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Michelangelo’s Secret Room Expected to Open This Year
Published on Tuesday, March 24, 2020 by The secret room in Florence where Michelangelo spent three months in hiding is expected to open to the public later in 2020. In the summer of 1530, the Renaissance master artist disappeared without a trace, camping out in an underground chamber beneath the Medici chapels in the Basilica of San Lorenzo. He was hiding from the Medici, who had themselves just returned fr...
5,000-Year-Old Sword Discovered in Venice
Published on Friday, March 20, 2020 by An archaeology graduate student at Venice’s University Ca’ Foscari found a rare 5,000-year-old sword made of copper and tin, common materials used prior to the Bronze Age. The PhD student, Vittoria Dall’Armellina, found the sword in a monastery on San Lazzaro degli Armeni, an island in the Venetian lagoon. Prior to Dall’Armellina’s discovery, the sword, disp...
Ancient Tomb and Temple Found in the Roman Forum
Published on Friday, March 13, 2020 by A hypogeum (an underground temple) and tomb were found in the Roman Forum last month, dating back to the 6th century B.C. A sarcophagus that was found in the tomb was made of tufa rock, the same material with which Rome’s Capitol building was built. "This is an extraordinary discovery," Alfonsina Russo, the director of the Colosseum Archaeological Park, told ANSA...
Palatine Hill Produces Its Own Honey and Olive Oil
Published on Sunday, March 1, 2020 by Rome’s Palatine Hill is now producing honey and olive oil from ingredients grown on its grounds. Italy owes its culinary brilliance to fresh, local products – and it doesn’t get more local than this. Parco Colosseo, the archaeological park comprising Palatine Hill, the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, is conducting a pilot project to produce the organic wildflo...
Sicily Sites Among Italy’s Most Visited in 2019
Published on Wednesday, February 19, 2020 by Seven sites in Sicily are among the 37 most-visited locations in Italy in 2019, according to a recently released report by Sicily’s cultural department. The seven sites are: Siracusa; the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento; the Ancient Theater in Taormina; Villa del Casale in Piazza Armerina; the Benedectine cloister in the abbey in Monreale; and the Greek ruins in ...
Borghese Gallery Starts Crowdfunding Campaign to Buy Bernini Sculpture
Published on Thursday, January 30, 2020 by Rome’s Borghese Gallery has started a crowdfunding campaign to raise about $8 million to buy a bronze sculpture by Bernini. The bust is of Pope Urban VIII, who commissioned many works from Bernini and was the Baroque artist’s most important customer. Now, Anna Coliva, the director of the Borghese Gallery, wants to purchase the bust from its current owners, the des...
Rome’s MAXXI Museum Named Best Italian Museum
Published on Sunday, January 26, 2020 by Italian art newspaper Artribune has named Rome’s MAXXI museum the Best Museum in Italy for 2019. MAXXI, a museum of modern art, stands for Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo. MAXXI, which opened in 2010, showcases contemporary art by Italian and foreign artists. The institution comprises two museums: a museum of art, and a museum of architecture. Its build...
Oldest Known Drawing of Venice Found
Published on Wednesday, January 22, 2020 by A researcher at Scotland’s University of St. Andrews has found the oldest known city drawing of Venice, a sketch from the 14th century. The scholar, Dr. Sandra Toffolo, specializes in Venetian Renaissance history and was conducting research at the National Central Library of Florence when she stumbled upon the drawing in May 2019. The drawing is by Niccolò da Po...
Trentino Ski Resort Is the First in Europe to Be Plastic Free
Published on Saturday, January 18, 2020 by Pejo 3000, a ski resort in the Dolomites, is taking steps to become the first plastic-free ski resort in Europe by discontinuing items that produce large amounts of microplastics. From the start of this season in December, the resort has banned plastic bags, bottles, utensils, straws, cups, dishes and condiment packets. Pejo 3000 hosted 137,000 skiers last year on ...
Rome to Pave Many Cobblestoned Streets
Published on Tuesday, January 14, 2020 by Many of Rome’s cobblestoned streets will soon be revamped and paved with asphalt to make the roads more friendly to drivers. On 68 streets in the historic center, cobblestones will be removed and relocated to 113 pedestrian streets. Work to remove the sampietrini, as the basalt cobblestones are called, will begin this month with Via IV Novembre, followed b...