Context Rome Tour Guides

Paul Bennett is an award-winning journalist who, for many years, was the Rome correspondent for Architectural Record and Architecture magazines. He also writes regularly for National Geographic, National Geographic Adventure, and Smithsonian magazines on such diverse topics as travel, archaeology, and technology. His article about sailing a small boat across the Atlantic for Adventure was selected for the 2006 Best American Travel Writing, while his feature story on underground Rome for National Geographic appeared in the 2007 Best American Science and Nature Writing. Paul is also the recipient of a Lowell Thomas Award for travel writing. With his wife, Lani Bevacqua, he founded Context in 2003 as an alternative travel solution for people desiring in-depth experiences. He holds a Master's degree in intellectual history from St. John's College and has authored several books on architecture, landscape, and urbanism. He and Lani have three daughters and currently live in Philadelphia, the home city of Context, although he spends considerable time on the road in each of the Context cities.

Darius Arya is a Roman archaeologist (Ph.D. UT Austin) who lives and resides in Rome, Italy. He is the co-founder and executive director of the American Institute for Roman Culture (www.romanculture.org), a 501c3 non profit organization which promotes and defends Rome's heritage through projects and unique teaching experiences for university-level students. He leads the archaeological projects, currently including the Villa delle Vignacce dig, and directs the program in archaeology and Roman civilization.

Art historian Frank Dabell studied at Oxford University and the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, and is a former fellow of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; he lectures for the museum throughout Europe. After many years in New York, he has returned to Rome, where he was raised, and is now on the art history faculty of Temple University Rome.

Elizabeth Lev has a degree in art history from the University of Chicago and is currently finishing her graduate work at the University of Bologna with a thesis on Baroque architecture. She is presently teaching Renaissance Art at John Cabot University, and Baroque Art & Architecture at the University of Duqusne, Rome Campus. Not only is she a licensed tour guide, but she is on the committee that licenses all tourist escorts.

Liz Brewster, a native of San Francisco, California holds degrees in
architecture from the University of California at Berkeley and the
University of Rome "La Sapienza" specializing in restoration and urban
design. She has been leading study walks for Context Rome since its earlier incarnation as Scala Reale and has lived in Rome since 1988 practicing architecture, researching design and lecturing at university study abroad programs.

Petulia Melideo has been with Context from the start. She is a native Roman who has lived extensively in the U.S., France and Great Britain. Petulia studied in the UK ( University of East Anglia) an Italy . She is passionate about all things, from fashion to food. She is an expert in Italian fashion and traditional crafts.

Tom Rankin came to Rome on a Fulbright Fellowship in 1991 after completing his architectural studies at Harvard. Tom was the founder of Scala Reale, an association of scholars leading small-group study walks that was acquired by Context in 2004. In 2002 he co-founded the American Institute for Roman Culture, for which he served as President, Board Member and Architecture Program Faculty until his resignation in 2008. Currently Tom is dedicating himself to the fields of cultural and environmental sustainability, architecture and design.

Katie Parla earned her B.A. in the History of Art from Yale where her studies focused on Roman art and archaeology, particularly the use of myths on carved sarcophagi. She holds a Master's degree in Cultura Gastronomica Italiana from the Unversita' degli Studi di Roma "Tor Vergata" and is a certified sommelier. She has written books for National Geographic, Rough Guides, Time Out, DK Eyewitness Guides, Insight Guides, Fodor's, and the Encyclopedia of Society and Culture in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds. Katie is also an urban speleologist for the city of Rome and has produced five episodes of the History Channel Series "Cities of the Underworld" in which she appeared as an expert on underground Rome, Palermo, and Naples.

Originally from Canada, Anthony Majanlahti has been living and researching in Rome for several years. His first book, "The Families Who Made Rome" (London: Chatto & Windus, 2005), has recently been translated into Italian, and he is currently working on a brief guide to Rome under the Nazi occupation. Anthony is an urban historian who specializes in Rome throughout its history, with an emphasis on the early modern and modern periods.

Inge Hansen is a project director of the Butrint excavations in southern Albania. A native of Denmark, she has a Ph.D. in art history from the University of Edinburgh and has worked for many years with the British School in Rome on a variety of archaeological projects. Her specialization is classical art, in particular the art of the Roman Empire and the imaging of women in the ancient world.

