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HOW TO ARRIVE TO THE HOSTEL

Some information about Rome

 Rome, the eternal city, the capital of the great Roman empire, is a very old city, which was built in 745 BC.

 The city was founded by Romulus, the first king of Rome, and has become famous all around the world for its classic (Roman period) and Renaissance wonders, like the Sistin Chapel in the Vatican, painted by Michelangelo, or like the Coliseum, very close to our Faculty of Engineering, and its close Imperial Forum, where you can walk in the ancient Roman ways, like the via Sacra.

 This is the nice background that you, participants, will experience in our course during the City Rally or the Pub Crawling.

 Rome is also famous for the good quality of the food (we are very proud of our mediterranean diet).
 Besides eating, Roman people like very much soccer, dancing, social drinking, singing and playing guitar alltoger while sitting in the main squares, and they will be very sociable and happy to start a good conversation with anyone, everywhere.

 Some Statistics

 In Italy there are more cars than people, every italian has usually 2 phone mobiles and spends an average of 4 hours a day watching TV. Not so many old people speak English and you may find some troubles trying to get you understand.
 The city is very well organized now, the traffic is partially closed in the centre on Sunday, and you can enjoy the atmosphere watching some nice fountains or monument. Many girls like going shopping and watching clothes of Benetton, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Valentino, while the guys admire some Ferrari or Lamborghini (cars).

 Policy

 The police control is getting more strict due to the 11 September and the fear of terrorist attacks. General elections will be taken soon and there are many political demonstration.
 Actually all our university has been occupied by students, with the help of the Social Forum and many other student political movements, to demostrate against many Government decisions, in cluding a new reform of the educational system; there could be many parties and student demostrations around as you visit the University Campus.

  The legend of Romulus and Remus

According to the Roman legend, Romulus was the founder of Rome and Remus was his twin brother. Their story begins with their grandfather Numitor, king of the ancient Italian city of Alba Longa, was deposed by his brother Amulius. Numitor's daughter, Rhea Silvia, was made a Vestal Virgin by Amulius - this means that she was made a priestess of the godess Vesta and forbidden to marry.      

 Nevertheless, Mars, the god of war, fell in love with her and she gave birth to twin sons.
 Amulius, fearing that the boys would grow up to overthrow him, had them placed in a trough and thrown into the River Tiber. At that time the river was in flood, and when the waters fell, the trough, still containing the two boys, came ashore. They were found by a she-wolf who, instead of killing them, looked after them and fed them with her milk. A woodpecker also brought them food, for the woodpecker, like the wolf, was sacred to Mars.

 Later the twins where found by Faustulus, the king's shepherd. He took them home to his wife and the two adopted them, calling them Romulus and Remus. They grew up as bold and strong young men, laeding a warlike band of shephards.

 One day Remus was captured and brought before Numitor for punishment. Numitor noticing how unlike a shepherd's son he was, questioned him and before long realized who he was. Romulus and Remus than rose against Amulius, killed him and restored the kingdom to their grandfather.

 Deciding to found a town of their own, Romulus and Remus chose the place where the she-wolf had nursed them. Romulus began to build walls on the Palatine Hill, but Remus jeered at them because they were so low. He leaped over them to prove this, and Romulus in anger killed him. The legend begins...

S.P.Q.R.

 SPQR is an initialism for the Latin phrase Senatus Populusque Romanus. The translation is "The Roman Senate and People." An alternate Latin phrase translation is Senatus Populusque Romae. The translation is "The Senate and People of Rome."
 It was emblazoned on the standards of the Roman legions and was the official name of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. It also appears in the coat of arms of the present-day city of Rome, and appears on most civic buildings as well as many manhole covers in the city. These manhole covers were placed in Rome on order of Mussolini, who apart from this use, started using SPQR on many other occasions as a way to make propaganda for his regime.

Cuisine

Roman cuisine is a cuisine which has managed to defend its own authenticity from the interference of fashions and tourism; in Rome, in fact, the past is respected, and is kept alive, although, obviously, such a heritage has been enriched and personalised. Thus divided by class and by wealth, common people and nobility were forever joined by their undeniable liking for the "pasta alla amatriciana" (a pasta dish dressed with pancetta bacon and tomato sauce).

