Most visitors to Florence make a beeline straight for its most famous sight: the Duomo. The fourth largest church in the world (behind St. Peter’s in Rome, St. Paul’s in London, and the Duomo of Milan), it dwarfs the city around it, although perspective makes it seem a bit smaller from the square immediately surrounding,…
There are few, if any, landmarks on the planet more recognizable than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It is unique, and not only for its tilt, which is somewhere between 4 and 5.5 degrees after having been stabilized in the early 2000s. It represents a distinct architectural style, Pisan Romanesque. And it caters to one…
Though connected to the San Lorenzo Basilica, the Medici Chapel has a separate entrance - and a separate entrance fee. Stepping inside, one finds simple entombments of some of the more minor members of one of the world’s more famous families, including that of Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici, who bequeathed the family’s vast collection…
Shockingly, Florence existed before the Renaissance. There was a city here before the art and culture that would come out of Florence would change the world. There were buildings; there were people. And while little of that is a draw for tourists, it is important to talk about what Florence was prior to the official…
For years, whenever I was asked if I liked everywhere I traveled, my stock answer was, “Except Naples. Naples sucks.” I spent a single day in Naples in 2009 as part of a western Mediterranean cruise, and while I only really saw the city between the cruise terminal and train station (on my way to…
It tastes different here. I say that after my first bite of perhaps the most simple pizza I’ve ever consumed in my life. Just a basic crust, tomato, basil, and an amount of cheese I’d have never thought could satisfy my desire for the stuff… and I find myself closing my eyes after every mouthful,…
All over the Mediterranean, magnificent structures built by the Romans are still in evidence. From the Colosseum and Roman Forum to aqueducts, theatres, and more, it seems that every place the ancient Romans touched has remnants of their engineering marvels. But while these amazing buildings are spectacular, they are just fragments of Roman life, as…
It is impossible to overstate just how overwhelming Rome is. There is so much to do and see, both in terms of sights we all know about, and just in walking around and stumbling across something amazing. The city is chaotic, fast-moving, unpredictable. There are tourists everywhere in the center, and navigating around them physically…
It is easy to see why this place has been a retreat for Rome’s elite since imperial days. Tivoli, a small town in the hills about twenty miles outside the city, is - quite literally - a breath of fresh air from the chaotic Italian capital. Today a town of about 50,000 (although walking around…
Some countries are better than others at acknowledging troubling aspects of their pasts. Others pretend those things never happened. Most end up somewhere in the middle of that spectrum, not exactly hiding from their sordid histories, but also not really promoting that those things happened. Italy sits toward the “head in the sand” side of…