Rome Webcam - La Notte Bianca Festival 2010

The city of Rome will be open for 24 hours tonight as the traders and residents of the city stay up all night for the 2010 celebration of the arts and culture festival La Notta Bianca.

This live webcam is in Rome throughout the White Night:

Rome webcam

Event Background:

The original festival is the White Nights Festival held in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The white nights is the a name given in areas of high latitude to the weeks around the summer solstice in June during which sunsets are late, sunrises are early and darkness is never complete. In Saint Petersburg, the Sun does not set until after 10 p.m., and the twilight lasts almost all night.

In 2005, Rome's Notte Bianca was held in mid-September, and the guest star was Roberto Benigni. There were similar initiatives in other cities as well. In Naples it first took place at the end of October 2005 with numerous concerts (Baglioni, Pino Daniele, 99 Posse, Almamegretta, Stadio) and theatrical and cultural events. The attendance was twice the population of Naples itself. Other Italian Notte Bianche took place in Genoa, Turin, Reggio Calabria, and Catanzaro.

Undersecretary Francesco Giro Cultural Heritage has launched an idea that probably will report a lost tradition came with the advent of Alemanno, or the White Night. In fact today the Tour said: "Now big plans for the capital Rome. Including, stresses the Secretary, another white night between 19 and 20 September to celebrate the 140 or birthday of Rome Capital.

Vatican City Webcam, Rome, Italy

St Peter's Square in Vatican City

Saint Peter's Square (Italian: Piazza San Pietro) is located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the papal enclave within Rome. The open space which lies before the basilica was redesigned by Gian Lorenzo Bernini from 1656 to 1667, under the direction of Pope Alexander VII, as an appropriate forecourt, designed "so that the greatest number of people could see the Pope give his blessing, either from the middle of the façade of the church or from a window in the Vatican Palace" (Norwich 1975 p 175). Bernini had been working on the interior of St. Peter's for decades; now he gave order to the space with his renowned colonnades, using the Tuscan form of Doric, the simplest order in the classical vocabulary, not to compete with the palace-like façade by Carlo Maderno, but he employed it on an unprecedented colossal scale to suit the space and evoke emotions of awe.