Ah, Caravaggio. Some have called him “Baroque’s Bad Boy”, but regardless of the nickname anyone gives this extraordinary painter, those words will forever fall flat when in the presence of his work. You will find numerous works by Caravaggio in Rome, but when you walk through a museum anywhere in the world, you can instantly [...]
Nearly every street, narrow alleyway or main thoroughfare in Rome, this city of the classics, offers delights for the palette, the intellect, or both. Over the years, I’ve written notes about Rome in my travel journal: places I did not want to forget, little surprising cafes or trattorias to eat in, a piece of art [...]
Roma Termini Station Hidden History When you step from the cavernous main hall at the Roma Termini station, you enter the Piazza dei Cinquecento. Visitors often head directly for the buses, taxis, and waiting private cars. Most miss the large museums across the Via Viminale, the busy boulevard that lines the northern side [...]
The palazzo blends in to the myriad pattern of such buildings in Rome. As you ride out of the Termini station in a bus or taxi, you would hardly notice it. However, you are missing a trove of ancient artifacts, frescoes and bronze; the only other close competitor to the collections is the Archaeological Museum [...]
Easter in Rome is one of the busiest times of the year. Interior, St. Peter's Basilica Keep in mind that if you are planning to be in Italy, in general, around Easter, that this is a very important holiday. Almost every museum, event venue and archaeological site is closed Good Friday through Easter [...]
Her name is, indeed, a 'tongue twister'; Artemisia Gentileschi. (1593 - 1656) An incredible exhibit featuring a large and rare collection of her work opened on November 30, 2016 at the Palazzo Braschi in Rome titled, "Artemisia Gentileschi and Her Times." Thirty masterpieces by this recently rediscovered female painter have been brought together for the [...]
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, an enfant terrible and genius of the later Renaissance, is the subject of this fascinating exhibit at the Borghese Gallery in Rome. The intent of this mostra is to better understand the work of Caravaggio in still life (natura morta) with "The Hartford Master", a supposed and mysterious young painter who [...]
It is a sad fact that many of the small independent bookstores in Italy have closed: Panton's and the Melting Pot in Milan are closed or are closing as I post this blog. The English Book Vaults in Catania has closed, as well. Larger stores, carrying more options, e-books and the ever dwindling number of [...]
Michelangelo Merisi; known as Caravaggio, the greatest of all! An adventurous life, a tragic end, an unmistakable, that marked a leap, a discontinuity in the world of painting; there was a painting before Caravaggio, and there was another after Caravaggio. For this reason too, to admire his work, it is worth coming to Rome. In [...]
Lying just a bit over 10 miles southeast of Rome's periferia, the suburbs of the city, Castel Gandolfo surmounts and surrounds the shores of Lake Albano.