Padua is a beautiful medieval city and an easy day trip from Venice. It also has two UNESCO World Heritage Sites: its Botanic Garden and its medieval frescoes. Why are Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles so important, and where can you see them? What Are The Padua Fresco Cycles? The UNESCO site known as Padua’s Fourteenth-Century …
UNESCO World Heritage Of Padua’s Fourteenth-Century Fresco Cycles Read More »
Italy is well known for its frescoes, but I’ve never seen so many in one place as in Trento, in the far north of the country. The pictures are everywhere, clinging to the sides of buildings like a kind of Renaissance street art. They are inside the buildings, too, most notably in the magnificent Castello …
I don’t like crowds. Or queues. A few years ago, I looked at the line of people outside the Vatican Museums and decided to forget about the artworks and walk around the walls instead. But I was determined that I was going to get to the Vatican Galleries and Sistine Chapel one day. So I was …
Crowd-Free At The Vatican Museums – With A LivItaly Tour Read More »
Rome is full of art treasures. Grand buildings from every stage of history, churches full of statues and other artworks, and much, much more. So it would be easy to miss the Villa Farnesina. I discovered it by chance, passing it on an early morning walk through the Trastevere area of the city. It was …
The Renaissance Art Of The Villa Farnesina, Rome Read More »
The Byzantine mosaics of Ravenna, in northern Italy, are a major tourist attraction. Spread across eight buildings from the early Christian period, these magnificent artworks are now part of one of Emilia-Romagna’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Early Christianity In Ravenna Ravenna played a crucial part in western civilisation during the 5th and 6th centuries, first …