Sara Magister has a master's in art history and a doctorate (PhD) in archaeology from the University of Rome. A native Roman, Sara has worked as the archaeological editor for the Italian national Encyclopedia. She also works as a consultant for the Vatican Museums and the former minister of culture, designing museum exhibitions and supporting the restoration of monuments with archive research. She is also currently working as a professor in an American University in Rome, teaching Baroque Art and Subjects and Symbols in Art. One of Sara's interests is the political use of ancient art during the Renaissance and Baroque and Pope Julius II's collection of ancient art, which forms the core of the Vatican's collection of ancient statuary.

Giovanna Terzulli is an art historian and Rome native. She has a Master's degree in art history from the University of Rome "La Sapienza," with a specialization in Modern and Medieval art. She works as an editorial consultant for a number of cultural organizations in Rome including the Superintendent of Archaeology of Rome. Giovanna is fluent in Italian (mother tongue), English, and French, and has a unique interest in Mannerism.

Maureen Fant, a classicist turned food writer, is a frequent contributor to the New York Times travel section and other periodicals. Her books, described at www.maureenbfant.com , include Trattorias of Rome, Florence, and Venice, Dictionary of Italian Cuisine (with Howard M. Isaacs), and the classic source book on women in the ancient world Women's Life in Greece and Rome (with Mary R. Lefkowitz), the third edition of which has just been published. She is also author of a cookbook on Rome for a Williams-Sonoma series. She holds an M.A. in classical studies from the University of Michigan and completed the coursework and exams there for the Ph.D. in classical archaeology.

Cecilia Martini has a master's degree in Medieval and Renaissance art from the University of Rome, "La Sapienza." Although her specialty is painting and decorative arts, she has a broad knowledge of the history of Rome, and leads many antiquity-themed itineraries. Cecilia works actively as a curator of exhibitions and lecturer and is a frequent consultant with the Galleria Colonna. She also has a specialized teaching degree, and works as a visiting professor in several art institutes.

Olivia Ercoli is a native English speaker, a Rome
licensed guide, as well as an art historian and main contributor to the award-winning Eyewitness Guide to Rome. She currently teaches a course on Roman civilization at Lorenzo de Medici School in Rome, and has contributed to the National Geographic Lost Cities of the Ancient World. Olivia infuses her discussion of Rome with a sense of what it's like to grow up here and be Roman.

Gregory DiPippo, a native of Providence, R.I., studied classics in high school and as an undergraduate at McGill University. He has completed coursework for a Master's degree in theology at the Pontifical Institute for Patristic Studies, or "Augustinianum," in Rome and is currently waiting to take his comprehensives and defend his thesis on the church fathers. Gregory leads walks of the Vatican and other religious sites in Rome, but he is also a superb classicist and one of the few Context:Rome docents who can hold a conversation in Latin.

Andrea Viviani has a doctorate in linguistics from Roma Tre University in Rome. His dissertation deals with the relationship historical and linguistics between English and Italian. He conducts Italian Language Workshops for Context:Rome, and is equally able to give a lesson in how to speak read Italian as he is able to lead a provocative discussion of language history and cultural meaning.

Originally from England, Richard Bowen has lived in Rome for the last fourteen years. He holds a Master's degree in medieval and twentieth-century history from London University and, as this might suggest, has a broad-minded and synthetic approach to understanding Rome. Richard works quite frequently with institutional travel organizations, such as museums and church organizations, and as a result spends much of his time traveling all over Europe. He brings this cosmopolitan and pan-European experience to bear on his work with us in Rome, constantly making connections to other cities and countries in the course of his lectures and seminars.

A former art teacher, Hilary Bockham has spent the last ten years designing major European art exhibitions of both contemporary and historical art. She has been a visiting lecturer at several U.K. design colleges and designed costumes for international theater troops.

Elisabeth Fuhrmann-Schembri has multiple advanced degrees in archaeology and classical studies. She has done studies in classical philology, specifically Latin, and ancient art history. A frequent lecturer and adjunct faculty at John Cabot University, Elisabeth is currently researching Etruscan cultures. She wrote her dissertation on Etruscan musical instruments and is an active member of Gruppo Archeologico del Territorio Cerite, a conservation organization in northern Lazio.

Ursula Hawlitschka has recently finished her Ph.D. in art history at Temple University, writing her dissertation on 20th century Italian artist Enzo Cucchi. Originally from Germany, Ursula has extensive experience as a curator of art and lecturer. She worked as a docent, giving on-site lectures, for Context Rome in its earlier incarnation as Scala Reale.

Jessica Stewart hails from Massachusetts and earned her B.A. in art history from Boston University. She got her first taste of Italian living during a semester exchange in Padova. She holds an M.A. in Renaissance studies from University College London, where her dissertation dealt with the development of Giulio Romano's early painting style in Rome. Her main areas of interest are Renaissance and Baroque painting and sculpture. She is the regional manager our Italian operations and pursues her avid photography hobby in her spare time.

