I meant to post yesterday, something informative and well-researchedabout the origins of Saint Valentine's Day, but the day got away from me, so that post will have to wait until next year. I did, however, write a Valentine's day post for the blog of the wonderful Beehive Hotel. Linda, the owner and a friend of mine, asked me to write a post about my experiences getting married in Italy, and you can find it here.
Read MoreToday is the first day of Carnival, and we all know the celebrations in Rome can't rival those Venice. In fact these days no one associates Carnival with Rome. But just a few hundred years ago (the blink of an eye in Rome-time), Rome was the place to be to celebrate this raucous, bacchanalian late-winter event.
Read MoreIf Rome can't get enough of Caravaggio, you certainly can't expect me to. In fact, there's a disgraceful lack of Caravaggio in the contents of this blog. I'm going to start remedying that right now. One of my favorite aspects of the Rome in the time of Caravaggio exhibit is that most of the works, instead of simply hanging on the wall at eye level, have been inserted into replica altars, with faux marble and porphyry, because almost all of them are part of altarpieces.
Read MoreThat last time it snowed in Rome, it was the first time in 24 years. That was less than two years ago. No one was expecting it again so soon, especially because, as they say, a Roma nevica ogni morte di papa ("in Rome it snows every death of a pope"--not really translatable. Similar to our "once in a blue moon"). Just like last time, I took about a zillion photos, so here are some highlights.
Read MoreOne of the best reasons to visit the Rome in the time of Caravaggio exhibit is the opportunity to study side by side two paintings of the same subject painted in the same city in the same year by two very different artists. The subject is the Madonna of Loreto. According to legend, the Holy House, where the holy family lived and Christ spent his childhood, was miraculously transported from Nazareth to Loreto, Italy in the 13th century.
Read MoreRome is obsessed with Caravaggio lately, and I, for one, can relate. I mean, how can you not love art history's favorite bad boy? The artist who dared to paint the world as he saw it and not as the church told him to? I have travelled to Naples, Sicily, Malta and further, just to track down Caravaggio paintings. One of my life’s goals is to see every work he ever painted.
Read MoreFor those of you that have been following this blog, you know by now that one of my personal obsessions is toponomastica (toponymy), the study of place names (one of the first words I ever learned in Italian before English!)So far I have discussed Via del Mascherone, Via del Piè di Marmo, Via del Babuino, Vicolo dell'Atleta, Piazza della Pigna, Via dell'Arco della Ciambella, and Vicolo della Spada d'Orlando.
Read MoreJust in case my recent post on the nefarious Borgias has whet your appetite for a little lust, violence and treachery, Italian Renaissance-style, check out this trailer for Season Two of Showtime's The Borgias. It is premiering this April for those of you in the states. If you are in Italy, you'll have to hold out at least a few more decades or, a much more practical solution, just buy the DVD set online
Read MoreThe most enjoyable thing about taking a long afternoon to visit the Renaissance in Rome exhibit, besides getting the chance to see so much amazing art in one place, was the sensation I kept getting that I was bumping into an old friend.
Read MoreMy last history post was about Rome's second king, Numa Pompilius and his calendar reform. Now, for those of you stifling a yawn, I'll have you know that little post has become one of this blog's top all-time most read posts, and number one by far in 2011. Numa was the most religious of Rome's seven kings, so it's no surprise that he was responsible for the institution of the order of the Vestal Virgins.
Read MoreIn my mind, there's nothing better then some fabulous art, especially when a bit of mystery and scandal are thrown in. That's why I was practically giddy yesterday to be able to see a long-lost work of art with a shocking past. Back in the 1490s, just around the time a pair of Spanish monarchs sent Christopher Columbus off in search of a new route to India, another famous Spaniard was stepping into the most important shoes in Christendom.
Read MoreIf you are in Rome and haven't yet had a chance to visit the wonderful exhibit at Palazzo Sciarra, I suggest you high-tail it over there soon, because in just a few weeks it will be over and the amazing works will be shipped back from whence they came. I try to post about each exhibit as it is beginning, but this one got lost in the shuffle, and I am just getting around to write about it now.
Read MoreAt the close of last year, Alex Ross, cultural writer for the world-famous magazine The New Yorker, announced what he believed to be the number one music event of 2011, not in New York, but in the entire world. And I was (kind of) there! Let me explain. Riccardo Muti, one of the greatest living Verdi conductors, recently signed on as director of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma.
Read MoreIt's funny how I can get on a roll with blogging, pounding out several posts in a week, and then all it takes is few days of laziness and procrastination and I haven't blogged in 3 weeks! I'll make this a short post, to get my feet wet again. Even though I went to two amazing exhibits this week and I am dying to share them with you!
Read MoreThe idea of fate fascinates me: that a thousand tiny decisions–even things that happen before you were born–conspire to lead you down one path in life instead of another. I started this story by describing the unexplainable pull I have always felt toward Italy, without which it’s virtually impossible that I would have met my maritino. Perhaps it’s more of a stretch to think that finding my great-great-grandmother’s wedding ring somehow had an influence on my destiny, but that is how it seems to me.
Read MoreThis past Tuesday night, our little parish in Trastevere, Santa Dorotea, staged a pretty impressive living Nativity Scene. I was expecting a couple of kids dressed as shepherds or angels draped with sheets à la The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. I was completely unprepared for a massive production that included over 50 children and dozens of adults, two choirs, a violinist, a spotlight, and numerous live animals.
Read MoreAs a baby, he was noticed to be cross-eyed, and so Giovanni Francesco Barbieri became know as il Guercino, "the squinter", a nickname that stuck until his death. Luckily, this supposed cross-eyedness did not affect his painting skills. Born in 1591 in Cento, a small town in Emilia-Romagna, Guercino's talent was recognized early, and he was sent to study in Bologna, before migrating to Rome, the center of the art world and the heart of the Baroque explosion.
Read MoreA few days ago, in part 1, I gave you the back story on how the unscrupulous art-addict Scipione Borghese was able to amass his immense collection in such a short time. Well, about 200 years after all this art extortion occurred, the still prosperous Borghese family was forced to pay back some of their karmic debt.
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