Nemi and Lake Nemi below, are in the Alban Hills outside Rome. The village is known for its fantastic views as far as the sea, and for its strawberries both wild and cultivated. Beloved of poets such as Lord Byron and Goethe, and painters like Claude and Turner, it has been a favourite of visitors […]
Diana, Golden Bough, james Frazer
Architecture in Rome thrived under fascism although there were some shocking demolitions involved in order to clear the way for Mussolini’s new Roman Empire. Some projects were halted during the war years and only completed afterwards. Known as Italian Rationalism it is often unfairly derided as ‘fascist architecture’. The most notable building is the edifice […]
fascist architecture
The tragic Marchioness Christina Spartali Cahen Cristina Cahen died, from an overdose of chloral, possibly accidentally, aged 37, in 1884. It was a fashionable drug in artistic circles, both her sister’s husband Stillman and the painter Rossetti, were habitual users. It calmed the nerves, it was also known as a hynotic drug. Thankfully, however, after […]
Cahen, Spartali, Zambaco
On his three visits to Orvieto, Freud always stayed in the comfortable Hotel delle Belle Arti on Corso Cavour in the town center, midway between Piazza Vittorio Emmanuele (now Piazza Repubblica) and the central clock tower, La Torre del Moro. There is a plaque. There were then 7,300 inhabitants, about three thousand more than […]
The Roman Road The Val D’Orcia is one of the most famous valleys in the world even though the name itself may not mean much. Tourists have travelled the Roman road called the via Cassia since the 16th century on the Grand Tour, but before them it was trod by pilgrims on their way to […]
Cassia, Francigena, Grand-Tour, Italian hidden treasure, medici, radicofani, Tuscany, William Turner
Freud, Orvieto and Signorelli Freud, Orvieto, Signorelli: the Renaissance frescoes by Luca Signorelli had a profound effect upon Freud. In the entrance hall of Freud’s last home in London, on the right, is a picture of Tivoli, a reminder that Italy was his favourite holiday destination and his spiritual home. 50 years after his death […]
Etruscan city, Freud, Italian hidden treasure, Italy, Italy hidden treasure to photograph, Luca Signorelli, not just photography, Orvieto, photography workshop tour
Freud and a Tale of Three Cities: Vienna, London and……. Orvieto. The Vienna home in Berggasse 19 is easy to spot – he lived and worked in two modest, dark flats on the mezzanine floor left and right of the long red Freud sign; 20 Maresfield Gardens, Hampstead, London, is by comparison quite understated, […]
Freud, not just photography, Orvieto, photo trip, photography workshop tour, photography-workshop, St Patrick well, Umbria
An Off-the-beaten-track photography tour to the ruined city of Castro. Destroyed by the Pope in 1649, Castro was given the epithet The Carthage of the Maremma and today it could be defined as the Renaissance Pompeii. In April 2015 we went on a photo tour to the ruined city of Castro. 415 years ago a […]
castro, Photo Excursion, photo workshop, Photography Tour in Italy