This is not a full post yet, but an update, and a recommendation. The process of transitioning to new hosting is well underway, bugs are vanishing and new features will be online soon. The site is already loading faster, and other new things will follow. UPDATE: the photo album is now fixed. Links will be […]
Announcing a new page on Ex Urbe (in the Food section), an international Gelato Atlas, listing gelato locations in many cities and countries around the world. It includes my own reviews and suggestions and reviews posted by Ex Urbe readers. Hopefully this will help everyone find good gelato near you! Meanwhile, we have only a […]
“Make everyone read Beccaria!” is one of many sentiments I share with François-Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire. This post was prompted by two things. The first was this comment responding my post about the two recent Borgia TV series, which mentioned TV depictions of horrific pre-modern executions. Jen: “I am watching the final episode of […]
There was a Borgia boom in 2011 when, aiming to capitalize on the commercial success of The Tudors, the television world realized there was one obvious way to up the ante. Not one but two completely unrelated Borgia TV series were made in 2011. Many have run across the American Showtime series The Borgias, but […]
We still have plenty of saints to cover, now that the Machiavelli series is done. In the last edition of Spot the Saint I discussed John the Evangelist, common in crucifixion scenes and in paintings that want an excuse to show a comely young man. But another common reason to depict him is when one, for aesthetic symmetry purposes, […]
(No very specific spoilers for Skyfall appear in this post, just comments on the overall structure & mood). “Why did no one mention this before!” My shriek ricocheted among the fluorescent wooden parrots of the Tex Mex restaurant. “You can shoot a laser through a clear blimp! Now–Yes!–now all the clear blimps that are anchored on top of the villian’s […]
I was racing from my office to the gym yesterday, struggling not to spill orange goo on my 18th century reenactment overcoat while wolfing down instant microwave mac & cheese with my reusable pocket eco-spork, when I finally faced up to the reality that the November demands of academia & inevitable autumn illness were not […]
This is not the promised second installment of my discussion of Machiavelli. I have been too busy to do it properly. In the mean time, however, I have at last (through the good work of my assistant Athan) figured out the web technology share one of my favorite Florentine experiences – something I know Machiavelli […]
A quick review of the architectural centerpieces of Florence. Prices and hours may change arbitrarily (this is Italy, after all). Palazzo Vecchio (Palazzo della Signoria): The old seat of government of the Florentine Republic, later taken over as the seat of the Medici Dukes. The different parts of the building are a micro-history of Renaissance […]
American friends who have traveled extensively in Italy, or some other regions of the Earth, smile with an instant, knowing understanding when I say “bathroom suspense.” I grew up to expect going to the bathroom to be simple, relaxing, an almost unthinking break in which simple repetition and the brief suspension of work and interaction […]
