I'm a genius...or are I?

I got me some culture this weekend. In lieu of photos, I'll include links so you can still get a visual.

It was 70 degrees out and sunny and I walked and I saw and I conquered. You see, I've been on an even tighter budget than usual (about 3.50 per day) and so I've been seeing a whole other side of Rome - the cheapo/free side. This has opened my eyes to so much! Free jazz concerts in villas, sit-down gourmet dinner for 5 euro, the unexpected site Oscar Wilde calls "the holiest place in Rome" (also free), and seeing Rodin's "The Thinker", a Tiziano painting, a Turner painting and a 5,000 year old statue in the same room...free. AND within walking distance.

I discovered the "Casa del Jazz", near Piramide (the approximately 20,000 year old Pyramid about 4 blocks from my house) last weekend and found that they have free concerts/lectures once a week. The current series is the relationship between Jazz and Tango!

Because it was full by the time we got there, we decided to have an aperitivo at nearby Caffe' Emporio . I was freaking at the prospect of spending the 5 euros necessary for a glass of wine but this was no ordinary aperitivo (Italian Happy Hour where a drink usually gets you a trip to a buffet of breads, veggies and chips). Here, you get first a round of fresh veggies and olive oil and also a few plates of individual savory tarts - all brought to your table. This, I was used to from past visits. This time however, they then brought us a dinner portion of one of three choices available from their dinner menu! Polpettone (meatloaf) with roasted potatoes, Pasta with Shrimp and Artichoke or Spinach & Cheese Frittata. It was incredible - I ate and drank for 5 euros, without ever standing up. Then I walked the 30 seconds home.

Friday night I watched Team America. If you haven't seen it, go to your nearest video rental place and rent it - STAT.

Yesterday I took a walk back to the Pyramid but got a new view of it - from the Non-Catholic Cemetery located right behind it. It is a donation-only entry, and once you are inside you are transported to this lush garden of poetry-inscribed stones and cypress trees. Normally cemeteries are creepy, but even Shelley wrote about it "It might make one in love with death, to think that one should be buried in so sweet a place," not long before he drowned in the Italian Riviera and was buried here.

John Keats is also buried here, along with Antonio Gramsci, Goethe's only son, and dozens of diplomats, artists and other VIPs.

Afterwards, I walked to the Palazzo Quirinale to meet Carlotta for the "Masterpieces of European Art" exhibit. Italy's President Napolitano lives here, and in recognition of the EU's 50th anniversary last week, established by the Treaty of Rome in 1957, requested that each of the EU's 27 countries contribute one masterpiece to a show that would "remind Europeans of the cultural values that unite them rather than the political ­disputes that sometimes divide them." This is how I saw such a unique collection of pieces in one, glorious room. Where else could you see a 3,000 BC Maltese sculpture together with paintings by Tiziano and J.M.W. Turner, or Rodin's "The Thinker" together with a 4th Century Greek vase rescued from traffickers just last year?

The palace is located on the highest of the 7 hills of Rome. I happened to have taken these pictures from there just last fall:

And finally...to put a smile on someone's face, a photo of me and my favorite Italy-travel companion taken in Todi:

Sofia, ti voglio bene!