Tag Archives: Italy

Around Sounds

If you stop by TBTP regularly, you are likely aware that I am a sucker for clever interactive map projects. Musical Explorers Around the World Map from Carnegie Hall lets you discover and listen to folk music from around the globe. … Continue reading

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La Biblioteca del Mondo

Umberto Eco: A Library of the World is a wonderful new documentary about the bestselling Italian author with perhaps the greatest intellectual appetite of any writer of his time. Directed by Davide Ferrario, the documentary will launch in the U.S. beginning … Continue reading

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How Does Venice Work

Venice is a romantic and intriguing destination, but its unique situation and history make for a myriad of challenges. The canals, the sewers, the buildings, the bridges and the rest of the Venice’s infrastructure has all been engineered to deal … Continue reading

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Museum to the Rescue

Italy has opened a new museum to showcase art it has rescued. The museum, which opened in Rome last week, will present rotating exhibitions of looted and stolen pieces that the nation has recovered. The Museum of Rescued Art, which … Continue reading

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Just Another Marbled Monday

This psychdelic marbled binding is on Le Terrecotte Figurate del Museo Nazionale di Napoli, or, “The Figured Terracottas of the National Museum of Naples.”  The book is by archaeologist and historian Alda Levi (1890-1950) and was published by Vallecchi Firenze Publishing … Continue reading

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A National Icon

Regular visitors to TBTP know that I am very serious about coffee. I am so commited to drinking good coffee that I actually roast my own green coffee beans. When I travel, the first thing that I research after  accommodations … Continue reading

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Encyclopedia of a world that does not exist

Over the years, I have run across a number of versions of the weird and wonderful Codex Seraphinianus. Along with English and French edtions, I have also seen an original Italian version from 1981. It’s difficult to catagorize this fascinating surreal fictionalized … Continue reading

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Venice, Violin, and Vivaldi

On Saturday tourists were treated to the spectacle of an enormous violin floating down the canals of Venice carrying a live string quartet. The cruising instrument, “Noah’s Violin,” was created by artist Livio De Marchi, as a way of “bringing a message … Continue reading

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Books That Fill You With Sudden, Inexplicable Curiosity

An excerpt from If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino Translated by William Weaver So, then, you noticed in a newspaper that If on a winter’s night a traveler had appeared, the new book by Italo Calvino, who hadn’t published … Continue reading

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Restoring Rome

During the past few weeks, I have been pondering a story from the news about a project to restore parts of the ancient Roman Colosseum and open those areas to tourists. The story claimed that for the first time ever, … Continue reading

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