Archive for 'Museums & Galleries'

Are you interested in Geography and how things are formed? If so, then Tuscany in Italy may have just the thing to attract your attention! There are grottos, underground tunnels, mines, prehistoric caves, Etruscan necropolises, aqueducts, labyrinths and other fantastic underground attractions to be seen. Though it may never see the sunlight, this part of Tuscany shines as bright as any other with a wealth of things to be discovered, both natural and man made!

Can you imagine what it would be like to walk through these fantastic caves and wonder what it was like years and years ago. To see the natural formations of the rocks that decorate these places and marvel at how they have obtained their shape?

Volterra is such a beautiful town and personally I prefer it to the close by San Gimignano.... Less crowded and so much atmosphere.

This magic city has its roots in three thousand years of history and you will find evidence and traces from every historical period. The imposing Porta all’Arco, the Necropolis, the ancient city walls and the numerous archeological finds conserved in the Museo Etrusco Guarnacci like the famous "Ombra della Sera" (evening Shadow) with its unique profile, the funeral urns and the finely crafted jewellery, bear testimony of the Etruscan period.

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.

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.