Category Archive: Italy

Bernini and Borromini are two extraordinary Baroque architects who created great energetic theatrical architectural designs. Both of them created convex and concaves, curvy, and elliptical forms in their designs which gave a very typical Baroque trace. Bernini’s Sant’ Andrea al Quirnale, and Borromini’s San Carlo alle Quatro Fontane and Sant’ Agnese have concave and convex […]

After being in the polluted city of graffiti, I was eager to get out of the city and see the true green side of Italy. While I was on the bus heading to Tivoli, a little town outside of Rome, I looked out at the window and saw graffiti on the wall of the buildings, […]

During the first few days of the trip, I passed by several posters hanging on the wall depicting images hating our president of the United States and mottos saying “No Bush No War” and “Push Bush Out”.  I was under the impression that these signs were for American tourists letting us know that Italy is […]

The Trevi Fountain or also known as Fontana di Trevi, is a grand, magnificent wishing fountain. Quite a few people who believe in superstition throw coins in this fountain to try to earn their wish. I was mistakenly thinking that Bernini, a very well known Baroque sculptor, completed these sculptures at this beautiful fountain because […]

I am standing in a large well-known room and looking at the ceiling with an expected astonishment. My eyes gaze at the familiar images that I have seen in art history textbooks throughout my life. Two nude guys touching each other’s finger, a famous image called “The Creation of Adam,” and more and more and […]

This painting, La Fornarina, by Raphael which hangs in the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica Palazzo Barberini. When I first saw this painting, I was tricked by thinking it was done by Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres, a Baroque artist, because this painting is beautifully sketched out before paint was put on the canvas. We, the viewers, can […]

We crossed the Tiber River which lead us to a medieval suburb of Trasverse, and then to the Janiculum Hill to see a well known Renaissance architecture building, “Il Tempietto” done by Donato Bramante. The building was begun in 1502. Even though this piece seems famous – less, it’s very well – known to the […]

This morning, I trekked through the Roman towns. As I always have seen in the past few days, cigarettebutts nearly filling in the cracks of the cobblestones and paper lying on the roads and sidewalks as no one seem to care about taking a few extra steps to the trash can. Graffiti were filling up […]

As we walk up the steps of the United States Capitol building or take a photograph of the White House in Washington D.C., we certainly wonder where the inspiration of the designs of the white marble or concrete material, ionic, doric, and cornithian columns that stand in rows beautifully on the front of the white […]

After a few hours of touring Rome, I came to a realization that Rome is a multilayered book. In other words, Rome is flourished with artifacts and architectural structures from every period we can name – Ancient Rome, Renaissance, and Baroque. Reading a city is like a book. Pallumcest – architectural structures and designs of […]