Overlooking the Strait of Messina, Scilla is a holiday haven, with a terrible story to tell… Now, don’t let it go spoiling your holiday, because this story isn’t true, but when Odysseus sailed through the Strait of Messina he faced a twin threat: on this side of the water, the Scylla, a sea monster who […]
Isabella d’Este was the Marchesa of Mantua and the first lady of the Renaissance. Jane Keightley goes to Mantua to find out more about Isabella d’Este and the Gonzaga family she married into, to explore the Palazzo Ducale where she lived, and see the city she knew. The letter quoted below fair representation of Isabella’s character, […]
The room was found in 1975 by then museum director Paolo Dal Poggetto and colleagues while looking for a new way for tourists to exit, National Geographic reports After the initial discovery of the room, which was filled with coal, experts undertook the careful job of removing layers of plaster from the walls to reveal […]
His pioneering achievements in the field of astronomy laid the basis for the wonderful discoveries we are making about the universe today… Jupiter, we now know, has many moons. Several dozen at least. Probably many more. How many there are exactly is anybody’s guess – it depends what you mean by ‘moon’ and (more importantly) […]
The marble sculptures on Rome’s altar of absolute peace attract visitors because of their beauty, but their origins lie in celebrating the victories of Emperor Augustus… The Ara Pacis Augustae, or altar to the absolute peace, was commissioned by the Roman Senate in 13BC, and in 9BC was dedicated to the peace established by Emperor […]
Dive in to Sicily’s historic and picturesque Ionian Coast, today we visit Syracuse, an area featuring some fantastic ruins and beautiful lanes My final stop involved travelling south once again, to Sicily’s third city, Syracuse. Founded on the island of Ortigia in 734 BC by the Greeks, this UNESCO World Heritage Site is a shining Baroque […]
If you visit Ascoli Piceno in the heart of Le Marche you’ll find a wealth of incredible religious artworks by a Renaissance artist who fell in love with the region This detail of San Giorgio is part of the stunning polyptych found in the Holy Sacrament Chapel in the cathedral in Ascoli Piceno. The art is the […]
Join us to celebrate the delights of a visit to this historic Umbrian city and its surrounding hill-towns Umbria has already been nominated as the next Tuscany, the region on its northern border. However, Umbria is a big place and the overflow of visitors from Tuscany hasn’t yet spoiled this peaceful, rustic region where the […]
Mario Matassa visits Volterra, a medieval hilltop town in Tuscany, where he discovers the alabaster caves and workshops for which the area is famous The chalky white alabaster from Volterra is considered the finest in Europe because of its characteristic compactness, transparency, veining, softness and smoothness. Although the etymology of the word remains disputed, the […]
Patricia Cleveland-Peck investigates the restoration that has transformed Palazzo Papadopoli into the Aman Canal Grande Hotel in Venice… It really all comes down to the writer Andrea di Robilant: if he hadn’t written the book A Venetian Affair, which tells the story of a doomed love between a Venetian nobleman and an English girl in […]