Patrizia Sfligiotti has a master's degree in Medieval archaeology and has studied at the Vatican and at the University of Aix-en-Provence. She was an excavator at the Crypta Balbi in the 1990s, arguably the most significant archaeological excavation in central Rome in the last century. She works for FAI - Fondo per l'Ambiente Italiano (Italian National Trust) as Rome's cultural attaché. A dual citizen (USA and Italy), Patrizia is the author of the guidebook to Villa Gregoriana (Tivoli) and leads walks for us.

Carlo Micio is a licensed guide for the city of Rome with a strong background in the city's political history. He oversees many of our activities. He also plays (drummer) in a number of Rome bands.

Vannella Carrelli Palombi has a Master's degree in modern and contemporary art from the University of Rome, "La Sapienza". She has been leading itineraries of every period of Roman history for twenty years. She is a guide at the Vatican Museums and has worked in many of Roman museums, such as the Borghese Gallery, Castel S. Angelo, Galleria Colonna, and Galleria Doria Pamphili. She has also worked in the didactic section of these museums and has a specialized teaching degree.

Tim earned his undergraduate degree in studio art at DePauw University and his Master's of fine art in painting at Indiana University. Having lived in Rome since 1998, he presently paints in his studio near Campo de' Fiori and teaches courses in drawing and art history at the American University of Rome. His work has been shown in group exhibitions at several Rome galleries, including Gallerie Benucci and the La Porta Blu Gallery.

Elizabeth Janus is an independent art critic and curator of contemporary art exhibitions. After spending several years in the Department of 20th-Century Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, she moved to Geneva, Switzerland, where she lived for 13 years. Since the mid-1980s she has written essays and articles on Ghada Amer (2007 for MACRO, Rome), Matthew Barney, Vanessa Beecroft, Maurizio Cattelan, Cameron Jamie, Jasper Johns, Mike Kelley, Elke Krystufek, Moshekwa Langa, Pippilotti Rist, Fatimah Tuggar, Francesca Woodman, among others for major contemporary art magazines (Artforum, Flash Art, Frieze, Parkett) and for exhibition catalogues at European and American museums (Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Roma; Fondation Cartier, Paris; Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf; Musee d'Art Contemporain, Bordeaux; Institute for Contemporary Art, London; Renaissance Society, Chicago). She has organized exhibitions of Francesca Woodman; Tony Oursler; The Drawings of Miriam Cahn, Marlene Dumas, Kiki Smith and Sue Williams; Ketty LaRocca; Kristin Lucas, among others, in Brussels, Geneva and Rome. A serious foodie since childhood, Elizabeth first studied German cooking in the kitchen of her Bavarian-born, Austrian-trained grandmother. In Swizerland she learned how to cook Swiss/French and northern Italian cuisine. In Rome she has studied Roman cookery at the Citta del Gusto (Gambero Rosso). She is also a regular at ‘Cucimondo’, an organization that brings together Romans with cooks from around the world (Nigeria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, China, Greece, etc.) to experience different cultures through the love of food.

Eric studied historical linguistics and ancient Indo-European languages Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, and Latin at Rice University and the University of Pennsylvania. He then spent his twenties traveling around Europe, seeing historical, beautiful and interesting places and things, and learning modern languages. He came to Rome in November 2004. After a year learning Italian and studying Latin with the great Vatican Latinist Reginald Foster, he enrolled in the graduate program at the Augustinianum, the pontifical institute for the study of the Church Fathers. He received his Licenza (equivalent to an M.A.) in February 2009 and is now pursuing a doctorate in medieval philosophy, science, and culture at the University of Salerno.

Philip Ditchfield has been working in Rome as a historical archaeologist for the last fourteen years. Trained as a byzantinist, he has excavated on numerous sites in England, Greece, Cyprus and Italy. During his doctorate at the Sorbonne, he specialized in the material culture of southern Italy during the Middle Ages. His nine hundred page encyclopedia, entitled Culture Matérielle Médiévale has been hailed as a classic in its field, bringing to light hundreds of previously unknown words and terms in medieval Latin and Greek that pertain to everyday household objects and paraphernalia.

Sarah holds a Masters degree in Italian Studies from the University of California at Berkeley and a PhD in History from the University of Sydney. The subject of her doctoral thesis was sport and gender in Fascist Italy. She has lived and studied in Rome, Pisa, Bologna and Macerata. She has broad interests in history, contemporary Italian culture and politics, and art. Sarah has settled permanently in Rome since returning to Italy in 2007 as a fellow at the British School at Rome.

