It’s finally Spring in Tuscany!

Book Review: Etruria Travel, History, and Itineraries (Mary Jane Cryan)

Mary Jane Cryan’s “Etruria – Travel, History, and Itineraries in Central Italy” is written with the deep knowledge of a scholar and the passion of someone who wasn’t born there. Aside from her knowledgeable itineraries in the area of the province of Viterbo, including a good guide to the tombs of Tarquinia, there are elements …

Perugia Teatro del Sogno review

Travellers to the Bel Paese often seem to wander the country in a food-and-art-induced dream-like state — and those who have chosen to live here are soon struck by the surreal bureaucracy — so Perugia’s new Teatro del Sogno: da Chagall a Fellini exhibit at the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria seems fitting in its theme of …

Concerts in Rome’s Centrale Montemartini

One of Rome’s most unusual museum spaces opens its doors to evening concerts and wine tastings. At Centrale Montemartini, Friday and Saturday night (from 8pm) through January 8 2011, concerts are followed by a visit to the wine bar courtesy of Enoteca Regionale Palatium. The concert series’ theme is “Movie Music”. It’s a suggestive way …

Cheese making in Pienza

One of my favourite bloggers who doesn’t have a blog yet has generously contributed this beautiful post and pictures about her experience making cheese on an organic farm in Tuscany. Emiko Davies is a fellow expat, writer and photographer.
Blessed are the Cheese Makers
In one of the most beautiful places you’ll ever come across, near Pienza …

China gets exhibit of “The Genres of Painting” from the Uffizi

Based on this news I’d say the Chinese LOVE Italian painting. The exhibit From the Collections of the Uffizi Gallery. The Genres of Painting: Landscape, Still Life & Portrait Paintings opens this week in Changsha at the Hunan Provincial Museum opens November 30th 2010. In Shanghai and Wuhan the traveling show drew 850.000 visitors. Some …

Syracuse University in Florence Symposium #24: Renaissance Gardens

In December 1999 I presented my masters thesis at Syracuse University in Florence‘s Villa Rossa. And every year since then I have tried to attend the annual symposium that showcases the graduate students’ work. The 2010 crop struts its stuff this coming Friday December 3d from 3:30 pm onwards and it’s open to the public …

Rome meets Teotihuacan, the city of the gods

News from my friend Valeria Lenuzza who is involved in the museum education section of this exhibit about Mexico held in Rome.
A wonderful exhibition entirely dedicated to Teotihuacan, the first great empire in the pre-Columbian America, opened at the beginning of November in the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome. It is organized by the Instituto …

Live English-language theater in Florence

Performance International brings the “Talking Heads” series of monologues by Alan Bennett back to the Lochness Lounge (Via de’Benci, 19r) through November and December. Performances are in English and also include an aperitivo; the cost is 8 euros.

Aaron Craig will begin the series with “A Chip in the Sugar” on Monday, …

Arte.it Italian art search engine

Yesterday I was at the launch of Arte.it, the first semantic search engine dedicated to a very important theme (to me at least): Italian art. The product, launched by Rome-based internet editor Nexta, was presented in a morning’s conference session that they sponsored in the context of Florens 2010 (my review of that coming soon).
Arte.it …

Trenitalia + art? Padova “From Canova to Modigliani” discount

This just in via the trenitalia card-holders’ newsletter . Trenitalia is offering a deal on trains to Padova (part of the Promo Autunno, looks like you can get there from Florence for 19 euros!), and that also comes with a discounted entry to the exhibit “Da Canova a Modigliani: il volto dell’Ottocento” at Palazzo …

De Gustibus aperitivo with local food and wine

De Gustibus and the restaurant Il Boia on via dell’Oriuolo announce AperiGustibus, an aperitivo cycle that includes food from De Gustibus’s associated farmhouses.
Every Tuesday and Thursday, from 6.30 until 11.30 p.m., you may taste wine by the glass or bottle, and you’ll get a cutting board loaded with cheese and/or sliced cold meats of high …

The Chapel of Saint Zeno at Santa Prassede: mosaic revival and survival

I’m very lucky to host this guest post from Agnes Crawford, an architectural historian who offers intelligent tours of Rome (my words – not hers!). I remember being dazzled by the mosaics at Santa Prassede exactly 6 years ago when I spent a month in Rome and started this website; had I had Agnes by …