups are asked to go to '"information office" before starting the visit to the cemetery. As soon as you enter, you realize that the cemetery is quite small, but to visit it well it takes (at least) an hour. There are several graves which are truly special and deserve to be seen. For example, there is one on which the flowers aren't placed in a vase on the floor or directly on the grave, but they are placed directly in the hands of the statue I was looking for especially one statue: the statue of the “angel of grieft”, which I had seen in a video of TG2 (the news program of the second channel of Italian public television) dedicated to angels of Rome After that I found it, I went to search the graves of famous and important character, as Antonio Gramsci (the italian politician and journalist) and Miriam Mafai and also John Keats (his tomb is located in the old part of the cemetery, which looks more like a park than a cemetery!) There are still many things to say, even if the place is really small. But I prefer to leave a few more photos: This is one of those cases in which the images say more than words!

A trip to Nicosia

I restart the story of my holiday in Cyprus telling you something about Nicosia, a city "divided in two" and always full of tourists, despite the heat. From the Karavella station, in Paphos, me and my mum we take the bus at 07:30 in the morning. Once we arrived in Nicosia we descended along the main road of the city and we climbed up to the "observatory of Leda street" to see the city from above. Then we enter into a very small church, but very nice: the church of the Archangel Michael Trypiotis We continued our walk and we passed a small mosque closed to tourists due to the presence of the faithful We stopped at the Cathedral of Agios Ioannis, close to the archbishop: very small, but really nice. Beside it there is also the Ethnographic Museum of Cyprus. We decided, therefore, to climb on the walls (built by the Venetians when Venice was one of the Maritime Republics) and arrive at the "Famagusta Gate", the best preserved, before we go to lunch. After a quick lunch, we passed the controls to enter in the Turkish part of Nicosia and we stop to take a ride in what once was a caravanserai So we went to the mosque, but we watched it only from outside. We leave the "Turkish Nicosia" and, after a brief visit to the handicraft center in Cyprus, we take a coffee along the main street waiting to go back to Paphos.

Travels and good intentions for 2014

I want to dedicate the first post of 2014 to what lies ahead for this new year... I speak in the plural because, by now, we are a bit like a big family and we move forward together: I write about my own experiences and you read (hopefully with pleasure) my stories. The events for this year are really a lot and I'm very happy. As for the destinations in Europe, the ideas are many and those that have taken shape, or are substantially taking it, are three: The first goal in the old continent will be Berlin. I'm going there in March and it's only the first trip of the year to be confirmed: flight and hotel are already booked and I can not wait to leave. For too many years I have said that you want to visit Berlin and, finally, the moment has arrived. Another goal that is getting closer is a journey in Dublin. I do not know the dates yet, but the itinerary is ready and will be the destination of my summer holidays! It is another city that I want to see for a long time, and I decided to go this year, possibly in late June, early July. I will keep you updated and if you have suggestions recommended to me as well! There is also the idea of ​​going to see Prague, braving the cold : the idea is to go in the Czech capital on New Year's Eve 2015 (Yes, I decided long time before... I know it). Maybe I come back to London... (I know not that I love this city , right?) In the middle of these European trips there will be many others trips in Italy: I will spend, at the end of January , two days in Abruzzo. When it gets a bit ' warmer and the days will be longer , I'm going to walk through the "SnowWhite forest" (I find that is in the Tuscia thanks to a National Geographic's article). I have a gift box to use (but I will talk about it further), and probably I'll use it to go somewhere in the region of Marche, a region that I have never visited. There would also be many other places that I would like to see and visit , but I would avoid to make an endless list of places: we are not here to do your shopping list ! I hope I can still give many useful tips for traveling ... What do you say , you will be traveling with me this year?