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Linda first came to Rome as an
undergraduate to study fine arts and art history. To learn more about artistic techniques, Linda participated in art conservation
internships in Chicago, IL, and Lugano, Switzerland. Dreams of being an archaeologist led Linda to excavate at Pompeii, the Roman Forum, and Etruscan sites in Tuscany. She received an M.A. in Classical Roman Art and PhD in 16th and 17th century Italian art at USC in Los Angeles. While in Los Angeles, Linda also worked as a researcher and educator at the J. Paul Getty Museum. Her love of archaeology, Renaissance sculpture, and visiting the sacred sites of Rome inspired her PhD dissertation about physical forms of devotion shown towards objects in Roman churches, including the famous “Mouth of Truth,” at S. Maria in Cosmedin, Michelangelo’s Christ sculpture in S. Maria sopra Minerva, and the bronze S. Peter statue in S. Peter’s Basilica. Linda received fellowships to support her travels and research, including ones from the Dorot Foundation, the American Academy in Rome, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, and the American Association of University Women. She is currently continuing her research on St. Peter’s Basilica, collecting of antiquities, and the reception of Michelangelo. When not leading people through the museums and churches of Rome for Context, Linda also teaches for study abroad programs in Rome. In her free time, she enjoys exploring the countryside of Italy on the back of her husband’s motorcycle, combing the vintage markets for unusual beautiful things, colloborating with her artist husband, cooking Mexican food for her Italian and American ex-pat friends, and taking advantage of the great music scene found in Rome and other parts of Italy.

Carol received her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College and holds M.A. degrees in Italian literature from the University of Toronto, where she has taught, and in art history from Boston University. Her academic career has concentrated in the Italian Renaissance, and her studies have spanned from Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio to the Renaissance pastoral genre and decorative arts. She is currently pursuing post-graduate coursework in art history at Harvard University, and is examining the sacred and secular dimensions of the pastoral and its realizations in written and visual form. She is a visiting fellow at the Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies in Amherst, Mass, where she has given lectures and participated in conferences. Over the past three years she has also studied and worked in Florence, Italy, with the Lorenzo de'Medici School, participating in a variety of laboratory and fieldwork restoration projects throughout Tuscany. Through her affiliation with the Lorenzo de'Medici School's Restoration Department Carol has treated numerous paintings, frescoes, and gilded objects, and has worked on-site at locations such as Villa il Farneto in Vicchio and Santa Maria Castagnolo in Florence.

Francesca Barberini is an art historian with a degree in modern and contemporary art from the University of Rome, "La Sapienza". She specializes in the art and culture of the Baroque period, a subject on which she has published several essays. She is a licensed guide and leads itineraries all over Rome, a city she truly loves. She has worked for many Roman museums, such as Galleria Doria Pamphili, Galleria Colonna, Galleria Spada, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica in Palazzo Barberini and the Corsini Gallery.

Alexandra Massini is a native Roman who studied Art History at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, where she obtained her B.A. and M.A. degrees with double distinction. She has worked at Sotheby's Auctioneers in Rome (Old master paintings and drawings) and the Thyssen Museum in Madrid. More recently she has written for Blue Guides and published her own guidebook to Rome.
She has been invited as guest lecturer and study leader for various European and North American institutions such as the National Trust U.S., the Chrysler Museum of Art, and a number of international universities. Since 2005 she has been teaching for American study programs such as Rutgers and Vanderbilt Universities in Florence, CET in Siena, and Richmond University and CEA in Rome. Her fields of specialization include Roman Imperial Art, 14C art in Tuscany, Italian Renaissance Art, Michelangelo, the History of Sculpture, Baroque art in Rome.
She is fluent in five languages including German and Italian (bilingual from birth), English, Spanish and French. In Rome, where she lives, she collaborates with the Colonna and Doria Pamphilj galleries and, as a licensed guide, conducts specialized visits for various cultural institutions.

Gina Tringali recently obtained a Master's in food and wine history at the Universita' degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata while working for Context Travel Rome. Gina earned her MBA at NYU and worked in financial services in Boston, New York, and London before moving into the food and tourism industry. In 2006, she worked for the Craft family of restaurants in NYC in business development & marketing and spent some time in the kitchen before relocating to Rome in 2007.

