DAY TRIP
Genoa, the capital of Liguria, has the second busiest port and is the sixth largest city in Italy. One of the most beautiful cathedrals if found here. The Duomo di Genova or Cattedrale di San Lorenzo was consecrated in 1118. Updated and embellished through the centuries, today it is famous for its almost two bell towers, a catchy façade, Gothic portals and stunning marble decorations.
WINTER ACTIVITIES
While summer travel draws crowds to Italy with warm weather and outdoor activities, winter vacations can be magical with holiday celebrations, winter activities and fewer tourists. Christmas in Italy is just as big if not bigger than in the United States.
ART
Visiting Italian holy places, expect sights beyond human scale. Expect magnificence and the divine. Expect something outstanding and almost heavenly imposing. Expect pure beauty and the ornate looking down at you from above. It is in Italy, if fact, that you will learn the real meaning of a masterpiece.
EXHIBITION
You won’t believe your eyes! Bright colors, neon lights and luminous installations that alter your visual and physical perception of space and time is now on show in Milan. Stunning “Environments” exhibition of Lucio Fontana’s works will bring you through surreal sequence of spaces: from totally dark and soft-lined, to dazzling, monochrome, seemingly infinite, or even tight and anxious nine rooms.
DAY TRIP
134 meters long by 48 meters wide, and surrounded by continuous arcades on its three sides, this giant piazza in Vigevano seems to be almost out of scale. It is really surprising indeed that such a tiny town possesses such a spectacular and epic city square. Impressive, however not only in terms of its dimensions, but relevant also for its stunning architecture.
EXHIBITION
Milan is a city synonymous with cutting edge fashion and design. These two distinguished universes weave around and within one another producing intriguing results. The exhibition “I see colors everywhere” promoted by the clothing brand United Colors of Benetton on the occasion of the last Milan Fashion Week and held at La Triennale di Milano is one such occasion.
ART EXHIBIT
With over 70 works from Michelangelo, Bronzino, Giorgio Vasari, Rosso Fiorentino, Pontormo, Santi di Tito, Giambologna and Bartolomeo Ammannati to name a few, the focus is on the period marked by the patronage of Francesco I de’ Medici. The Medici Family’s history can be traced back to the 13th Century but it was Francesco’s influence on the art in Florence during the late 1500s that this exhibit explores.
OFF THE BEATEN PATH
Sometimes I wonder if Italy became such an artistically illuminated country thanks to its devotion to religion, or if it was Catholicism to be lucky enough to be found and developed in this country constantly and densely populated by artistic geniuses.