The official name is the Scalinata di Trinità dei Monti but we know them as the Spanish Steps, for the embassy once located here… After our visit to the Vatican Museums last month, we thought it unlikely that you would want to go straight to the Galleria Borghese (where we will be going next month), […]
The Vatican Museums are by far the most visited art galleries in Italy. And so they should be. There are more than 20,000 items on display at any one time – and sometimes it feels as if there are just as many people seeing them. The Museums house the collections of five centuries’ worth of […]
“Go and catch a falling star, get with child a mandrake root…”. This begins John Donne’s poem, and another writer created another literary work a century before, that dealt with a virtuous woman, and with the magical mandrake plant. So begins John Donne’s Song, a poem that was probably written early in the 17th century. The poem lists […]
Acclaimed author Emylia Hall set her novel, The Thousand Lights Hotel, on Elba. She tells us about the favourite places and characteristics of the island that inspired her. Elba, the largest of the islands in the Tuscan Archipelago, is a place that defies expectation. Once a mining centre, it was repurposed in the 1950s as […]
From shipwrecked sailors in Norway to the tables of Vicenza, Julie Carbonara tells the extraordinary tale of baccalà all vicentina. My mother was a good, plain home cook but fish was not her strong point, which is why Fridays were not my favourite days. You see, in the deeply religious, Catholic Italy of my youth, you were […]
Neapolitans have always lived in the knowledge that the volcano that makes their land so fertile is also capable of untold destruction. Tom Alberto Bull went up to take a closer look… Naples volcanic energy When we think of Naples we immediately think about Vesuvius towering ominously over the city, offering both rich, fertile land […]
Alan Reed and his wife Susan run painting holidays in Italy. This is a beautiful and unique way to explore everything that the country has to offer. Here he tells us all about his journey. It was my wife Susan who first introduced me to Italy. She had lived in Venice for five years and […]
Indeed, Rome was not built in a day… Work on St Peter’s began in 1506, but the church wasn’t ready to be consecrated until 1626… Like many other buildings in Rome, St Peter’s uses stone recycled from the Colosseum. As is usually the case when a building takes longer to finish that one might have […]
The name of Monza is known to motor racing enthusiasts around the world, but Rachael Martin finds that there is more to the city than its famous race track… Mention the word Monza and most people immediately think of the city’s motor racing track. And, of course, they wouldn’t be wrong. Designed by architect Alfredo Rosselli and […]
Venice celebrated its world-famous Murano glassmaking heritage in an exciting programme of citywide events this September. Sitting in its own sea of glass, the city of Venice and its islands has long held a tradition of glassmaking. Thanks to its strategic geographical location, the Republic of Venice was a cultural and political hub for travellers […]