Daniela del Balzo was born in Naples, but has lived in Rome for many years. She has a Master's degree in marketing from Cornell University. Daniela's Italian Cooking School was established in New York in 1980 in cooperation with the CIGA International hotel chain, when she was called to organize Italian business lunches and dinners for American travel agents, fashion stylists, and managers of the hotel chain.
She abandoned a successful twenty-year career in marketing with Alitalia Airlines to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a chef. She continued her studies at the renowned Italian Cooking School Gambero Rosso, the French Culinary Arts School & Le Cordon Bleu, and the International Cooking School of Naples. Daniela was recently featured in the Finnish Mondo magazine, in the travel guide, "100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go" by Susan Van Allen, and on the BBC special "Rhodes Across Italy", hosted by top British chef, Gary Rhodes.
DANIELA's Cooking School, is the brand name of her in-home catering and personal chef services. Being a chef has granted her the luxury of doing what she loves most: creating!

Numbered among the city's contagious enthusiasts, Valentina is also a native Roman who trained as a classical archaeologist at the University of Rome, "La Sapienza", before joining the University of Pennsylvania's graduate group of art & archaeology in the Mediterranean world. At present, she is conducting her doctoral research on the Capitolium, one of ancient Rome's most sacred and civically significant hills, which today exhibits Michelangelo's urban marvel. Valentina has written and published on a variety of topics spanning the ancient, early modern, and modern periods, including: papal designs to re-purpose the Baths of Diocletian, Etruscan forgeries from the nineteenth-century, Italian legislation on the protection of cultural patrimony, and Mussolini's imperial models for Fascist Rome. Valentina possesses years of experience engaging University of California students in the discovery of Italy's multi-layered past in Florence, Rome, and Pompeii.

James Barron, a private art dealer, writes for publications as diverse as Glamour, The Paris Review, and Garden Design.

Jose Grave de Peralta brings an unusual combination of theoretical knowledge and practice to his walks. A professional fine artist and graduate of St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, known for its unique Great Books curriculum in classical liberal arts and philosophy, Jose knows how to “read” the almost forgotten language of the Greek and Roman mythology embedded in the art and architecture of Rome. His studies of Plato's dialogue, TIMAEUS, for example, open up dimensions of Raphael's School of Athens fresco and of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes otherwise unsuspected by visitors to these two sites. In addition, his own native Cuban background and master's degree in Spanish literature from the University of Delaware in Newark give his walks a Latin American flair and sense of humor that can be most welcome elements. Jose also studied fresco painting, history, and restoration at the Spinelli Institute of Art and Art Restoration, in Florence, and has been teaching freehand drawing in Rome, ever since he came to the city in August 2008 with the graduate students of the University of Miami School of Architecture.

Alessandro Celani is an archaeologist and art historian. He studied Greek and Roman Archaeology with Mario Torelli and Filippo Coarelli. He has published his undergraduate dissertation on “Greek works of art in the age of Augustus,” as well as a number of articles on Greek and Roman art. An expert in cultures and civilizations of the Mediterranean, Alessandro has travelled from Morocco to Iran, participated in excavations programs in Southern Italy and Greece, and lived in Athens for a long period. He collaborated with travel magazines, published a guide book of the Greek Islands and is now publishing his PhD dissertation on Hellenistic Sculpture of Rome and Central Italy. A booklet of photos and short poems by him was recently published with the title “Diario mediterraneo” (Mediterranean Journal). He gives tours in Umbria, Rome and Italy, lectures for public and private associations, and leads archaeological travels to Greece, Turkey, Libia and North Africa. He teaches archaeology and art history in American and Canadian universities in Rome, Tuscany and Perugia. He has two children, Sofia and Dario, and recently opened a B&B in Umbria.

Andrew Kranis is a LEED-accredited architect who came to Rome as a Fellow of the American Academy. He has remained in Rome to teach architecture and to research ecology and urbanism, in support of sustainable design projects such as his "Green Piazza" proposal for Rome. He has a varied background in design and historic preservation, including masonry conservation of landmark buildings in New York City and retail design for Whole Foods Market. Earlier in his career he worked as a theater director and as design manager for Japanese dance troupes touring in North America and Europe. He holds a Masters in Architecture from Columbia University and a B.A. from Duke University.
He is a native of New York City.

A native of London, but originally Italian, Daniela holds an MA degree in art history from La Sapienza University in Rome, with a specialization in comparative art. After obtaining a second MA in museum management in the faculty of architecture at the same university, she has worked for many years as a curator for the Umberto Mastroianni Foundation, collaborating with various artists. A certified translator, who works often for art editors, and a licensed Rome guide, Daniela's work encompasses various fields of the art world. A lover of “the south” and of Ancient Roman and Baroque art, especially Sicilian, she also has a passion for cinema, music, and literature.

