Archive for the 'Italy' Category
Angels & Demons tour in Rome - photos & itinerary
May 25, 2009 8:02pm
The last time we blogged about Rome we brought you an interview from the author of the ‘Angels & Demons’ locations travel guide to Rome. This week we are showing you photos from Viator’s Angels & Demons Half-Day Tour of Rome — one of several tours in the city — but one in which “Angels & Demons” director Ron Howard and actor Tom Hanks have both taken.
The tour departs near the church Santa Maria del Popolo in Piazza del Popolo at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It lasts four hours and costs $75.54 per person. The tour is limited to 25 people. Guests travel by an air-conditioned coach with stops at St Peter’s Square, St. Maria della Vittoria Church, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Castel Sant’ Angelo and Church of Illumination to glimpse the secret passage connecting the Vatican to the Castel Sant’ Angelo. The tour’s guide (beyond reading from Dan Brown’s novel on one of the tour stops) takes you on a tour of Rome while discussing the book and movie and helping you decode the secret messages of the Illuminati.
Check out the audio slideshow on the Viator blog.
Interview with author of ‘Angels & Demons’ locations travel guide to Rome
May 15, 2009 1:40pm
Angela K. Nickerson, author of “A Journey Into Michelangelo’s Rome,” has written a free insider’s travel guide to the locations featured in “Angel & Demons.” Just to make sure you didn’t miss it, I said free. As in all 43 pages of it. “Rome’s Angels & Demons: The Insider’s Guide” offers great back-story to the historical characters that Dan Brown uses in his novel and at the same time offers practical travel information for visitors to Rome who want to see the sights for themselves. Here is a Q&A with Angela as she tells us more about why the book is so handy for travelers and how you can use her book to go on a self-guided tour of Rome, hitting the same locations you saw in the movie.
Jen: Angela – truly amazing of you and Roaring Forties Press to offer this guide for free. I would’ve thought you could’ve made a bunch of money off this. Can you give us some back story on how the guide got started?
Angela: Well, personally I love to go to the places I’ve read about or seen in movies. There’s something about living out that fantasy when you are traveling which is thrilling. Roaring Forties Press published my first book, “A Journey Into Michelangelo’s Rome.” They are interested in books that examine the intersections between art and travel. When I approached them with a guide to Rome and the sites in “Angels & Demons,” it fit both their ideology and their business model. So we are using this as a test product. If it goes well, hopefully we will make “a bunch of money” off of future titles!
For those of us who haven’t read the book yet, can you give us a quick primer on the characters in the book and movie so we’re not lost in your guide?
Dan Brown’s “Angels & Demons” actually was published before “The DaVinci Code.” Read the rest of this entry »
Raphael at the Ducal Palace of Urbino
April 30, 2009 1:38pm
A landmark exhibition of paintings by the Italian Renaissance master Raffaelo Sanzio — now known simply by his Anglicized first name, Raphael — has opened at the Ducal Palace in Urbino, where he was born in 1483.
While his most famous works are massive frescoes in the private library of Pope Julius II at the Vatican Palace in Rome (where Raphael died young in 1520), the Urbino exhibition offers travelers a chance to explore the artist’s somewhat mysterious formative period.
Raphael was the son of Giovanni Santi, a court painter for Federico di Montefeltro, the duke of Urbino, and was thought to have been apprenticed to the Umbrian painter Perugino after his father died when he was 11. Overlooked paintings by Santi are included in the exhibition, as is Raphael’s first signed work, “The Coronation of San Nicolo da Tolentina,” from about 1500. Read the rest of this entry »
A few rounds of ‘Happy Birthday’ to Rome, please
April 16, 2009 1:48pm
Eternal it may be, but Rome is not ageless. In fact, it will celebrate its 2,762nd birthday Tuesday. Whew, what a cake that would have to be.
The precise date of the city’s founding is actually shrouded in mystery (and mythology), but 753 BC, calculated by the Roman historian Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27 BC), is traditionally accepted.
Anniversary celebrations were a big deal during imperial times, with plenty of “bread and circus” for the plebeians, a custom revived by Benito Mussolini, who modeled his fascist regime on the Rome of the Caesars.
Rome’s birthday is going to be a big deal this year too. Events during the April 19-21 celebration (which is not a public holiday) will include: Read the rest of this entry »
Pasadena travel bookstore Distant Lands puts trains, ships at your fingertips
April 14, 2009 10:28am
Sure, you can buy books, maps, luggage and other travel gear at Distant Lands in Pasadena, but why stop at that? Now you can book your trip and get rail tickets for Europe too.
