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Recently I stood on a windswept hilltop overlooking Urbino, took a picture, and texted my husband. From five thousand miles away, he texted back: “Is that a painting?”“It is a painting,” I typed. “Well, it became one.” Actually, the dramatic landscape around Urbino has appeared in many paintings. There is something about Urbino itself—with its undu...

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Glitz. Glamour. Bling. No matter the era, the lifestyles of the rich and famous are fascinating to those of us with a voyeuristic streak. During the Renaissance, Italy was rife with opulent homes filled with priceless art collections and owners who wanted to show them off. After the Middle Ages came an economic boom and a new reverence for classica...

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Statua del Lisippo, via alla petizione e alla raccolta firme per riaverlo. A dicembre la Cassazione ha rigettato anche l’ultimo ricorso del Getty Museum. Dunque via libera alla rogatoria internazionale per riavere la statua greca in Italia. Resta valido il provvedimento del giudice Gasparini che ordina la confisca «della statua denominata L’Atleta...

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Italy has often been described as a cultural superpower and for good reason—it has more Unesco World Heritage Sites than any other country, and is home to the Uffizi Galleries and Vatican Museums, repositories of some of the world’s most spectacular art. But it has many lesser-known, exceptional museums, where you can can take in a broad range of m...

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Villa Caprile, situated on the hills of Pesaro (Marche), dates back to 1640: it was built by the Marquis Giovanni Mosca, for recreation and rest outside the city; in fact, he had water games designed to take visitors by surprise, with sudden splashes and jets. Subsequently, the Marquis Carlo Mosca Barzi and his son Francesco made other changes, inc...

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We’ve been hearing about how Italy’s famous landmarks have been suffering under the strain of overtourism lately. As well as crowds being a nightmare for residents, it doesn’t exactly make for the most enjoyable travel experience for visitors either. After all, it’s hard to enjoy the view when you’re being poked in the eye by someone’s selfie stick...

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The Rossini Opera Festival has chosen to present “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” in a production by Pier Luigi Pizzi as its third major offering this August. Considering that this opera has appeared all over the world in the first half of this year (as reported by Rossini150 social media), it may at first seem a strange choice. Can there be such a thing...

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