Europe Travel
Guest Post by Katie Greenaway
Volterra is a magnificent town to visit in the fall and winter when the fields have just been ploughed. The gorgeous views of this hill town are absolutely amazing. There are many attractions you are able explore in Volterra. Here are a few…
1) Piazza dei Priori is the central hub of the town, which houses the Palazzo dei Priori, Palazzo Pretorio and Palazzo del Podesta. Palazzo dei Priori with it’s powerful tower, is the oldest town hall in Tuscany. The town council still meets here. The Palazzo was built in 1208 and it was finished in 1257. The windows of the first floor were altered and the upper part of the tower was redone and modified in 1846.
2) Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta is located in Piazza San Giovanni with a 12th-century facade Pisan style. The lower part of the church was updated in the 16th century. Adding three large windows and a doorway which was decorated in the lunette (little half-moon shape) with green and white marble. The tall square campanile dates back to 1493. The interior was rebuilt in the latter part of the 16th century, it has a Latin-cross plan with five chapels. The nave and aisles were divided by columns of painted stucco and capitals by Leonardo Ricciarelli.
3) The Roman theatre is located near the wooden gate, Porta Fiorentina, which was built at the end of the 1st century BC. It is one of the best preserved theatres in Italy. The excavations began in 1952 by Enrico Fiumi. He uncovered two tiers of Corinthian columns that are over 5 meters high. It was one of his best discoveries. Inside the theatre can also be seen the remains of the Roman baths. If it is closed or you don’t want to pay the fee, you can see the whole scene from the street above called Via Lungo le Mura del Mandorlo.
4) Via San Lino is part of the oldest district of town. The church of San Lino has unique paintings and lunettes of the life of Christ by Cosimo Daddi. The tomb of the founder of the church Raffaele Maffei was completed by Silvio Cosini and is located inside. Via San Lino ends in Piazza Inghirami. The Inghirami family still owns the church located in this piazza, church of San Dalmazio. Which has a Renaissance doorway that dates back to 1516 and an alter piece signed and dated by the artist in 1551, a local painter, Giovan Paolo Rossetti.
5) The Etruscan gate or Porta all’Arco, sits behind Piazza San Giovanni and the baptistery. It was used as the main entrance to the town. It dates back to the 3rd and 4th century BC and was partly rebuilt by the Romans in the 1st century BC. The round arch is decorated with heads of said Etruscan divinities. It is a strong treasure of the town in which it has persevered through sieges and war. In 1944, the volterrani (townspeople of Volterra) filled the arch with paving stones to strengthen its resistance from shelling and bombing. The street below the arch, Via Porta all’Arco curves back uphill to the main square Piazza dei Priori.
Katie Greenaway is a freelance travel writer and is the Local Expert of Florence for Nile Guide where she also provides the secrets of Florence on her blog. She writes about her life in Florence on her personal blog Olio di Oliva e Sogni di Vino and contributes toMNUI Travel Insurance with travel articles.
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Another main attraction of Louvre Museum, apart from the Mona Lisa, is the statue of Venus de Milo. It was also one of my reason to pay €9.5 to get into the museum in Paris. She is so adorable to me not because of her nude bust (should I say not only? 
), but her pose and her broken arms and hands. There are too many imagination by sculptors later on how she posed both her arms and hands , but all failed to match Venus body posture and her face expression. This is the mystery of the Venus de Milo that draws thousands of visitors each day into the museum.
The Venus de Milo, a sculpture being carved in 2nd and 1st century B.C., was discovered in April 1820 on the Greek Aegean island of Melos (Milo) in the Cyclades. It is believed to be a portrayal of Aphrodite (Venus in Roman), the goddess of Love . Both the statue’s arms and hands have never been found. The statue is made up of 2 separately carved marble block, the naked upper torso and the draped legs. These separate blocks are joined with iron dowels, a technique characteristic of the workshops in the area at that time. The audacious twisting spiral of the pose, with its multiple planes, and the drapery slipping down over her thighs, have made it a masterpiece of the late Hellenistic period.
This is actually a sneak preview of my travel photos captured in the Louvre Museum of Paris. Full collections of my photos would be featured in upcoming story of the Louvre Museum Travel by Photos. – Travel Feeder, your ultimate travel photo blog.
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Louvre Palace is a huge square complex consisting of buildings that constructed around courtyards in the city centre of Paris. If you are coming from the Arc de Triump, Louvre Palace is at the other end of Avenue des Champs-Élysées, the Paris famous shopping street. It is also the site for the Louvre Museum of [...]
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Don’t get me wrong. Traveling within Europe is generally safe and fun. You should be able to enjoy every second of your travel in Europe. But unlucky things do happen somehow, somewhere, if you are unlucky. Any unwanted incidence happened, even though minor, could ruin your whole trip. Precautions are always better than cure. A [...]
Guest Post by Lisa Fantino If you’re visiting London but looking to escape the city, here is a top 5 list of city escapes less than one hour by train from central London. Royal Windsor/Eton – This is a lovely day trip to a place where knights and queens truly do roam. Windsor Castle is [...]
