Traveling to Lose the Misery

These are the mansions that are part of the Association of the Castles of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza – Product Club, based in Fontanellato in Sanvitale Rocca, twenty fascinating images of the Middle Ages come to us, ten in Piacenza, twelve in Parma. The trip could start, near Piacenza, in Val Tidone from Rocca d’Olgisio,
surrounded by six walls. Not far from the fortress and the castle Agazzano Renaissance pearls embedded on the foothills. After crossing the river Trebbia, here is the Castle Rivalta with collections of ancient relics and businesses. And yet Grazzano Visconti Castle, surrounded by a lush and beautiful park. Gropparello Castle stands alone overlooking the Val Vezzeno, surrounded by emotional first park in Italy. In plain Castle Paderna shows drawbridge, large square tower and courtyard and the Castle of San Pietro in Cerro, former aristocratic residence, is home to a superb contemporary gallery. E ‘sentinel of the Val d’Arda Rocca Viscontea Castell’Arquato with perfectly preserved medieval village, while (more…)

The weekend snow in Valtellina is not complete without a stop in Livingston, the main Italian station dedicated to snowboarding. On the slopes of this places you can go wild in the half pipe, freeride Freecarve and emulating the feats of Kikko Capponi and Samy Bakar, the local riders who know every curve of the slopes of Valtellina. There is also a well-equipped snow park that meets the needs of snowboarders more acrobatic, it’s worth the watch even more good in their vaults into the void. If there is an air of competition, do not be surprised.
The early afternoon are best placed to admire one of the most beautiful spectacles of nature: the frozen waterfalls that abound in the mountains around Livigno. The exposure of the valley, north / south, means that on most of the falls the sun giant stalactites forming, then the cold weather does the rest. The more daring may venture out with ropes and ice axes to climb the most beautiful ice cascades of Livigno by Candle Wonderland Kozz to us, each has different strengths and difficulties, the experts will show you with a range of details. If there is a modicum of energy, back in the center of Livigno you can take advantage of the last hours of the weekend to do some ‘shopping. The town center is in fact targeted by tourists and foreigners who arrive each year to stock up on jewelry, perfume and chocolate under special prices than the average: Livigno has long been an oasis of duty free, which was granted to city to remedy the long months of isolation in which he was often caught between the ice and the winds and snow loads.

The history of Rome went from here
The history of Castel Sant’Angelo is closely linked to that of Rome: the constant change, poverty and wealth of the city is invariably reflect the impressive structure that almost two thousand years rests on the calm waters of the Tiber. Castel Sant’Angelo was originally intended as a memorial by the Emperor Hadrian in a peripheral area of ancient Rome until in 403 AD C., when it interfered in the Aurelian Walls on the orders of Emperor Honorius West, this leaves its original function. From now on, in fact, Castel Sant’Angelo over the Tiber becomes fortress to defend the city. Many Roman families want to claim ownership because it seemed to guarantee them a position of prestige in the chaotic order of the City: it was a stronghold of Senator Theophylact, the Crescenzi, of Pierleoni and Orsini. It ‘was just Nicholas III, a pope Orsini, who has run the Passetto linking the Vatican to the Castle. The pontiff is also a chapel dedicated to St. Michael on the top of the Castle by decorating its walls with paintings that evoke the procession of Gregory the Great. When in 1367 the Castel Sant’Angelo keys are given to Pope Urban V to urge the return from exile of Avignon Curia in Rome, his fate is inextricably linked to that of the popes that turn it into a residence to stay away from harm. (more…)

Rome, Mausoleum of Hadrian
The tomb of the great Emperor
The right of Castel Sant’Angelo is one of the tomb erected by Hadrian with the intention of ensuring a decent burial for himself and his family. In an extensive piece of land known as the ager Vaticanus, on the outskirts of Rome, along the sides of its two main streets (and Cornelia Triumphalis) are lined graves and tombs. One in particular that is said to be the apostle Peter crucified, buried a short distance between 64 and 68, is the object of numerous pilgrimages of Christians. The Pons Aelius linking the tomb to the rest of the City. We can not determine with certainty what was the original appearance of the ancient tomb, but we know that he wanted to be similar in all’Augusteum, the Mausoleum of Augustus, built about a century and a half ago and placed nearby on the opposite bank of the Tiber. The tomb consisted of a rectangular base which overlap two cylinders of decreasing size framed probably by a hanging garden of evergreens, the corners of the base is erected bronze statues that represent groups of men and horses, a chariot on top, also in bronze, led by the god Helios at his side with a sculpture that depicts the ‘Emperor. Survive today only remnants of this original structure as a Roman wall around the core of the cylindrical (more…)

To facilitate the visit of the Castle offer an itinerary that is spread over six levels.
First level of Castel Sant’Angelo
The first place where one encounters upon entry into Castel Sant’Angelo is a small courtyard, the courtyard of the Saviour, whose name originates from the marble bust depicting Christ dating from the fifteenth century, previously included within the inner face. Then there is the ambulatory of Boniface IX which is the circular open-air corridor which is located between the base of the cylinder and the walls square, obtained from the dismantling of the ceiling of the cells that were leaning to the radial base of the cylinder and radial septa which are still recognizable. The project was designed by Niccolò Lamberti and now here you are some fragments of the sculptural decoration and the papal funeral. Dall’ambulacro you enter a large open space, the courtyard of the shootings, where executions of the condemned. On this patio overlooking the Chapel of the Crucifix in which the prisoners were going before being executed. It now houses the Museum bookshop. Then through a large arch in line with the entrance of the castle, along the steps of a modern iron stairway, you enter the original level of the mausoleum of Hadrian. From here you can open a wide corridor that after about 12 square meters introduced in an atrium, lobby Roman, previously covered with slabs of marble yellow. Here on the wall at the bottom there is a large semicircular apse that originally contained a huge statue of Emperor Hadrian. On the side next to the niche you enter the typical spiral ramp that leads to the next level. (more…)

Seeing is believing
And what was unusual as the manhole of a sewer, has become one of the monuments of Rome, where tourists love most to be photographed. Mouth of Truth, in fact, is simply this: a large marble mask, depicting a head of a faun, known to everyone as “Mouth of Truth”, immured in the wall of the church of S. Mary Cosmedin by 1632. This large, bearded man’s face where eyes, nose and mouth are drilled, it was probably a drain of the Cloaca Maxima, one of the largest sewer in Rome. The sculpture dates back to the first century, has a diameter of 1.75 me weighs about 1300 kg The mask is well known, it is assumed that this is the first object mentioned in the Mirabilia Urbis Romae, a guide for medieval pilgrims, where the mouth is given the authority to make oracles. (more…)

In building to the left of the Capitoline Square was originally called “New” because it was built later than the Senatorial Palace and the Palace of the Conservatives. In his sixteenth place in the pictures you can see the retaining wall of the convent dell’Arneodi now above the crown of the inner courtyard.
Posted in General project from the beginning of Michelangelo Buonarroti, was built after the death of this and completed in stages over a period of almost two centuries. The first stone was laid in 1603, by order of Pope Clement VIII, who entrusted the works to Jerome Rinaldi, architect of the Roman People. However, in 1614 only the foundations had been carried out and, after a long interval, the work was resumed only in 1654, during the pontificate of Pope Innocent X, who commissioned the estimate of the work of Carlo Rainaldi, who worked a lot for the their completion.
The importance of the New Palace – probably from the beginning was intended to accommodate niches and shrines, according to the criteria “of the ancients, the great masterpieces of Greek and Roman straltura already present in large numbers on the hill – is reflected in the drawings and in written documents. The building was in fact the first to receive (more…)