Started in the late 14th century, completed in the Renaissance and crowned with an 18C dome by Juvara, the Como Cathedral has a remarkable face decorated with exceptional technical skill by the Rodari brothers who also decorated the North Portal, called “the frog’s portal”. The solemn Gothic interior is decorated in the Renaissance style: tapestries, paintings by Bernardino Luini and Gaudenzio Ferrari, and a moving Deposition, sculpted by Tommaso Rodari.

The Saint-Fedele Church is decorated with a curious portal in the apse embellished by beautiful carvings. On the inside, which has three naves, do not miss the superb polygonal Romanesque chancel, which is flanked by absidioles and emphasised by two rows of arcades.

The S. Abbondio Basilica is a masterpiece of Romanesque Lombard architecture, consecrated in 1093, and has a front that is sober and noble fronted by a beautiful portal. On the inside, which has 5 naves, there is a magnificent collection of 14th century frescoes evoking the life of Christ.

Maggiore, Orta, Como, Iseo and Garda are all legends in their own right. Of glacial origins, these long, narrow expanses of water stretch out from Piedmont to Venetia and from Switzerland to Trentino at the foothills of the Lombardy Alps. The climate is mild and the landscape of blue waters and towering peaks is particularly pleasing. It is impossible to resist the charm of these Alpine and southern landscapes, the shores of which are lined in opulent villas set in superb gardens and tiny fishing harbours.

This Italian mountain

The Cathedral is a Church of pink sandstone consecrated to winegrowing and grape-harvest. It has involved construction spanning the Early Christian, Carolingian, Romanesque and Gothic periods. The campanile, built in the 16C and modernised with the addition of Gothic windows, reaches 62 m. On the right side you will see the small Wine portal, which is decorated in imagery associated with winegrowing and grape-harvest. The church used to have exclusive rights to sell wine in front of this door.

In the Dominican Church (I Dominicani), you’ll see Frescoes by Friedric Pacher and by the Giotto school. This Church was Built in a Gothic style. It was than modified and then damaged during the secularisation of 1785. You must see Saint Giovanni Chapel (after the Rood Screen) for its frescoes by the Giotto school and its cloister, decorated in Frescoes by Friedrich Pacher.

At the Franciscan Church (I Francescani), admire a sculpted wood altar and a retable by Hans Klocker. This church burned down in 1291 and was then rebuilt in the 14C and the original arches put back a century later. The interior is marked by an Altar of the nativity in sculptured wood, decorated with a retable by Hans Klocker. The charming little cloister has elegant arches decorated in frescoes from the Giotto school.

Enjoy the view

In the modern city, not far from the harbor and the Riva del Mandraccio, the Piazza dell’Unità d’Italia is surrounded by three palaces in the style of the early 1900s: the Palace of the Government, City Hall and the local headquarters of Lloyd, a maritime navigation company.

Founded in the 5C., the present-day buildings of Saint Just Basilica mostly date back to the 14C. Its facade is decorated with a beautiful rose window, a bas relief and busts in bronze, and it is dominate by a robust bell tower decorated with reused Roman columns and the statue of Saint Just. Inside there are five naves, of which four belonged to two primitive basilicas, and connected by the fifth one. A beautiful 12C. mosaic. The Virgin is accompanied by the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, and by the Apostles.

Finally, once in Trieste do not miss the the Miramare castle, built in 1860 to plans by the architect Carl Junker, stands on the point of a headland overlooking the coast of Trieste. It was intended for Archduke Maximilian of Austria, executed in Mexico in 1867, and his wife Princess Charlotte of Belgium, who died insane. The furniture and interior decoration are original. The lovely terraced gardens, designed by the Archduke himself, are also open to the public.

What needs to be well recognized, however, is the fact that Italy’s inventions were not limited in any way to merely material things. There are many inventions which represent shortcuts of various kinds for the accomplishment of mental processes and in facilities of this kind the practical genius of the Italians has been particularly fruitful. It was they who invented the various processes in arithmetic that have so simplified calculations. It is to them also that we owe as is made clear in the chapters on Mathematics and Astronomy the algebraic solutions of equations of various kinds that had seemed impossible or could be done only by long time taking guess-work before the Italian mind ordered them.