Livia Galante obtained a degree in Archaeology at the University of Rome, "La Sapienza" and has a Master's degree in the History and Conservation of Cultural Heritage from the University “Roma Tre”. Her main field of interest is Ancient Roman topography, as well as early Christian architecture. A Rome licensed guide and a native Roman, she is very enthusiastic in sharing the deep love and knowledge she has for the Eternal City with guests coming from abroad.

Roman by birth, Gastone is fascinated by all aspects of history and feels that walking around a city is our opportunity to bring that history to life. During the 1960's, Gastone studied architecture at La Sapienza University in Rome, and after moving to London in the '70s, trained as a Blue Badge Guide where he had the wonderful challenge of telling the story of London. Recently, Gastone has returned home to tell the story of Rome's past and enjoys giving insight into all that made Rome so great then, and so relevant now.

Janet Cavallero has lived between Rome and America while working on her dissertation for Columbia University on photography in Italy under Fascism. Before that, she did a stint as an editor for an arts
publication in Chicago, and before that, as a painter, she taught
painting and drawing in art schools and art departments in the Boston area. Her specialization in Modern Italy addresses the effects on Italians of living with history while defining themselves as “modern,” so she has become familiar with Rome's many pasts and their expression through art and architecture. She is now based in Rome where, among other things, she sings in a Gospel Choir.

Marialaura holds a Ph.D. in art history from the University of Naples and a master's in museology from the Ecole du Louvre in Paris. She is a native of Naples and speaks four languages fluently (Italian, English, French and German). Her specialty is 17th and 18th century art, but she is also an expert in the 19th century excavations of Pompeii and the archaeological museum of Naples. She divides her time between Paris and Naples.

Fiorella Squillante holds a laurea (Bachelor's degree) in modern languages and is a specialist in art history and Neapolitan culture and art.
She works with the main museums of Naples as a member of the educational section and as a representative of the main painting galleries of Naples for foreign visitors.
She is the president of the cultural association "Fine Arts", which organizes exhibitions, meetings and cultural events in Naples and Lazio, talks with artists and contemporary art galleries owners, private viewings and themed routes in Naples and Campania, cocktails and visits to stately homes and accommodation in historical b&b or luxurious villas.

Eleonora Baldwin is an American born, Italian raised food and wine enthusiast, home cook, freelance writer, prolific blogger and wanderlust addict.
Her graphic design studies at Rome's Istituto Europeo di Design led to a ten-year collaboration as art director in both Rome and Los Angeles. Eventually, her career organically evolved in the film business where she has since been employed as assistant director and script supervisor on international productions shot all over the globe.
Now Eleonora divides her time between food and travel writing and designing custom food holidays in Italy. She is the author/editor of four popular websites, where she reviews restaurants, provides a useful resource for parents traveling with kids in Rome, captures the Eternal City's essence in her photos, and writes about Italian cuisine. Her topics range from family recipes, to food history, gastronomic tradition, and how Italians forage, shop, cook, eat, praise and appreciate food.
Drawing on her local insight and gourmand expertise, Eleonora is also a contributor with several online publications; she hosts a wine column and a weekly segment on two popular web magazines; provided content for numerous Rome city guides, and has also appeared in worthy food and travel online platforms with numerous stories and interviews.
Eleonora lives in Rome with her 5 year-old son. She is currently editing her manuscript about authentic Italian cookery art and lifestyle, and systematically eating her way towards perfecting the ultimate homemade pizza bianca recipe.

Elisabetta is a native Roman with a PhD in Classical Archaeology. After obtaining her degree in Roman archaeology, she completed a Masters about Roman Provinces and an Italian-French Ph.D about the archaeology of sacred spaces and rituals in Eastern Greece during Greek and Roman times. Since 1995 she has taken part in archaeological excavations in Rome, South Italy, Sicily, Turkey and Greece. She has been awarded with German, French and British post-lauream and post-doctoral Research Fellowships, spending time in the different countries. For the past four years she has been a visiting professor at the University of Brittany and currently she is lecturer for American colleges in Rome and for an Italian university, where she teaches Masters and Monuments of Rome and Greek and Roman Archaeology and History of Art. She has authored several scientific papers, participated in international conferences, and has curated an exhibition in Rome. She is currently working toward the publication of her dissertation. Since 2001 she has worked on didactic projects and guiding in Rome and in the Middle East, where she worked as Archaeological Tour guide in Lybia, Syria, and Israel.

