Italian Art for Travelers
Your passport to culture, history, and art

Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper is one of his most admired and recognizable art works. It is iconic, has been reproduced endlessly, parodied

Was Michelangelo gay? It’s complicated. How does one say Michelangelo is gay when there isn’t even a word for it in the language of his...

Meet three couples, real and mythical, and their romantic stories: Federico and Battista’s arranged marriage, Apollo’s longing for Daphne, a

Even the humble calendar has an intriguing history. Meet the Caesar and the Pope who shaped the calendar to what it is today.

December means special foods, decorating, libations, and gift giving. Families and neighbors gather to celebrate time together. December...

Salty fermented fish sauces really made Roman meals special. A piping hot bowl of cinnamon spiced pasta satisfied the medieval appetite. Pe

The Bargello Museum gave me the creeps. Why ? It could be because banker Lorenzo Tornabuoni lost his head in the courtyard. Find out where h

With over 55 UNESCO World Heritage sites, is it any surprise Italy’s art has been looted and still is? A statue illicitly taken from Italy w

A krater, an amphora, and a marble sculpture tell the story of the illegal art trade in Italy. The Italian art squad nabbed the culprits an

Four mysteries: one is a painting with no clear meaning, an unexplained self-portrait, Botticelli's muse, and a da Vinci painting that might

A better title for this post is “How My Wife Ended up with a Fifth Century Mosaic Tattooed on Her Foot.” It’s an odd connection between...

Take some time to really look at art. Observation along with understanding some visual clues artists embed in their work can draw you into a

How did artists represent the Old Testament King David? As giant slayer? Lustful king? Composer of Psalms? Let’s look at some depictions

How would you like to be remembered? That selfie you took on vacation, a wedding photo, or image from a family gathering? We consciously...

A boy from Lombardy wanders into a river and falls in. His parents are desperate to locate him. Later he is found by his family standing...

If you visit Italy you can’t miss the frescoes. Fresco paintings decorate castles, Roman villas, public buildings, and of course,...

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti (1475-1564) is a mythic figure, the creator of the Sistine Chapel frescoes and sculptures such as the Da

What does Covid-19 and plague in Italy have in common? A lot it turns out, including disagreements about what to do or not do, and what reme

April 6, 2020 marks the 500th anniversary of the death of Raphael (1483-1520), Renaissance artist extraordinaire. Italy planned grand...

The hidden history of women artists continues with Artemisia Gentileschi, the most studied and famous of the sixteenth and seventeenth...

Welcome to the hidden history of women artists. Were there really women artists in the 1600s and 1700s? Yes, there were. White male...

Venice became a mecca for European and American artists from 1860-1915. Approximately 90 American artists worked in Venice producing over 3,

Some artists came to Venice to make money, and some came because they were drawn to the beauty. Some were destitute like James McNeil Whistl

How did Venice become such an iconic symbol and why do 30 million visitors swarm the city each year? Blame it on the Brits and the Grand Tou