During our first visit to Venice, in 2017, we stumbled upon a large building covered in canvases next to the central station of the city. The building was open to the public, but we paid no attention to it, for the simple reason that it did not look very appealing.…
It is simply impossible to visit Venice and skip the Palazzo Ducale. The British popular historian John Julius Norwich, an authority on the history of the Serenissima, rightly called the Doge’s Palace “the greatest secular Gothic building in the world”.[1] The Gothic pointed arches of Istrian stone, the elegant colonnades…
Question: why do we find a statue of Saint Christopher with the young Christ on his shoulders above the entrance of the Madonna dell’Orto? Answer: because the church was initially dedicated to Saint Christopher. Not far from here travellers left for the islands in the lagoon, such as Murano, Burano…
There is hardly any travel guide that does not describe the charming little church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli as a jewel box. The building indeed has a splendid exterior made of polychrome marble, and in that respect somewhat resembles the basilica of San Marco. So the term “jewel box”…
The term Magna Graecia is used to indicate those regions in Southern Italy and on Sicily that were colonised by Greek migrants from the eighth century BCE onwards. The Greeks obviously did not stumble upon areas that were completely uninhabited. Everywhere they encountered other peoples, with whom they fought wars,…
The fact that the famous Alexander Mosaic was not visible to the public because of a much-needed restoration was, of course, a minor disappointment during my otherwise successful visit to the archaeological museum of Naples. Fortunately, this is certainly not the only mosaic in the museum. A mosaic that I…
The most beautiful frescoes of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (MANN) come from Herculaneum and Pompeii. The two towns were destroyed in 79 CE by an eruption of the Vesuvius, but the frescoes in the museum do not show any signs of this cataclysmic event that took place almost…
I still vividly remember my first visit to the archaeological museum of Naples. It was back in 1996 and I was still in high school. My class was enjoying the traditional trip to Rome, and excursions to Naples and Pompeii were also part of the programme. In those days the…
The Roman power station along the Via Ostiense was opened in 1912 and closed its doors in 1963. The station had been named after the economist and socialist politician Giovanni Montemartini (1867-1913), who had strongly advocated bringing public services into the hands of the municipality (municipalizzazione in Italian). After the…
In a previous post, I have already explained that the Palazzo Nuovo was designed by Michelangelo but only built in the second half of the seventeenth century by father Girolamo and son Carlo Rainaldi. The palazzo currently serves as the left wing of the Capitoline Museums. The entrance to the…
The Capitoline Hill, usually simply called “the Capitol”, has been inhabited for at least 3,500 years. According to the authoritative Atlas of Ancient Rome, a stable settlement came into existence here during the Middle Bronze Age, around 1600 BCE.[1] When in about 750 BCE this settlement was merged with the…
It is no exaggeration to state that the Colonna family have left their mark on the history of Rome. Cardinal Jacopo Colonna (ca. 1250-1318) left his traces in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, Oddone Colonna (1369-1431) was the only member of his family to reach the papacy, and Marcantonio…
During my walks in Brescia I had already passed by the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo more than once, but I had never actually visited the museum. A bit odd perhaps, as in previous posts I have frequently referred to works in the Pinacoteca. Beautiful paintings from various Brescian churches can nowadays…
By now I have visited the church of San Giovanni Evangelista in Brescia twice. I therefore feel an obligation towards my readers to write a post about it. The church is one of the oldest in Brescia, with a history that reportedly goes back to the days of Saint Gaudentius,…
Underrated. Very few visitors. Ignored by travel guides. This basically sums up the church of San Francesco in Brescia. I did not encounter any other visitors in the building and even the custodian had gone outside for a smoke. Meanwhile, I thoroughly enjoyed myself, as there is much interesting art…
Our trip by car to Arcevia was rather exciting. We trusted our navigation blindly, and it led us along the rockiest roads to this charming town, which is situated 535 metres above sea level. We even took a couple of roads we were not sure were roads at all, but…
We continued our tour of the ducal palace of Urbino and came to a number of rooms dedicated to late medieval painting. Here we find large polyptychs from churches in and around Urbino. Sometimes the names of the painters are known, for instance in the case of Giovanni Antonio Bellinzoni…
Several car parks have been created around Urbino’s historical centre. One of these is the Parcheggio Mercatale. When we visited the town, it was not possible to park in the square itself, because it was filled with stands for the annual Festival of the Duke (Festa del Duca). The parking…
The church of San Francesco can be seen very well from the church of San Bernardino outside the centre of Urbino. From the latter church one has a good view of the apse and bell-tower of the building (image below). San Francesco is obviously dedicated to Saint Franciscus of Assisi…
Our visit to the church of San Domenico started with a lot of confusion. We were not so much interested in the church itself, but rather in an adjacent chapel where one could reportedly admire a fresco by the painter Ottaviano Nelli (ca. 1375-1444). Having previously enjoyed his work in…