Today's Rome

Hi Guys! Here's your favorite blogger (it's probably not me, but let's be positive).

As promised, I won't talk about grammar today. But about Rome and why you should go there for your next travel... No, you can't wait. You have to go right now!

Last summer, I was in this amazing city with my family and my girlfriend for four days and three nights. And I can tell you that it's not enough to take even half the famous tours!
That's right. Rome has more than two and a half thousand years of existence. You can imagine all the possible visits. It's like a citywide museum:

Rome offers one of the greatest concentrations of ancient vestiges in the world. If you are a fan of the Roman civilization, you would love to walk in the Forum and fell like being transported back in time, when the city was the capital of the world: caput mundi.

Roman Forum

Colosseum

The Ancient heart of the city is located next to the Capitol Hill. It's called a Forum and was the center of the political, cultural and religious life of Rome. Todays it's just a bunch of old stones for some people. However, when I walked between those stones, I could really imagine what it was like in its glory days: a magnificent place full of people and colors. The impression of smallness is reinforced by the surrounding arches and temples.





The Colosseum is the most famous of the ancient monuments of Rome. Mainly because it's the best conserved and the tallest one.
I understand that all this vestiges can be really annoying eventually. I actually escaped a guide tour because I was bored of stones (and also because I wanted an ice-cream but that's not the point).

Even if you're not an history fan, you could appreciate its renaissance and baroque architecture at every street corner. The most popular are the Trevi Fountain, Piazza di Spagna and Piazza Barberini.

Trevi Fountain

Vatican City, a city (and also a state) within a city (and also a state), is a very attractive place, mostly because it's the capital of the christian religion, but also because of its huge art collection and impressive monuments, such as St Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel.

Still not convinced? Well, I'm sure the Italian food will! Obviously, Rome is the best place to eat pizza at sunset on an terrasse or enjoy an homemade ice-cream in the ancient Roman park : La Villa Borghese.
Furthermore, Rome is a great romantic town (not as Paris, Paris is the best!). You should come with your lover(s not judging) for the great restaurants in the capital of La Dolce Vita (the sweet life).

How can I talk about Rome and not speak about the Vespa rides? Yes, the Vespa scoter is surely the best way to discover the city from the Hills and admire a splendid overview of this timeless city. At some point in this ride, I think I fell in love with it. See for yourself:

Panoramic of Rome

The only drawback is that there is a lot of tourists (those damned people) all year long. As a result, you can easy spend most of the day in the line and in invaded places where you can't take a single picture without an unknown on it. But pictures aren't the point of travel, and if you plan it you can make reservations or go in charming, not touristy, neighborhoods. For this, I recommend the East Side of the Tiber river, with Trastevere and the Janiculum Hill.


I hope I made you wanna go there. Next time I won't be the tourist guide but the history teacher!

Citations :
Photos from my trip
More informations on http://www.rome-passion.com

Latin grammatical rules

Hello guys!

Today's article will be about Latin grammatical rules (so much informations so far).

"Oh no! Not that. I'm so bored already!" I hear you yelling in front of your screen.
But wait...
Uhm no don't... I hate those things too!

Yes that's right, I love Roman civilisation and yet I can't stand the idea of writing and reading in Latin. When I studied Latin in high-school, I've never opened my books to learned grammatical rules. The things that interested me back then, were Mythology and History. However our teacher never really spoke about this and our exams were only about translations and vocables. So I quite it before the twelfth grade.
In spite of all my bad marks, I truly regret quitting. And now I feel like a jerk not being able to translate a simple sentence after 5 years of Latin.

I know I'm French and it is difficult to learn it because of all the exceptions. But, it's easy to say you don't have exceptions when you have so many rules!
For instance, the declensions... There are like thousands of them. NO JOKES!

Quick overview of Latin declensions :

• They obviously depend on the TWO grammatical genders: singular and plural
• FOUR types of words have their own ones: adjectives, nouns, verbs and pronouns
• There are FIVE declensions for nouns, grouped by ending and gender
• And SIX cases of declension : Nominative, Vocative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative and Ablative

Take a look at these declensions lists. And, imagine you have to memorize all of it. That's insane!

Latin Pronouns Declensions

Latin Nouns Declensions

Moreover, in the conjugation, each verb is described by FIVE forms and are affected by the person, the gender, the number, the tense, the mood and the voice. 

All this cases make the latin translations very hard. 

To sum up, Latin grammar is tough to learn and why the hell do we care about this when it's a dead language and translators can do all the work?! ;) 

Post Scriptum : Next time, I promise I won't bother you with this nerdy language. 

Citations :

Book Latin for dummies, Daniel ROBERT and my old latin lessons

Photos from Wikipedia