Florence

Below The Piazza del Campo in Siena. On the right is the city hall, the Palazzo Pubblico, with its distinctive pointed arches. The angular brick façade in the background on the left belongs to the Basilica di San Francesco.

Siena’s medieval monuments

As the Tuscan city of Siena grew in prosperity, its citizens made their mark through magnificent art and architecture, from aristocratic towers to allegorical frescoes. Historian Jane Stevenson takes us on a tour of its medieval monuments.

RIGHT The god Mercury holding his half brother, the god Bacchus, as a child. This statue was in the Antiquarium of Cosimo I at Palazzo Pitti in 1576 and later, in 1597, in the Galleria degli Uffizi. After it was restored in 1758, it was moved to the Garden of Boboli, where it remained until recently. Marble, 2nd century AD.

Children of the Roman Empire

A new exhibition in Florence examines what life was like for the young sons and daughters of gods, emperors, and ordinary mortals in ancient Rome. Dalu Jones explores what the ancient art on view reveals about attitudes towards children.

ABOVE The Mausoleum of Augustus, as seen in the summer of 2017. The poor state of the monument in 2014 the 2,000th anniversary of Augustus’ death helped to prompt the establishment of LoveItaly.

Tracy Roberts and LoveItaly

Based in Rome, LoveItaly is now in its seventh year and its accent is decidedly American and not patrician. It owes everything to the dynamism of a Californian who is every bit as Roman as the Romans.