Archive for 'Central Italy'

Though you'll never be stuck for something to see or do in Rome, sometimes one becomes tired of museums and churches but if you're visiting the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, an oddity outside the doors will provide a little bit of fun and light relief. Dating to around the 1st century AD, the Bocca della Verità, or Mouth of Truth, is a tall stone disc with a humanoid face carved into its surface. With hollow holes for eyes and a gaping mouth, it is a somewhat alarming looking object. The original purpose is of the large medallion is uncertain but theories of all sorts of uses have flown around for centuries: everything from a ceremonial well cover, to a piece of fountain decoration, to a manhole cover.

Located on the upscale Via Veneto in Rome, Santa Maria della Concezione is dedicated to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. It was built in 1626 by Cardinal Antonio Barberini, the younger brother of Pope Urban VIII, who was a Capuchin friar. Antonio Casoni and another Capuchin Friar, Michele da Bergamo, were the architects and they built a beautiful but simple church. The real interest in this site, however, is what lies below. When the Capuchins moved from their location at the Quirinal to the Via Veneto site, they brought the bones of around 4000 friars and placed them in a cemetery under the church, arranged in patterns on the walls and ceilings. The result is eerie and very unusual. Find a holiday rental in Rome and see it yourself.

Pienza is a small village in the Val d'Orcia in southern Tuscany. Set high atop a hill, overlooking the Orcia Valley, it has extraordinary views. The village is often known as the "ideal Renaissance city” and is the creation of the great humanist Enea Silvio Piccolomini, who later became Pope Pius II. Piccolomini used his money and influence to transform his birthplace of Corsignano, into his idea of a Utopian city. This is what eventually would come to be known as Pienza. Based on classical ideas of geometry and elegance, it is comprised of beautiful buildings and harmonious street plans.

Michelangelo is one of the most famous artists in the western world, as has been the case since early on his career and will probably always be true. Born in the fifteenth century, he was a Florentine sculptor, painter, poet, architect and engineer who was prodigiously talented, an incredibly hard worker, devoted to his art to a fault and the true definition of a Renaissance man. His work is now scattered across the globe but Florence and Rome remain the best places to see his work – Rome nudging just ahead.

Il Palio, or The Palio di Siena, is a traditional twice annual horse race held in Siena, Italy. The first takes place on the 2nd of July which is both the Feast of the Visitation and a local festival which honours the Madonna of Provenzano, a Marian devotion in the city. This race is called the Palio di Provenzano. The second is on the 16th of August, the day after the Feast of the Assumption, and is called the Palio dell'Assunta. Ten competitors take part in each race, riding bareback and representing one of the seventeen city wards or contrade, in the Piazza del Campo.