Tweets of last week - August 31 to September 5

Monday
Do you know about the Montessori method of education of children? Fascinating story: http://bit.ly/opbJ5

Tuesday
Hadrian IV has been the only English Pope until now (1154-59). He was also the only one to place Rome under interdict: http://tr.im/xChE

Wednesday
@sooziq ... and everybody else: 5 great enogastronomic itineraries in #Tuscany http://tr.im/xHh0

Thursday
Who knows Adriano Banchieri (1568-1634)? Composer of madrigal comedies, precursor of opera. Read and listen here: http://tr.im/xM8h #Italy

Friday
Today in 476AD Romulus Augustus was deposed by Odoacer, marking the end of the Western Roman Empire http://tr.im/xQYB

Saturday
Did u know that Italian Parliament forgot to adopt officially Mameli's Hymn as the Italian National Anthem for 60 years? http://tr.im/xWan

Tweets of this week - August 23-29

Monday
According to tradition 2day Vesuvium destroyed Pompei in 79AD. Learn how Roman delicacy garum helps to confirm this date http://tr.im/wYkB

Tuesday
The tomatoes "a' piennolo" (pendulum) are the secret to cook the real Neapolitan Pizza http://tr.im/l0M8

Wednesday
The fascinating biography of one of the most controversial XVIII century men: the Count of Cagliostro http://tr.im/x8aR

Visiting the earthquake area in Abruzzo: this is S. Demetrio ne' Vestini http://twitpic.com/fbcdh

Thursday
Want to speak Latin? Try the easier Latino sine flexione invented in 1903 by the Italian prominent mathematician G. Peano http://tr.im/xeAe

Friday
The chilly wind Tramontana owes its name to the small town of Tramonti on the Amalfi Coast. It's "the wind from Tramonti".

Saturday
Cortona, #Italy spotlights historic books outlawed during their day for their radical ideas http://tr.im/xp3R

Dante's mentor Guido Cavalcanti is widely regarded as the first major italian poet. Look at his original "anatomy of love" http://tr.im/xp9G

Tweets of this week- August 17-22

Monday
Big project to show all the 1,119 sheets of Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Atlanticus in Milan, #Italy starting Sep 10th http://tr.im/wwpy

Thursday
Maybe not everybody knows that Roman religion is still alive around the world. Look at Nova Roma, for example: http://tr.im/wACS

Wednesday
There are claims that Parmigiano has been used as collateral for loans since Middle Age. It is now for sure: http://tr.im/wFAq

Tuesday
Do you need a comprehensive library of original Latin texts? The Latin Library is THE solution: http://tr.im/wKcG

You can drink Mulsum while you read masterpieces from the Latin Library. It's a drink made of wine and honey. Recipe here http://tr.im/wKdF

Friday
Hippies did not invent Free Love: in 1346 Meco del Sacco's followers fled to Furore (Amalfi Coast) because accused of such heresy

Saturday
Stilico http://tr.im/wSsP stopped barbaric invasions for 30 years. Killed by his Emperor out of fear, Rome was sacked by Alaric in 410

Allegory is not always so allegoric

Allegory is a very common theme in Renaissance paintings, but sometimes it has very strong ties with everyday reality instead.

Take the"Pallas and the Centaur painting of Sandro Botticell (circa 1482), which is housed at the Uffizi in Florence now.

This is what wikipedia writes about it:

Pallas and the Centaur is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli, circa 1482. It is housed in the Uffizi of Florence. The painting was discovered in 1895,[1]
An inventory dating from 1499, which was not discovered until 1975, lists the property of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco and his brother Giovanni and states that in the 15th century the Primavera had been displayed in Florence's city palace, and that the painting of "Pallas and the Centaur" (though the title is conventional) was hung above a door in the same room as the former. The Medici commission is showed by the presence of three rings interwoven on the dress of Pallas.
The painting's bare landscape focuses one's gaze on the two figures. A centaur has trespassed on forbidden territory. This lusty being, half horse and half man, is being brought under control by a guard-nymph armed with a shield and halberd, and she has grabbed him by the hair. The woman has been identified both as the goddess Pallas Athena and the Amazon Camilla, chaste heroine of Virgil's Aeneid. What is undisputed is the moral content of the painting, in which virtue is victorious over sensuality through the use of reason. The two parts of the human soul, reason and instinct fighting one another, are represented by the double nature of the centaur. The latter, whose classical epithet is Chiron was maybe inspired by some classic relief, though the pathetic expression is wholly by Botticelli.
This painting marks the end of Botticelli's Medicean period, from this point onwards the subject-matter of his paintings changes and becomes increasingly religious. (Cited from Wikipedia).

Very educative.

But... if you read also Lorenzo The Peasant's biography on Wikipedia, you may discover a different, and very common, reality:

He was also supposedly the metaphorical subject of Botticelli's Pallas Athene Taming a Centaur, which was a gift to him from his distant cousin Lorenzo de' Medici (il Magnifico), on the occasion of his marriage to Semiramide d'Appiani. Il Magnifico apparently knew Lorenzo to be of brutal and debauched character, and it is supposed that in this painting he was trying to indicate that she should bring Lorenzo under control.

Today strike against the Alfano Bill

To read more about it http://dirittoallarete.ning.com (in Italian) or this short summary (in English).

Off topic but very important

Italian Parliament is debating about the so-called "Alfano Bill". If approved as it is, it will introduce actual censorship against all the social networks like Facebook, Twitter, etc... by requiring them to oblige to an impossible task. They will be heavily fined (between 7.500 and 12.500 euros), if they don't remove fake or offensive contents in less than 48 hours since they are "requested" to. No blogger can afford it and management costs would be so heavy for sites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter that you have to wonder if they will keep offering their services in Italy.

Tweetaly is not about politics so it will not be interested directly, but censorship is not acceptable. That's why Tweetaly will be "on strike" on July 14th like many other Italian blogs.

To know more about it: http://dirittoallarete.ning.com/ (in Italian).

The Girandola at S. Angelo Castle

Fantastic fireworks show in Rome yesterday to renew the old tradition of the "Girandola" interrupted for obscure reasons in 1861.

Before talking about the Girandola it is important to understand that S. Angelo Castle is the heart of Rome. Visitors may be more familiar with St. Peter or the Coliseum as Rome's icon, but for a Roman they represent Catholic Church and the long time dead Roman Empire. S. Angelo Castle is still alive. It was born as Emperor Hadrian's mausoleum, then it was transformed in a castle when the power of Rome started to fade a couple of centuries later. It was such a stronghold that to own the castle always meant to rule Rome. Indeed, S. Angelo Castle has been the symbol of power in Rome. During Renaissance it became the favourite (and safer) residence of the Pope with continuous addition of layers and embellishments. Bottom line: you can read Rome's history examining the many layers of S. Angelo Castle. Today it is still very alive: it hosts many exhibits inside, but Romans keep jogging and playing soccer along its moat too.

The Girandola was introduced for the first time in 1481 to celebrate Pope Sisto IV. Fireworks were designed by Michelangelo and then refined later by Bernini, who took inspiration from the Stromboli volcano. The show was held to celebrate the Easter, but above all to honor new Popes and Royal visitors in Rome. Big machines were placed over the castle to create fireworks able to impress visitors from all over Europe. Dickens wrote about them and there are many paintings too. The best architects were hired to design them: Michelangelo, Bernini, Vanvitelli, Fuga to name some.

But enough talk!

Enjoy some pictures in this on-line gallery. Their quality may not be perfect, but for sure it is way better than the pics I posted in real-time on Twitter using the lousy camera of my iPhone.