Who am I? Arttrav.com is written by an art historian with a Ph.D. in Italian Renaissance Art. This website was inaugurated in October 2004, and started with five pages about Rome.

What makes arttrav different is that this is ALL ORIGINAL CONTENT. I wrote this, and in just about all cases, I researched it, thought about it, went there, and photographed it.

I’ve conceived of arttrav as the guidebook I cannot find. There are some excellent guidebooks out there (I favour the Italian TCI guides myself), but information is not always ordered the way I’d want it. The web allows for a freer structure. Usually, there are just facts about dates and artists, but no interpretation, investigation, or comparison with other works of art or locations. Not all guidebooks have photos, and those that do are often not so heavy on the intellectual information - but sometimes you need to see a photo to know if you want to go there. Art history textbooks have photos and great text, but lack practical information that the traveler needs. So, I’ve combined basic factual information about things to see in and around Florence (including opening hours and directions) with photos and university-level analysis.

The summer 2008 move to a wordpress blog format is intended to make material more easily accessible, not only on your screen at home, but also on your iphone or ipod touch. Now you can preview material at home, and consult it on your i-thing when you travel - including listening to the podcasts on location. And all this is FREE! Isn’t that nice?!

Just in case you are wondering, I do not give tours, but recommend Context Travel for their excellent, high-level docents. I do like getting email, especially with compliments, but also with questions, so feel free to write me.

Arttrav is not responsible for errors in the information provided.
The material on this site is copyright 2008 and can only be reproduced with explicit permission. Please do not copy me. It’s just not fair.