Art and Travel

(ANSA) - Florence, March 19 - A major new exhibition expected to draw visitors from across Europe opens in Sweden on Saturday, bringing together work by Italy's three Renaissance superstars: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael.

The exhibition in the southwest city of Gothenburg is being billed as once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to view the output of all three great masters side-by-side in a single event.

(ANSA) - Pompeii, March 18 - A 2,000-year-old snack-bar in the Ancient Roman city of Pompeii will 'open for business' once more this Sunday, with a special one-off event marking its restoration.

A limited number of visitors to the Campanian archaeological site will be taken on a 45-minute guided tour of the Thermopolium (snack-bar) of Vetutius Placidus, which was previously closed to members of the public.

Once inside the thermopolium, participants will also be treated to a typical Roman snack of the type once served to customers.

(ANSA) - Rome, March 18 - A rave Caravaggio show in Rome will stay open until 23:30 for the next three weekends to cope with an Easter influx of tourists, organisers said Thursday.

The show, which brings together for the first time the Renaissance master's 24 authenticated masterpieces, has been pulling in record crowds since it opened last month and is expected to draw even more, said organiser Emmanuele Francesco Maria Emanuele.

(ANSA) - Venice, March 18 - Getting into St Mark's in Venice will be easier this year - for those prepared to spend a euro to book up and avoid the lines.

St Mark's on Thursday unveiled its 'InsideTelebooking' system that will get users inside the famous basilica by a side door.

Tour operators will be able to use the system from Monday and it will be online for everyone else on April 1.

The 11th-century church, one of the finest examples of Byzantine architecture, is visited by some two million people a year.

Entrance is free.

(ANSA) - Rome, March 16 - A Museum of Magic is soon to become Turin's newest tourist attraction, according to a local magician who said Tuesday both the city and the Piedmont region had signed onto the project.

Quick-change artist Arturo Brachetti said an abandoned ex-church in the city center would house the museum in a tribute to the industrial city's esoteric side.

According to believers, Turin is at the intersection of "white magic axis" with Lyon and Prague and a "black magic axis" with London and San Francisco.

(ANSA) - Rome, March 16 - For the third time in the past five years ample areas along the banks of the Tiber River are at risk of being flooded for a total of 6,867 hectares, according to a report from environmental group Legambiente.

The report, drawn up for the national association of municipal governments ANCI, said flooding was expected in 154 municipalities in the three regions the Tiber runs through from its source in Monte Fumaiolo to Fiumicino, where it empties into the Tyrrhenian Sea.

(ANSA) - Milan, March 15 - Testing on Italy's second body scanner began on Monday at Milan's Malpensa airport where Interior Minister Roberto Maroni urged other European Union countries to take Italy's lead.

"We're experimenting with these machines having determined that they pose no risks to either health or privacy, and expect other European countries to do the same," said Maroni during a ribbon-cutting appearance at Malpensa.

(ANSA) - Rome, March 12 - The following is a city-by-city guide to some of Italy's art exhibitions:

AOSTA - Forte di Bard: Wildlife Photographer of the Year; best 100 photos of 2009 chosen by BBC and London's Natural History Museum; until March 25.

BASSANO DEL GRAPPA - Museo Civico: 22 works by 16th-century master Jacopo da Ponte, show marks 500th anniversary of birth; until June 13.

BRESCIA - Museo di Santa Giulia: Inca, Origins and Mysteries of the Civilisation of Gold; 250 artefacts, until June 27.

(ANSA) - Naples, March 12 - Naples residents woke up Friday to the unseasonal sight of snow on Vesuvius.

The mist and rainclouds that had ringed the volcano for days rolled away to reveal a heavy white topping.

Snow is unusual on Vesuvius at this time of the year but, like the rest of Italy, Naples has been hit by a late cold snap over the past week. photo: Vesuvius in February last year

(ANSA) - Milan, March 12 - The story of an infamous nun who took a lover, conspired in the murders he committed, and inspired a character in Alessandro Manzoni's masterpiece I Promessi Sposi is the focus of a exhibition here looking at the confinement of 16th-century noblewomen in Italy.

(ANSA) - Ravenna, March 10 - The impact of Italian art on Britain's influential 19th-century Pre-Raphaelite movement is explored in a new exhibition in the coastal town of Ravenna.

The event is Italy's first ever on the movement as a whole and aims to provide the Italian public with an overview of their work.

Founded in the second half of the 1800s by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the Pre-Raphaelites sought to break with artistic convention of the day.

They called for a revival of spontaneity and passion for nature, which they believed had been lost during the Mannerist revolution sparked by Raphael.

(ANSA) - Ravenna, March 10 - The impact of Italian art on Britain's influential 19th-century Pre-Raphaelite movement is explored in a new exhibition in the coastal town of Ravenna.

The event is Italy's first ever on the movement as a whole and aims to provide the Italian public with an overview of their work.

Founded in the second half of the 1800s by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the Pre-Raphaelites sought to break with artistic convention of the day.

(ANSA) - Rome, March 10 - The Colosseum is to be restored, protected and lit up permanently in a project starting later this year.

The 2,000-year-old symbol of Rome will be cleared of decades of grime, said Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno.

The grungy and precarious state of the monument has been a "daily worry", Alemanno said.

The complete restoration of the almost 13,000 square meters of exterior walls will take some 20 million euros and about a year to complete.

(ANSA) - Siena, March 9 - A Medieval market will be held at the central Piazza del Campo here this weekend as this Tuscan city marks the 700 years from its 'Costituto' which set up the Republic of Siena.

The event is part of a series of activities including exhibitions, shows and seminars which began last September.

This weekend's market will be a repeat of one held last November at the start of the anniversary.

Piazza del Campo is one of the symbols of Siena and is best known for the staging twice a year of the famous Palio horse race.

(ANSA) - Rome, March 9 - Thermometers plummeted around Italy on Tuesday as a late winter storm brought a wave of rain, snow and freezing temperatures to the country just weeks ahead of the first day of Spring.

Temperatures in the Alps dropped as low as -21.4 degrees C (-5.8 F) in the town of Sestriere near Turin and -18 C (-0.4 F) in Tarvisano in the northeastern corner of the Dolomites.

Authorities in Trieste reported hurricane force winds blowing in from the Adriatic Sea early Tuesday morning.