 A notable dish is also represented by the tails of cattle ("coda alla vaccinara", made with ox tail, is an especially well-known recipe). The flavours of Lazio belong basically to the culture of the surrounding countryside: for the lamb and the cheeses, they are thankful to the shepherds from the region of Abruzzo, and for the oil and the wine, to the nearby Alban Hills (where it might take place one of our dinner) and the modest Sabine slopes. There are also specialities linked to the production of fruit and vegetables from the Latian countryside, where the vegetables are unique in their flavours and luxuriance, and where some areas have specialised in a particular product. The production from the Sabine area is exalted above all for its olive oil, as are the products of the area around Viterbo for the cultivation of hazelnuts, the contribution given by the grapes and the wines of the Castelli Romani and the agriculture of the Ciociara area.

 Another famous speciality is the famous "saltimbocca" (literally "jump in the mouth"), an old tradition, and the "coppiette" (literally "little couples") which are small pieces of meat thus called because its two pieces should stick together. Very typical is the Beef Tripe Roman style: tripe decorated with onion, cloves, parsley, carrot and garlic served on several layers of grated parmesan cheese. In Rome and in the Lazio region, the word "abbacchio" is used for lamb dishes, cooked in many different ways.

 Typical desserts are the ones with ricotta cheese: for example the "budino alla ricotta", a kind of blancmange pudding made with ricotta and flavoured with lemon, cinnamon, rum, candied orange and lime peel which is really excellent, and the "crostata di ricotta" (ricotta tart) which also contains cinnamon and candied fruit.

 You're hungry and in a hurry? Stop in any grocery and order a panino (sandwich) with the famous "mortadella": a raw salami made from pork meat which is minced up several times so that a smooth-textured paste is obtained. This is different to traditional mortadella since it is not distributed with pieces of lard, but has only one, fairly large piece of lard which runs down its centre.

 Other dishes originate from the nearby Umbria region, which has had historical influences over the cuisine of Lazio. The first amongst these is the "spaghetti alla carbonara", imported into Lazio by the "carbonari", the men who, until the first decades of the Nineteen Hundreds, worked in the forests of this region making charcoal from the wood. This is a rich dish which has a dressing made from streaky bacon (from the pig’s cheek) cut into little cubes and cooked in a frying pan with oil and garlic; then a creamy mixture of eggs, Parmesan cheese and pepper is prepared and the spaghetti, cooked al dente, are added to it and mixed up well, with the addition of more Parmesan cheese and the streaky bacon mixture.

 The true Roman cuisine boasts a series of dishes which can be found on the menus of many of the trattorie of Rome, the best can be found in the Trastevere quarter, an area frequented both by the Romans and by tourists. Other dishes and ingredients of the most typical and widely diffused:
- "pomodori interi ripieni" (whole, stuffed tomatoes) which are tomatoes stuffed with raw rice;
- mozzarella cheese, used in many ways; it can be server as "caprese" (with sliced tomatoes) or "in carrozza" (fried between two slices of whole bread dip in beaten eggs);
- "ravioli", tasteful pieces of pasta full of ricotta cheese;
- "gnocchi alla romana" (Roman style gnocchi), dressed with butter and Parmesan cheese and baked in the oven;
- "lumache alla romana" (snails Roman style);
- "carciofi alla giudea" (artichokes giudea style), «carciofi alla romana» (artichokes Roman style),
- "pasta e ceci" (a chickpea soup with containing small pasta shapes);
- "tozzetti" and "mostaccioli", old types of biscuits with a base of flour, sugar, dried figs, candied fruit and raisins;

 So, although Roman and Latian cuisine lacks the affectations which elsewhere were inherited from the Renaissance courts (of which one of the few inheritances is the "pasticcio di maccheroni" (macaroni pie), created by the Pope Boniface VIII), although its origin is from country folk and the working class, we can not, however, really define it as being poor: this gastronomy is rich and various, thanks also to the influences experienced due to the fact that Rome is a melting pot of people belonging to various cultures; it is in fact the fruit of the various contributions and often the embellishments of different, persistent traditions.
 

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