Brought up within sight of London's Roman walls, Agnes then strayed north of Hadrian's Wall to Edinburgh University. After graduating with an M.A. in Architectural History, with a specific focus on the Early Renaissance, she came to Rome drawn by warmer climes, ruins, and the prospect of a Vespa. Eleven years, and one Roman husband, later she's still here. As well as being a licenced guide for the City and Province of Rome, she contributes to numerous guide books, and every so often translates academic art historical and archeological papers from Italian to English.

Originally from Seattle, Washington, Emily first came to Rome on a study-abroad trip during her undergraduate studies in 2003. During this trip she was particularly overwhelmed by the magnificence of the ceiling frescoes in the Palazzo Barberini, and upon return to the University of Washington she decided to switch majors to art history. Since her initial visit to Rome she has done everything possible to return to the city that she now calls the love of her life. She is currently an art history graduate student at Rutgers University in New Jersey, writing her dissertation on the astronomical ceiling fresco in the Sala Bologna in the Vatican Palace, and contextualizing it within the broader framework of art and astronomy/astrology in Renaissance Italy. She has been researching and writing in Rome since October 2009, and while not working on her dissertation she can likely be found in Curva Sud at the Stadio Olimpico furiously supporting Italy’s best soccer team, AS Roma.

Kathryn holds a Master's Degree in social history with a focus on gastronomy. She enjoys sharing her knowledge of the city with its visitors. She is also a sommelier.

Iris Mueller is a native of Germany. She has lived extensively in the U.S., where she received her Ph.D. in history from Yale University. Back in Europe since 2002, she studied Latin at the Universita' Gregoriana in Rome and, in 2003, moved to the Naples/Salerno area. Besides leading itineraries, she is working on Medieval manuscripts at the Naples National Library.

Lauren Golden has been teaching on and off in Italy for 15 years before finally following her soul and moving to Rome. She holds an MA that explored Raphael as an architect and the significance of fantasia in the Renaissance and a PhD concerning the role of the imagination, human evolution and neuroscience developing the concept of 'Neuroarthistory'. She has taught and lectured at the University of East Anglia, the Norwich School of Art & Design, Mount Holyoke College (USA), has worked for the Getty Grant Programme and now teaches a summer program in Rome for Iowa State University. Originally having a passion for Renaissance Rome, its art and architecture and Papal patronage, she now feels that her love for the city has resulted in becoming a small walking encyclopedia with a particular ardour for Borromini. Her publications include Raphael and the Villa Farnesina and she was the editor for 'Raising the Eyebrow'. At present she is writing two books: one on Raphael and the other of her experiences in and knowledge of Rome.

Rebekah Junkermeier received her B.A. in early Christianity at Dartmouth College and her Master's in Early Christianity and New Testament Studies at Harvard Divinity School, specializing in early Christian and Roman archaeology. She has lived and taught in Turkey and has spent the past year on the James B. Reynolds Fellowship studying the catacombs and Roman history here in Rome.

Teresa came to Italy 10 years ago to connect with long lost Italian relatives, and has made Rome her new home. While she stayed to complete her Masters degree in Art History, she considers herself a student of everything beautiful that Italy has to offer. Her primary work has been in guided tours, translating her experiences as an American living abroad, and as a scholar of Italian art, to visitors of Rome and Vatican City. In addition to her work as a docent/guide, she has done extensive work in oral history and digital technology, using a digital database system to record oral histories. Her most recent project was involvement in an Italian book publication about the history of Italian women and women of the Catholic Church. She hopes to not only share her experiences with you, but that the experience is reciprocal. She would like to see Rome through your eyes and therefore reveal personal meaning to the many layers of Rome.

Ester Scoditti is an archaeologist and earned her degree from the University of Rome La Sapienza with a dissertation on the town of Medieval Cori, in southern Lazio. Her studies and work experience have always focused on classical and medieval topography.
Over the years she has been part of the faculty of John Cabot University in Rome where she has delivered lectures on the Monuments of Classical and Medieval Rome. For the past six years she has also taught at Tor vergata University in Rome as part of the Archaeology and Art History faculty. Her publications include articles on Medieval Cori published by the Papers of British Archaeology and various archaeological and church themes published by the magazines such as Roma Comune and Chiesa Oggi architettura e comunicazione.
She has participated in excavations in Italy, France and England with the Soprintendenza Archeologica di Aosta, Merton College at Oxford, the Museum of London and the British School of Rome. She wrote a guide to the Roman Forum for the research and educational department of the Soprintendenza Archeologica di Roma, for whom she has also conducted tours for schools, cultural associations and political representatives.

