The charming town of Lizzano in Belvedere is mostly known for the Corno alle Scale regional park. The park has been a ski resort for many decades, but climate change raises the question of how long it will remain so (the owner of our agriturismo openly doubted its future). However,…
We do not know when exactly the first church was built on this spot. This may have been as early as the twelfth century, but we do not have any certainty. What is certain is that there was a church here in the sixteenth century, which in 1585 was granted…
The history of the small church of Santa Maria ai Monti is closely connected to a medieval Marian icon that is said to perform miracles. The icon had been painted as a fresco on the wall of a convent of Poor Clares. When these Poor Clares moved out in 1308,…
The church of Santa Maria in Via is not a building that you visit for art with a capital A. It is a church where you hop in because it has a special history. The first church on this spot was built at an unspecified moment before the year 1000.…
The overenthusiastic employee of the Castel Nuovo explained to me in exaggerated English that there were two options to visit this Neapolitan castle. One was to buy a regular ticket for six euros which would allow me to wander through part of the complex on my own. A much better…
The Duomo of Naples or cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta is a complex building, or perhaps rather a building complex. This complex consists of the early Christian church and former cathedral of Santa Restituta, the adjacent baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte, the medieval cathedral itself and lastly the seventeenth-century…
In the summer of 2024, the big church of San Lorenzo Maggiore was covered in scaffolds. Judging by the images that I found on Google Street View, these scaffolds have been there for years and restoration work seems to progress just slowly. Sadly the orange façade designed by Ferdinando Sanfelice…
The Piazza Gesù Nuovo is a good spot to admire the church of Santa Chiara and its freestanding bell-tower. Naples is a densely built city, the whole complex of Santa Chiara is walled and the aforementioned square is one of the very few places that offers a relatively uninhibited view.…
The immense church of San Domenico Maggiore can be counted among the most interesting religious buildings in Naples. What is special about the church is that it basically has its main entrance at the back. Most visitors enter the building by taking the stairs on the lively Piazza San Domenico…
Sant’Eligio Maggiore is the first church in Naples built in the city by the new Angevin dynasty. Founder of that dynasty was Charles of Anjou (ca. 1226-1285), the younger brother of the French king Louis IX. In 1266 Charles defeated King Manfred of Sicily – Naples was part of the…
The area in Naples where we find the church of Santa Maria del Carmine is bristling with history. The church adjoins the Piazza del Carmine, which is in fact an extension of the larger Piazza del Mercato. As the name of the latter square indicates, it was used for markets,…
The beautiful church of Sant’Angelo a Nilo is dedicated to Saint Michael the Archangel. The “a Nilo” part of the name refers to a reclining statue of the river god Nile that is said to have been made in Antiquity for Egyptian merchants from Alexandria. The statue was rediscovered in…
Florence has a number of very good smaller museums that have originated from private collections. I have previously discussed the Museo Horne, where we can admire the collection of the Englishman Herbert Percy Horne (1864-1916). Another post was about the collection of Salvatore Romano (1875-1955), which can be found in…
I cannot recall having previously discussed a restaurant on this website. But then again Fishing Lab in the Via del Proconsolo in Florence, right next to the Bargello, is not just any restaurant. Yes, the quality of the food you get there is excellent, but it was the unique ambiance…
Many years ago I bought a beautifully illustrated biography of the Florentine painter Giotto (ca. 1266-1337), written by Francesca Flores d’Arcais. The author dedicated just a few lines to the heavily damaged fourteenth-century frescoes in a chapel of the Bargello in Florence. Since their rediscovery in 1840 there has been…
In the year 1250 the city of Florence created the office of Capitano del Popolo. The Capitano was a kind of popular tribune who guarded the interests of the people. In 1255 a public palazzo was built for him, the first of its kind in Florence. The architect was Lapo…
Our trip to Cesenatico was, in many respects, a trip down memory lane. As a seventeen-year-old my better half had spent a vacation with the girls there and she was curious how much of the town she would still recognise. Unfortunately the drive from Ravenna – where we had our…
From our hotel in Piacenza it was a 35-minute drive to the picturesque town of Castell’Arquato. The town was highly praised in our travel guide because of its beauty and panoramic views, and once we had arrived, we concluded that every word in the guide was true. Those who want…
My two visits to the Palazzo Pretorio in Prato both got off to a rather bad start. In the summer of 2020 my better half and I arrived just too late to visit the museum. All we could do was have a little conversation with a friendly employee of the…
The Basilica della Santissima Annunziata is the church of the Servites in Florence. This Order of Servants of Mary was founded in 1233 by seven Florentines who had simultaneously experienced a vision of the Virgin Mary. The church adjoins the beautiful Piazza della Santissima Annunziata, where we also find the…