Some idea of Italian practical genius in printing may be obtained from the fact that they invented paragraphing in print as we now have it, introduced pagination, invented capital letters, first arranged punctuation and added all those features which make the modern printed book so much more easy to understand than the old manuscripts or even the first books that were printed. To them too we owe the title page with the information that it now conveys at a glance and many other features that are real discoveries.

Italy has a lot more history to discover on location, and one of best ways to do it is touring with your own private driver-guide.

Italy must yield to Germany’s claim for priority in the invention of printing, but while the Germans invented, no nation did so much as Italy for the diffusion of printing, for the development of the art, it very soon became in their hands and for the encouragement of every detail of fine bookmaking that came with it. Above all Italy was the fruitful mother of inventions that made the printing art of immensely greater value to mankind than it was as it came from the hands of the original German inventors. Henry Louis Bullen, the curator of a museum of typography, said in 1914:

“From 1465 to 1501 thirty-five years printing was established in seventy-three Italian cities. Each printer had to make his own presses and types and cases and other appliances; there were no manufacturers or merchants making or selling these necessaries. Sixteen hundred and eighty (1,680) distinct type-faces have been identified as the product of the Italian printers in that brief period, including the most beautiful Roman and Text types ever used, and the first Italic. Was ever a greater boon in the printing industry? Was ever an art more eagerly adopted? Printers outside of Germany have been influenced more by the early Italian workmanship than by the German. Every printer or typefounder among us is the debtor of the earlier Italian printers, none the less so if unconscious of the obligation and ignorant of the benefactors.”

Father Beccaria was the first to invent a series of electrical instruments that demonstrated how well the energy might be applied. Priestley, the English discoverer of oxygen, in his History of Electricity has praised Beccaria’s ingenuity and has described some of these rather striking instruments. Galvani demonstrated Galvanism and opened up a whole new vista in science. Volta invented the Voltaic pile, the first continuous source of electricity that men ever had and for that reason some times spoken of as a greater invention than the steam engine. In the light of modern developments in electricity in the mechanical world, this expression now seems to have much more truth than when it was originally uttered. Volta also invented the gold leaf electroscope and a number of very ingenious instruments for the demonstration of certain physical phenomena. Nobili invented the thermopile and the thermo-electroscope, while at the end of the nineteenth century the Italian Marconi had the practical inventive genius to bring together a series of discoveries that had been made by others and combine them in such a way as to make wireless telegraphy with its wonders possible.

That was worth the patience, because, since the marginal RZ of the beginning of the Nineties, one doubted the aptitude of the Italians to revive the virus of the alfists.

Car lovers were prompt to show their passion towards the power of the V8, developed in Maranello and concealed under a carbon skin. During the Paris Motor Show in 2006, where the Italian diva played the stars behind a glass, Alfa Romeo received more than 1,000 orders. This car is produced in limited numbers at Maserati, in Modena, at a rate of two units per day.

The 8C Competizione carries quotations and references to the cult Alfa models. If the name pays a vibrant homage to the famous 8C of twenties Zagato, the silhouette reminds of a little Giulia TZ in the grill, and of the 33 Stradale of 1967 designed by Franco Scaglione.

To place side by side the model and its copy, separated by forty years, causes a shock. As much the original is frail and tiny (39 inches high), as much the modern and round 8C appears to raise of another scale. The style deserves praises to have made a success of the challenge to preserve the purity of the engineering draft of 2003. The engineers had to meet this requirement at the time to graft a strongly shortened platform of Maserati Quattroporte. This strict 2-seater succeeds in putting a large V8 in front central position, with the gearbox at the back in order to guarantee an almost ideal distribution of the masses (49 % at the front, 51 % at the back).

The excitement is full when, after having started 286ci V8 which delivers 450 HP, one presses on the “sport” button located on the central console. The V8 thunders with a musical aggressiveness. The steering is of a total precision, and the brakes oversized.

In addition to a call center dedicated to the beast, Alfa offers to the 500 owners to carry out a training course (US$12,000) and a multitude of custom equipment: custom paint (US$22,000), braided or granulated leather (US$3,000) matched with specific seams (US$500), custom brake color (US$1,500), plate “500 Limited Edition” with the owner’s name (US$800) and a set of luggage (US$5,000) coordinated with the car’s upholstery. Especially designed to occupy the rear space, the latter is strongly recommended.

Enthusiastic with the success of the 8C, Alfa Romeo now plans to produce a spider version limited to 500 numbered units. But not before 2009 and the return of the Quadrifoglio on the North-American continent.