Pier Paolo Racioppi has a doctorate (Ph.D) in Art History from the University of Roma TRE. He also earned a higher degree in the History of Medieval and Modern Art at University “Sapienza”. Winner of the Accademia di San Luca scholarship in 1997, he conducted research in the United States on Academies and Collections in early Nineteenth Century America. Since 1998 he has collaborated with the ONG Museum With No Frontiers (editor of the Italian edition of the catalogues Islamic Art in the Mediterranean, and of the Italian section of the website Discover Islamic Art and Discover Baroque Art). Since 2003 he has taught art history at IES Study Abroad (Rome). He has published several articles in specialized art history journals, exhibition catalogues and in the Treccani Encyclopedia. His fields of specialization are museology, eighteenth century art and politics, history of art criticism.

Ismini Miliaresis is a PhD candidate at the University of Virginia in the Classical Art and Archaeology Program, and she is currently residing in Rome to complete her dissertation work. As both an archaeologist and a civil engineer, her studies focus on the heating systems of ancient Roman baths at Ostia. She grew up in Naples, but went to an American school, so she speaks both English and Italian fluently. Ismini has traveled extensively through large parts of the Roman Empire, and she is excited to share her knowledge with visitors of all ages.

Cesare Massimo has a Masters in the History of Art from the University of Cambridge, where he specialized in Renaissance, painting, sculpture and architecture in Rome as well as the way the Grand Tour shaped the imagination of the English gentleman. During a studentship at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection of modern art in Venice, Cesare developed an interest for giving in guided tours. As a member of one of Rome's oldest families, Cesare enjoys bringing the history and art of the city to life during his walking seminars.

After her degree in law at the Università degli studi of Rome, Daniela became a certified sommelier through AIS, one of most important international wine association and then continued her studies by with several wine master’s degrees in France. In 2006 and 2007 she worked for AIS as a commissioner during diploma exams. In 2008 she started to work as a writer and wine taster with Edizioni Estemporanee, an Italian wine publisher, and she began manage Comptoir de France (two French wine shops in Rome and Milan). In addition to her work with Context, Daniela is currently teaching the Wines of France for the Saint Louis de France Cultural Institute in Rome, leading wine tastings for a variety of organizations, and still working for Edizioni Estemporanee and managing the Comptoir de France society.

Originally from Springfield, MO, Jasmine discovered her passion for art history when she left home for college. A study abroad trip to Rome, Florence, and Venice solidified her love for Italy, and especially all things Rome. She moved to Colorado to obtain her Master's Degree, specializing in the Italian Baroque, and then moved to Philadelphia to pursue her Ph.D. at Temple University. Several years and brief visits later, Jasmine now lives in Rome to research and write her dissertation on the Roman Forum. Rather than focusing on antiquity, she is interested in the urban situation of the site in the seventeenth century and how the Church developed it as both a sacred and civic centerpiece of the Baroque city.

Roberta obtained a degree in Archaeology at the University of Suor Orsola Benincasa in Naples and specialized in Cultural Heritage Conservation at postgraduate level. She is a licensed guide for the Campania region and has been involved in Cultural Heritage accessibility and mobility programmes.

Erik Thaddeus Walters completed undergraduate and post-graduate degrees in the USA and Italy in Classics, Philosophy, and Theology including studies in Patristic Sciences, Archaeology, Art History, and the conservation and legislation of cultural patrimony. He earned his PhD at the Institut für Klassische Philologie, Mittel- und Neulatein of the University of Vienna (Austria) in 2010. In addition to over a dozen years of experience as a licensed guide of the ancient Roman necropolis beneath St. Peter's Basilica, he is currently adjunct assistant professor of Classics, History, and Religious Studies at John Cabot University in Rome. His most recent book publication is "Unitas" in Latin Antiquity: Four Centuries of Continuity (Peter Lang Verlag 2011). Current research interests include a re-examination of the 4th century CE transformation of the holy Pagan into the wholly Christian Roman Empire and the 15th century's re-emergence of the Roman Papacy and the Porcari Family's attempt to check papal economic and political domination.

Erica earned her Bachelor's of Art in History of Art from the University of Pennsylvania and participated in a Master’s painting program from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. Her professional career began with curatorial positions at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (Venice) and Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions-- with a stint as executive assistant for an A-list actor, giving her access to the proverbial front row in the world of fashion. In 2003, she began a full-time freelance writing career focusing on art, culture and fashion and traveling between Europe, South East Asia and USA. She is an editor and contributor to several online and print publications; has also appeared in several news stories and interviews as Rome expert. She is author of Insight Guide Rome Select and city editor for Luxe City Guide Rome since its first volume where she has been the tour de force for finding Rome's latest and contemporary fashion and cultural trends.