Ask any Neapolitan, “Who was Diego Maradona for you?” and more than one will reply quite simply, “Dio.” On a recent jaunt with my husband Pino to one of my favorite cities in all of Italy, Naples, I asked friend and Naples guide, Roberta, about the Neapolitan adoration – as if for a god – of Argentinian…
Don’t leave the 13th-century cathedral of Todi before heading underground. To the left of the altar, steps lead down into the 13th-century crypt, perhaps once Todi’s baptistery. Stone remnants from the Roman period of Todi to the 19th-century on the walls, guide your walk: The crypt was once used for the burial of Todi’s…
When you come out of Todi’s Duomo, the Piazza del Popolo spreads out before you like a medieval stage set: Opposite the Duomo is the primary seat of civic power, the mid-14th-century Palazzo dei Priori – where the civic magistrates, i priori, governed in the Middle Ages and some of Todi’s city officials have their offices now. The palazzo is…
Famed American sculptor of monumental works, Beverly Pepper is now a household word in Todi, especially since the inauguration of il Parco di Beverly Pepper in 2019. Pepper and journalist husband Curtis Bill Pepper had settled in Todi in the 1970’s and soon drew other artist friends to Todi, among them acclaimed Irish artist Brian…
Rising proudly at the end of Piazza del Popolo, the origins of Todi’s Duomo (cathedral), Santa Maria Annunziata, are uncertain. Construction probably started at the end of the 12th-century on site of a pre-existing Roman edifice after almost total destruction by a fire in 1190 of a previous church. The facade dates to the 13th-century but was…
Certamente, the Church of San Fortunato is to be celebrated – and not only on October 14th. the Festa di San Fortunato, patron saint of Todi. His church looks out from the highest point in Todi. The foundation stone was laid in the late 13th-century and construction started on the church under after the demolition…
Bordering a Todi hill side, Santa Maria della Consolazione rises like a veritable temple, “perhaps the most limpid of all classical architecture that has been built in Italy”:And like most temples, Santa Maria della Consolazione was constructed to house a venerated image. According to legend, in the early 16th-century when a pair local stonemasons were…
Perched on a double-crested hill overlooking the Tiber River, Umbria hill town Todi – “the world’s most livable city” – commands distant views in every direction. Its “livable” appellation was attached to the town by the Italian press following a 1990 analysis by University of Kentucky professor and environmental architect Richard Levine. Most tuderti would certainly agree…
Certainly the highlight of a vist to Montefalco’s 14th-century Church of San Francesco will be the splendid mid-15th-century fresco cycle of the life of St. Francis by esteemed Florentine painter, Benozzo Gozzoli, in the apse. But the Franciscan church – now il Museo di San Francesco – houses many wonders. As in countless churches of ancient…
I’d last been to the buonissimo Montefalco ristorante, La Locanda del Teatro, a few years ago; at that time, housed in the Palazzo Bontadossi flanking Palazzo Comunale (City Hall) on the town’s main piazza………..and taking its name, “Inn of the Theater,” from its location next door to the Montefalco teatro, Teatro Filippo Neri. On a recent visit to Montefalco…