###

Raphael of Urbino was born in Urbino, in 1483. Urbino is located in the Marche region of Italy, between Ravenna and Perugia. As you travel across Italy on your private tour, your guide, who is also an art historian, will point out various points of interest in relation to Raphael, and several works by him.

Nowadays, the pretty town of Urbino is mainly visited for its Ducal Palace. This masterpiece of balance and taste was built for Duke Federico by architect Luciano Laurana and Francesco di Giorgio Martini from Siena. It offers a superb panoramic view to the west of the old town, while to the east it has a harsh yet majestic appearance. The courtyard is a model of Renaissance harmony. On the ground floor is an archaeological museum, a library for the Duke and the palace cellars.

A few steps from the Palace, the sanctuaries of San Giovanni Battista and San Giuseppe, dating back to the 14th century, contain interesting frescoes by Salimbeni recalling the life of St John the Baptist. The second, from the 16th century, has a huge statue of St Joseph painted in grisaille, four large canvases by Carlo Roncalli and an attractive stucco crib by Federico Brandani (1522-1575).

Raphael’s family house is, in fact, a museum-shrine of lesser interest. Here are the stages of his life:

1483: Raphael is born on April 6 in Urbino, in Umbria, Italy. His father is a painter and official poet of the court of Frederico Montefeltre, one of the most famous princes of the Renaissance in Italy. Urbino is a famous artistic area at the dawn of 16th century. His capacities of assimilation, imitation and his skills make Raphael an artist exceptionally gifted.

1494: Death of Raphael’s father, three years after his wife. Raphael is only eleven years old. The teaching received by the young boy remains extremely unclear. Many historians estimate that he was the pupil of Perugino, in Perugia, probably about 1499-1500.

1500: At seventeen years of age, Raphael is already a maestro. That gives him the right to have a workshop, assistants and pupils. He paints for the church Sant’ Agostino de Città di Castello. He carries out this work with the assistance of a former assistant of Giovanni Santi.

1501-1503: Raphael receives an order from the abbess of the clarisses of Monteluce, “the Crowning of the Virgin”.

1504: Raphael settles in the Tuscan city Florence. The Florentine republic has just appointed Michel-Angel (1475-1564) and Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Raphael will benefit from their influence. Da Vinci receives him in its workshop. He discovers there the masterpieces of the florentine Renaissance. He carries out a series of Virgins and Madonnas. The Sienan banker Agostino Chigi orders from Raphael. He also works for Urbino, Perugino, and Perugia.

1508: The Pope appoints Raphael as an official painter of the pontifical court. He is given the decoration of the Vatican apartments. Raphael undertakes architectural and archaeological tasks on behalf of the papacy. He often meets Michelangelo who works on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

1514: Raphael becomes architect in chief of Saint-Peter’s basilica. His workshop leaves many masterpieces: frescoes, paintings, official orders and particular orders follow one another.

1515: Raphael is in charge of the conservation of the ancient monuments of Rome.

1517: Raphael receives the order of “Transfiguration”. 1519: He carries out the famous portrait of Margherita Luti, or Fornarina (1519) his mistress. He plans to transport an obelisk to Saint-Peter’s square.

1520: He dies the day of his birthday on April 6, Good Friday, at the age of 37 years of “too much love” according to some, of malaria according to others. His body is exposed at the Vatican, under the Transfiguration, before being transported to the Pantheon. His life remains wrapped of mystery. The artist is famous for his gracious and courteous character, his capacity of seduction and the excellence of his artistic creations.

###

Americans travel gladly. How does their travel behavior look? We like traveling on our continent. We are actually a well-traveled people. Americans are always gladly seen guests. And they are popular because of their humor and probably because of their potential. And our preferred destination out of America is Italy.

In order to be able to assess the international travel market, one must differentiate between three categories: mass travel, then the individual tourists, who are independent with a car, or the luxury-seeking tourists.

Those who drive their rental car individually visit particularly Italy and Croatia. The two countries still rank among the usually-visited destinations. Italy has the preference among our journeys abroad.

However if so-called package tours are booked out and crowded, Italy offers so much more with a private driver, guide and limousine. The numbers of the important tour operators underline the new trends.

That leads to a new trend with package tours and component journeys. More than one third of all tours last between 13 and 15 days; another third between five and eight days. The portion of those who can go more than 22 days on vacation, is small.