The travel bookstore recently began marketing Rail Europe tickets and passes and also added an American Express travel agency outlet, which sells tours, cruises and customized itinerary planning.
“We wanted to make a commitment to be a one-stop travel shop,” said Angel Castellanos, manager of the nearly 20-year-old store.
L’Aquila earthquake: loss of life and cultural treasures in ‘city of 99 churches’; somber air on Easter
April 13, 2009 10:15am
Easter Masses were celebrated in “makeshift” chapels throughout central Italy yesterday. A somber mood predominated on the holy day among survivors of the recent earthquake in L’Aquila. Read this Associated Press article.
In his Easter Sunday message in St. Peter’s Square, in which he spoke of the need for hope around the world during these troubled times, Pope Benedict XVI offered special words and prayers for courage for the quake survivors.
Besides devastating families and communities due to loss of lives and homes, the quake — which claimed 294 lives — demolished cultural treasures. A European Advisory Committee member of nonprofit World Monuments Fund, Duccio Marignoli wrote the following on behalf of the organization: Read the rest of this entry »
The other side of Rome: Homeless people in the Eternal City
April 10, 2009 1:38pm
Apart from the ancient monuments and great art, there is a side of Rome tourists would rather not see: the homeless. Some 7,000 people sleep on the streets of the Eternal City, 75% of them non-Italians, according to the city council. They congregate in the historic center and around railway stations.
The sad fact was driven home to me this winter, when a young man and woman took up residence on the front porch of a little church next to my apartment building. Every night they spread out cardboard beds, and in the morning they aired their blankets on the wall behind the Forum of Augustus.
My district has always had homeless people — familiar, seemingly harmless neighbors without a fixed address. But this couple had strikingly filthy habits and an antagonistic edge. Sometimes they cursed passersby and routinely left unspeakable debris on the stoop. I’m ashamed to admit that I was horrified — and a little frightened. A clerk at a nearby hotel told me the police couldn’t force them to leave and when social service workers approached them the couple refused help.
Dress for success in the Rome of Ron Howard’s ‘Angels and Demons’
April 8, 2009 12:49pm
Can’t make it to Rome this spring, even though you’re dying to visit St. Peter’s Square and the Pantheon?
Then go see “Angels & Demons,” the new Ron Howard thriller based on the book by Dan Brown in theaters May 15 and stars Tom Hanks and Ewan McGregor. But for travelers, the great sights of Rome will be scene-stealers.
The same team that made “The Da Vinci Code” (the same protagonist appears in both movies) was everywhere around town last summer, shooting on location. Walking by the Pantheon one morning I literally bumped into Hanks, though it didn’t seem to shake his concentration. Read the rest of this entry »
Italian Culture Week offers free admission to state museums April 18-26
April 8, 2009 11:48am
The Italian Ministry of Culture announced that its annual Culture Week will be held April 18 to 26.
That means free admission to Italian state museums, special events and tours of artistic and historic sites usually closed to visitors. Among the offerings:
In the Liguria region, Genoa’s state-of-the-art Galata Museum of the Sea will mount “From Genoa to Ellis Island,” an exhibition about Italian emigration to the United States.
In Rome, visitors will get a rare chance to see the Palazzo Mattei di Giove, one of the capital’s grandest late 16th century noble palaces, designed by Carlo Maderno, now the home of the Center for American Studies.
Out on the Lido in Venice, guides will escort visitors through the picturesque village of Malamocco, settled around 1159.
A full list of special events and openings during Culture Week is available (in Italian only) at beniculturali.it.
— Susan Spano / Times staff writer
Image: Italian Ministry of Culture
Roundup: Medieval buildings, Roman baths damaged in L’Aquila earthquake; Virgin America $49 airfare sale; Travel twittersphere, BlackBerry apps
April 7, 2009 8:12am
Good morning travelers. The death toll is up to at least 207 from Monday’s L’Aquila earthquake in Italy. Many old churches and buildings dating back to medieval times fell during the 6.3 quake. Read: Italy quake shatters historic buildings along with lives.
Reuters reports that the Roman baths of Caracalla dating back to AD 216 also suffered damage.
Cruise Critic says that the Seabourn, Azamara, Costa and Oceania cruise lines calling on Rome’s port Civitavecchia have not reported any changes to their itineraries due to the earthquake.
Here are more links for a L’Aquila earthquake relief fund and emergency hotlines.
