Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
The name of the villa was inspired by the story of Dionysus who watched Ariadne while she slept. It was excavated first by the Bourbons but was buried again. Later in the 50s, digs were resumed and now, it can be visited in all its glory.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
The Villa San Marco is an amazingly well-preserved luxury villa from the Augustan period, with a wonderful panoramic view of Vesuvius and the gulf of Naples. Marika shows us around the four nuclei of the villa.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
After Stabiae was razed to the ground in a war, the Romans decided to build some luxury villas in the area. Luckily, some archeological digs led by archeologist Libro D'Orsi were effectuated in the 1950s, and 3 villas came to light.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
In 1749, King Charles of Bourbon (Charles III of Spain) or Carlo Terzo di Borbone, who was King of Naples at the time, commissioned an important campaign of archeological digs in an area near that city. Marika tells us the story.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Ungaretti mentions 2 poets who attracted him as a youth: Mallarmé and Leopardi. He talks about the famous poem Alla primavera, o delle favole antiche by Leopardi but gets the title wrong. You can see the entire poem (in Italian) here.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Ungaretti talks about how he got his start. He frequented a café in Paris, where artists and poets would gather.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
After thanking his host for his kind words, Ungaretti begins talking about his life. He gives a lot of credit to young people, first of all.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Ettore Della Giovanna, noted Italian journalist (1912-2004), interviews Giuseppe Ungaretti, considered one of the greatest poets of his time, besides having been a writer and scholar.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Ancient culture merged with "modern" culture, especially after Constantine created the new capital of the Roman Empire, Constantinople. Near Matera in Basilicata, even caves built into the rock face became churches. The frescoes on those walls are quite stunning.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
If you have ever visited Italy, you have probably run across the term pinacoteca describing a picture gallery, and wondered where it came from. You will find out in this video about a room called the "tablinum" in the Assisi domus, discovered because they wanted to build an elevator!
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Parking is a problem in medieval hilltop towns and cities (especially those attractive to tourists), so one solution is to build an elevator to get from parking further down the hill, up to the center of town. But, you never know what you are going to find when excavating. In Assisi, they certainly hit the jackpot, right in the center of town: A roman domus.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
We're in Assisi, where, during some excavations, a domus was discovered. It's clear it belonged to a wealthy family because of the richness of the wall and floor decorations, and might even have been the home of the poet Propertius.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
With a look at one of the greatest Etruscan masterpieces in the Villa Giulia museum, we take our leave of Rome to journey to the Umbrian city of Assisi, or, as it was called in Roman times, Assisium.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
The Etruscans were influenced by other ethnic groups, particularly the Greeks. On display in the National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia, we find evidence of this in the terracotta objects and fine gold jewelry and precious objects dating from the period.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
We get a look at the tomb, in terracotta, of a noblewoman. The clay allows for detail, where tombs in Macco do not. We then go to Rome, to the most important Etruscan museum, where we see once again, what an important role the afterlife played in the lives (and deaths) of the Etruscans.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
We're still in Tarquinia and we visit the tomb of Aninas. We gain some insight into the alphabet the Etruscans used, allowing us to recognize some names, but unfortunately, they didn't leave much in the way of writings to allow us to know much more.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
This magnificent, colorful tomb, dating to twenty-five hundred years ago, depicts a banquet in honor of the deceased, who is clearly a young man. It's a virtual time capsule.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
The Matuna family tomb contains many plaster reproductions of everyday objects, adding to the story of how the Etruscans lived. We move on to Tarquinia, where the tombs were carved out of a sedimentary limestone called Macco, allowing the colorful wall paintings to be preserved.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
One of the most famous tombs is that of the Matuna family. The reproductions and depictions of objects found there, ranging from everyday tools to ceremonial and funereal ones, allows us a glimpse of what life would have been like in this ancient civilization.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
There were different kinds of tombs built by the Etruscans. Alberto Angela explains how and why they were made the way they were. He also takes us into one of the most famous and beautiful Etruscan tombs.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
The Etruscans were an important part of Italy's ancient history, and its lands extended for a large expanse of the peninsula. We visit Banditaccia a Cerveteri, a necropolis north of Rome.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
This episode takes us to Sardinia where we see the ancient, majestic stone buildings, unique to Sardinia, called nuraghi.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
This episode of Wonders concludes, as we await more treasures to discover.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
We visit the interior of Villa Coldogno and see to what extent Andrea Palladio was ahead of his time as an architect, and how he was able to combine functionality and elegance.
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