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Showing posts from July, 2012

Out with the old?

It was expected, and people in this town rarely disappoint. Relics from Rome tourism past have been checking in at our new customer service center for a quiet root around. Impromptu guests, curiouser and curiouser and curiouser still about When In Rome Tours trading from the Vatican City version of an airport departure lounge. In with the new? Absolutely! New tours (ongoing), new website (in development), new office (tick), new staff (tick), new neue NEW wo.

Spain 4 Italy 0 and not a Rome tour in sight

 Thank God. Had Italy won Euro 2012 in Kyiv, the ensuing fanfare and outpouring of national pride would have gone a long way towards vindicating the criminal activities of those responsible for blighting the beautiful game here on the peninsula. Football in Italy has become just another charade - no one knows who pays who to fix so many top flight matches. Dozens of mainstream broadsheets that once covered calcio with gusto have closed down in final protest.  In the good old days of Italian football, players used to dive, whinge, whine, complain and feign injury - fundamental parts of their game which we grudgingly accepted then eventually derided. Calcio 2012, however, has become an extension of the country in which it is played. Corruption, back stabbing, dishonesty and lies are rife. These unfortunate traits drive an unwilling, perhaps unwitting, resigned population during the working week, a collective common denominator which binds millions of Italians together. Econo...

Michelangelo Vatican tour (third part)

 We don't actually know what happened to the first two parts but here's the third anyway!  Presence of earlier frescoes apart, Michelangelo had to face other difficulties; the steep inclination of some ceiling sections and the tendency of stucco (plaster) to go mouldy. He also had to build and work on his own scaffolding system. Problems continued beyond completion and even after his passing in 1564. A month after the death of Michelangelo, the Council of Trento ordered the covering of naked figures by "dressing them" in painted drapes.  Restoration works began in 1979 and were completed in 1999. "Genesis" and "The Last Judgement" were returned to their original splendid colours as applied by Michelangelo in situ. The final phase restored the Stories of Moses, the Stories of the life of Jesus, the cantoria (choir gallery) and transennas.  More information by Eternal Tours Rome about Vatican tours and Michelangelo's work in the Sistin...

The Sistine Chapel (2 of 3)

On August 15th 1483, the Chapel was consecrated by Pope Sixtus IV on the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Paintings in the Sistine Chapel date back to the 15th and 16th century. The best known works were created by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, and again between 1535 and 1541 on the west wall behind the altar. The original barrel vault ceiling was painted by Piermatteo Lauro de' Manfredi da Amelia, and his decoration was that of golden stars swirling in a deep blue sky, destroyed in 1508 when Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to work on nine new frescoes depicting God's creation of the world, God's relationship with mankind, and mankind's fall from God's grace. Michelangelo's paintings would cover the entire vault, a massive surface area which exceeded 1000 square metres. The Sistine Chapel ceiling is widely regarded as the ultimate expression of High Renaissance art. Renaissance master Michelangelo took four years to complete the Sist...