We parked our car close to the hospital of Fano, at a free car park named Parcheggio ex Foro Boario. We had been tipped about this car park by a friend who had previously visited Fano, and especially the aforementioned hospital. For reasons that are quite understandable she did not…
We had limited expectations when we visited the small civic museum in Fano, but were nevertheless pleasantly surprised. The museum is housed in the Palazzo Malatestiano, a fifteenth-century mansion that is a curious mixture of styles. It bears the name of the family that ruled over Fano between the second…
The Duomo of Fano or cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta is intriguing rather than beautiful. My travel guide claims that the first version of the Duomo was built as early as the fourth century.[1] If this is correct, then this cathedral must have been destroyed during the Gothic War (535-554),…
The Roman origins of Fano have been preserved in the name of the town. Once Fano was called Fanum Fortunae. Fanum is the Latin word for a sanctuary, and this sanctuary was dedicated to Fortuna, the goddess of good and bad luck. The area around Fano had been inhabited since…
The archaeological museum of Cremona is housed in the former church of San Lorenzo. The history of that church goes back to the tenth century, but it was built over a cemetery that is much older and was already in use in pre-Christian times. In Cremona itself we find very…
The small but recently renovated Museo Diocesano of Cremona is located right next to the cathedral of the city. In a limited number of rooms visitors learn more about the history and spiritual life in the diocese. That history starts well before that of the current cathedral, as in the…
Last summer I climbed the campanile of the cathedral of Cremona for the second time, the mighty Torrazzo with its height of over 112 metres. Once I had reached the top, I struck up a conversation with an Italian man who was wondering whether he could see the river Po…
The archaeological museum of Milan is located directly next to the church of San Maurizio. Visitors enter in one of the cloisters, which is decorated with capitals and sarcophagi. They then go into a building dedicated to the history of Roman Milan. This is by far the most interesting section…
Many people had showed up at the church of San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore. They were not just tourists, but also volunteers from the Touring Club Italiano, who were there to provide visitors with information about the building and its artworks. They had a lot to tell, as San Maurizio…
Santa Maria Incoronata is perhaps the cutest little church in all of Milan. With its unique double façade, it invites the occasional passer-by to pop in and have a look around. The left part of the building is the oldest part and was once a church in its own right.…
San Marco is a very large church just a stone’s throw away from the famous Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan. The church is at least 95 metres deep, and the history of the building goes back to the thirteenth century. Traditionally there is a link between the church and the…
When we visited Milan for the first time in 2016, there was no metro connection yet between the Aeroporto di Milano-Linate and the city centre. Back then, the easiest way for us to get to and from the airport was taking a bus. The bus stop was near the Courts…
Fabriano’s paper and watermark museum is housed in the former monastery next to the fourteenth-century church of Santa Lucia (or San Domenico). We would have loved to have visited that church, as our travel guide promised gorgeous frescoes by the local painter Allegretto Nuzi (ca. 1315-1373). However, it also stated…
The enthusiastic volunteer in the cathedral of Fabriano was clearly happy that he had visitors from abroad in his building. He immediately embraced us and took us on a tour along the highlights of the Duomo. There were quite a few of those, or so our friendly guide believed. He…
The most famous painter from Fabriano is, of course, Gentile da Fabriano (ca. 1370-1427). Gentile’s talent and fame were so big that Pope Martinus V (1417-1431) summoned him to Rome to paint frescoes in the cathedral of San Giovanni in Laterano. In 1927, five hundred years after his death, he…
The principal reason to visit the small church of Santa Maria Maddalena first during our visit to Fabriano was the presence of a large and free car park in the vicinity. The Parcheggio del Torrione is an excellent spot to leave your car before starting a tour of this charming…
There was a lot of traffic on the road to Loreto, a small town some 20 kilometres south of Ancona. Here stands the Basilica of the Holy House of Mary, an important site for pilgrims. The infrastructure of the town was clearly created in an era when pilgrims still travelled…
In Antiquity, the charming town of Sant’Angelo in Vado was known as Tifernum Mataurense. The last part of the name referred to the position of the town along the river Metaurus (now the Metauro). Tifernum Mataurense became a municipium, a town associated with Rome, in the early first century BCE.…
It has been a while since I last discussed a bridge in a post. The last occasion was probably when I wrote about the Ponte degli Alpini, a famous wooden bridge across the river Brenta in the charming town of Bassano del Grappa. The post I am writing now is…
It proved to be quite a challenge to find a restaurant in Pavia that was open for lunch. It was August and many Italians were on vacation. Fortunately, a restaurant named Miscusi on the Piazza del Duomo gave us a warm welcome. While we sat outside in the shade and…