Archive for 'Tourist Attractions'

Almost two thousand years ago Mt Vesuvius erupted and wiped out much of the surrounding area, covering cities in lava, ash and molten rock. Pompeii is the most famous of the towns subjected to Vesuvius wrath, but Herculaneum met the same fate. Pompeii was covered in ash and lava floes, being further away from the volcano itself. Herculaneum however was buried under a rush of molten rock that mingled with the mud and earth around the town and effectively sealed the town away from time.

The hot mud preserved much more than its neighbor Pompeii, allowing many two story buildings to remain standing as well as keeping organic matter like clothing and beds to survive as well.

Last Friday a great public work of art that has stood as a symbol of Rome for hundreds of years was defaced. A man in a hat reportedly approached the fountain in the crowd of tourists and dumped a bucket of red dye into Trevi Fountain, dying the water a blood red.

The fountain recirculates the water in its basin and through the jets of water it shoots into the air, allowing the dye to permeate the entire fountain quickly. Authorities believe the stunt has not caused permanent damage to the marble statues of the fountain.

Pamphlets were left at the scene claiming that the action was committed by the "FTM Futurist Action 2007", which is an organization the authorities have never heard of before. According to the leaflets the group claims to battle "everything and everyone with a spirit of healthy violence" as well as turning the "grey bourgeois society into a triumph of color." It also pointed to the poor state of the elderly in Italy, as well as the amount of public money that was spent on restarting the Rome Film Festival.

Trains are a very common site in Italy, so one could easily overlook one of the trains that is now traveling Italy but has something unusual aboard: a fantastic collection of art from the past five hundred years! The event is titled "From Titian to Street Art: Five Hundred Years of Italian Art" and it sets out from Rome on October 1st. The train will be stopping in over twenty cities in its forty day trek across Italy, stopping in cities for a day or two.

The initiative is in response to the fact that only ten percent of Italians frequently visit the innumerable art galleries, exhibitions and museums across Italy.  With this in mind, the curators and sponsors of the 'art train' are bringing the art to the people. Though the train will be concluding its journey in Lombardy, it will spend much of its time in the south, where museums are not as prevalent as in the north.

In Florence, it can be difficult to not accidentally bump into some grand piece of history. The city is nothing if not living, breathing history: a museum that people live their day to day lives in. One such piece of history lies right across the Arno from the Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi Gallery, the Palazzo Pitti.

The Palazzo Pitti was originally constructed by Luca Pitti who gained his wealth as a banker in Florence.

According to legend, Siena was founded by the sons of the fabled founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. One rode a black horse and the other a white horse, giving the city its symbolic colors that continue today in the symbol of the commune on its coat of arms. The city's colors and legends also live on in one of the most memorable sites the city has to offer: the Duomo di Siena. The Duomo di Siena was built with striped white and black marble, echoing the city's colors all the way up to the bell tower.

The impressive cathedral was built in many different spurts of construction, with additions after the departure of a former architect or artisan, as well as, when the church simply needed an expansion. One massive expansion was planned in the fourteenth century that would have doubled the size of the church as it is today, but unfortunately was not completed as the Black Death had finally visited fair Siena.