Pienza – the City of Pius. This pleasant city, situated in Val D'Orcia's heart (near Siena, in Tuscany), is considered to be the incarnation of a Renaissance utopia and an ideal city. Having obtained recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996, today it continues to show off to the world its refined and sophisticated Renaissance urban plan....
READ MOREAosta has earned the nickname “little Rome of the Alps” due to the extraordinary wealth of its archaeological sites from Roman times that can be visited like an open-air museum. Conquered by Rome in the days of Augustus, the city was renamed Augusta Praetoria and was enriched with important monuments due to its strategic position on the Roman Via d...
READ MOREA treasure chest of history and beauty in Friuli Venezia Giulia, it lies in the Province of Udine. Traces of the magnificent Roman Empire rest here in Aquileia - a bulwark against the Barbarian Invasions, launching point for expeditions and military conquests, and large commercial hub. Given that it was the fourth-largest city on the Peninsula for...
READ MOREAs the name says, a "house museum" is a habitation or palazzo that has been transformed into a museum. It could have been the abode of illustrious gentlemen, or of common citizens, site of familiar intimacy or a center of power: that which renders a house museum exceptional is its capacity to re-enact or represent the life that was, the traditions...
READ MORETeramo, a splendid town in the Region of Abruzzo, is an ideal destination for nature lovers, given its setting: the Gran Sasso Mountain Range and the Laga Chain on one side, the Adriatic Coast on the other. Located in a basin at the intersection of the Tordino River and the Vezzola Tributary: essentially the site of the ancient Roman Colony, Intera...
READ MOREThe Rhaetian Railway is a mountain railroad network whose lines connect Italy to Switzerland, via a long labyrinth of wide valleys and mountain passes. Added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2008, the part of the Rhaetian Railway running through Albula and Bernina is not like any other: its tracks, completed at the beginning of the 1900s, had a...
READ MOREThe splendid Isle of Capri rises from the Tyrrhenian Sea and greets the Sorrentine Peninsula. Having become famous with the discovery of its Blue Grotto or Grotta Azzurra in 1826, Capri is a place of legend that continues to be a main destination for travelers, stars and intellectuals. Among the first to be captivated by it was the Roman Emperor T...
READ MOREThe city of Padua is inextricably linked to the figure of St. Anthony, a Franciscan friar of the thirteenth century, venerated all over the world and patron of the city itself. Strenuous defender of Catholic doctrine, he fought the Cathar heresy, especially in France, with great energy and considerable success. He moved to Padua, where he died aged...
READ MOREThe Borghese Gallery in Rome is perhaps the most fascinating museum in Italy. It is housed in a villa built in the 1600s, the interior stuccoes of which make for the ideal setting of such an exceptional collection of world-famous masterpieces. Along with bas-reliefs and ancient mosaics of astounding quality, the Gallery – commissioned by Cardinal...
READ MOREFirst a Greek and Roman city, then a capital of the Arab world, and later conquered by both the Normans and the Swabians – this is Palermo, a place where preciosities left by the Arab and Norman rules coexist along with the Baroque and Art Nouveau styles of the buildings and monuments, the city streets and markets, gardens and theatres. The influen...
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