Hello, again, Blogonauts! Friday was my chance to dip my tongue ... er ... toe ... into Venetian history, which contains much that is attractive and quite a bit that is distasteful. (Perhaps I meant tongue after all.) I'll begin with the enormous (and frequently waterlogged) Piazza San Marco. Three structures dominate the Piazza’s southeastern corner: The Campanile (The Bell Tower, which also has served as a light house for shipping), the Basilica of Sai...

Hello, again, Blogonauts. Venice is beautiful, historic, and culture-packed city. And along with these indubitable virtues, it also happens to exist in 21st-century Italy. Italian disagreements are common and often filled with drama. (This is, after all, the country that lifted grand opera to its treacherous, tearful, tragic peak.) Along the way, the innocent are often hooked into their hostile hijinks. I had researched my arrival at Marco Polo Airport exceedingl...

Before I left Rome, I spent most of a day toddling through the collectrivia of the Vatican Museum, and then I slipped next door for an hour-long perusal of St. Peter's Basilica. Now, there is no doubt that the Pope's museum has one of the world's great assemblages of sculpture in the Western world. Unfortunately, its arrangement is more haphazard than well-planned, and sadly this erratic display hampers the opportunity to learn a bit more about the development ...

Ancient Rome's legacy permeates this city, but nowhere does it feel more interactive than at the Pantheon. This round, domed temple is a masterpiece of architectural symmetry and engineering. The original was constructed in the first century B.C.E., but Emperor Hadrian had it rebuilt in 126 C.E. for public worship of all the Roman Gods. ("Pan-theon" is a Greek term meaning "all the gods.") Since 609 C.E., it has served as a Christian church. Thus, because of thi...

Sometimes in art, just as in investigative journalism, you have to follow the money. Those artists who found their way to Rome and into the good graces of the Borghese family were doing just that. For in 1605, one of the Borgheses was elevated to become Pope Paul V, and he appointed his libertine, art-savvy nephew Scipione Borghese as Cardinal and as chief of all the papal affairs. (Fun Fact: The word in Italian for "nephew" is "napote." From that we derive the...