Portovenere, Cinque Terre: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore: five antique villages gripping onto a short part of the Levante Ligurian coast between Levanto and Punta del Mesco to the West and Portovenere to the East.
Today, in a regional park, the Cinque Terre are an area of great interest, it's particular features being - terraces where famous white wines grow and olive trees - reefs, houses, stone walls, courageous paths and stone staircases, have been reconstructed and evoked by romantic poets as well as contemporary ones, inspiring not only literature but also music compositions and paintings.
With its narrow streets, walls, castle, and towers, Portovenere- facing the islands of Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto, inhabited by hermits and Benedictine monks has maintained its atmosphere of an antique fortified village, built by the Genovese in the XII century at the very end of the Island which forms the Gulf of La Spezia.
THE TREASURES OF VAL'ORCIA:
Spectacular mixture of art and landscape, the Val d'Orcia - Southern part of Siena, known for its light which characterised the paintings of the 400 and 500's - has become one of the most sought after natural landscapes in Italy.
The beauty of it has become known all over the world - for example: The English Patient or La vita è bella - which publicised architectural and artistic treasures which were well known, such as the urban complexes in Pienza or Montalcino, the abbey of Sant'Antimo, the monastery of Sant'Anna in Camprena, the fortresses of Montalcino, Radicofani and Rocca d'Orcia, the medioeval baths of Bagno Vignoni, the 'grancia' of Spedaletto.
PIAZZA DEL DUOMO IN PISA:
Also called Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles), Piazza del Duomo assembles on its vast green field the highest and most internationally popular examples of Romanesque style of architecture and art. Pisa gained its wealth and fame in the Middle Ages when its ships sailed down the Arno River towards the Mediterranean to make business relations with Spain, the Middle East and northern Africa.
THE TRULLI OF ALBEROBELLO:
It is the best example in western Europe of a housing design inherited by our ancestors. The Trulli are still built with the same dry stone technique that was used in the past, using the lime of the stones found in the fields and excluding the use oof mortar. This procedure was probably adopted in the 17th century when Girolamo II of Acquaviva, count of Conversano, exonerated dry stone buildings from taxes.
S. MARIA DELLE GRAZIE AND LEONARDO'S LAST SUPPER:
The church, one of the greatest creations of the Renaissance in Milan, was completed in 1490. Two years later, Ludovico il Moro decided to make it his family mausoleum, and asked Bramante to modify it for that purpose. He designed the apse, the high dome and the harmonious cloister. At the far end of the large refectory of the former Dominican convent, left of the church, Leonardo frescoed his famous Last Supper between 1494 and 1497, opening a new era in the history of art. Though highly deteriorated due to humidity and because of the technique used, the fresco was miraculously spared from the bombs that in 1943 destroyed the vault and the right wall of the refectory.
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