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In a press announcement issued by the Studio ESSECI press office, authorities have discovered lost pieces of the Golden Tree of Lucignano, a grandiose reliquary created by the famous Sienese goldsmith, Gabriello d'Antonio.The reliquary is considered one of the finest masterpieces of Italian goldsmithing, which is a morphological tripartition (roots, trunk, foliage) and contains the metaphor of the life of Christ in the three different phases: origin, passion, and glory.Measuring 2.70 metres in height, it was created in two stages between 1350 and 1471 from gilded copper, silver and enamel, and features branches decorated with coral, crystals and miniatures on...

Italian archaeologists have unearthed 24 beautifully preserved bronze statues in Tuscany believed to date back to ancient Roman times. The statues were discovered under the muddy ruins of an ancient bathhouse in San Casciano dei Bagni, a hilltop town in the Siena province, about 160km (100 miles) north of the capital Rome. Depicting Hygieia, Apollo and other Greco-Roman gods, the figures are said to be around 2,300 years old. One expert said the find could "rewrite history". Most of the statues - which were found submerged beneath the baths alongside around 6,000 bronze, silver and gold coins - date to...

Church's taxation enrages Italians By Bruce Johnston LONDON SUNDAY TELEGRAPH ROME - The people and politicians of a Tuscan village are in revolt against their bishop after he reinstated a medieval church property tax at heavy new levels. In protest, many devout Roman Catholics are boycotting Mass and withholding collection payments. The bills began arriving over Christmas at the homes of hundreds of property owners in Terricciola, a picturesque village of 4,000 people that sits in rolling, vine-covered hills near Pisa. Many are for large sums, some as high as $2,000. The diocese of Volterra insists that the money is...

The... burial site in the southern Tuscany region of Italy... survived the Roman conquest of Etruria...Analysis of the grave goods (items buried along with the bodies) and burying rituals from the necropolis, one of the few sites untouched by looters in either antiquity or modernity, suggests how the many entrenched and distinct characteristics of the Etruscan population survived in the presence of the dominant Roman power and its associated law.These persistent and complex Etruscan traditions continued for more than two centuries after the Roman conquest in ways that shaped the social, cultural and economic habits of the territory until the...

Rare items believed to have been used as votive offerings to the gods -- including so-called fertility statuettes shaped like a phallus, a womb and a pair of breasts -- have been dug out from the site's mud. So have 3,000 ancient coins, 700 of which are freshly minted -- and still shiny. In the second century AD, Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Carus had the coins thrown into the baths to honor gods watching over his health, as well as that of all Romans traveling to San Casciano for thermal treatment...During Etruscan and Roman times, womb-shaped votive offerings were usually...

The Pelosis may want to skip the wine tasting this time. A little more than a month after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul was busted for DUI in California — leaving him facing jail time — the multi-millionaire couple was spotted at a ritzy resort on the Italian seaside owned by legendary tenor Andrea Bocelli. The Post exclusively obtained photos of the couple — Nancy dressed in all white with Paul clad in dark-colored shorts and shirt — hanging with Bocelli, his wife Veronica Berti, and others at the Alpemare Beach Club. The California Democrat was also pictured in...

Shrouded within the park of Villa Demidoff, in Medici Villas (Unesco World Heritage List, 2013), Pratolino, Vaglia, Tuscany, just 7 miles north of Florence, Italy, there sits a gigantic 16th century sculpture - 14-meter-tall masterpiece statue - known as Colosso dell'Appennino, or the Appennine Colossus. The brooding structure was first erected in 1580 by Flemish sculptor Giambologna, pseudonym of Jean de Boulogne (Douai, 1529 - Florence, 1608).Created between 1579 and 1580, the statue was included in Francesco I de’ Medici’s collection of natural and artificial wonders, and ended up costing twice as much as the works needed to complete the...

Christmas in Tuscany would not be complete without a slice of panforte — the peppery, dried fruit and nut-based spice cake born in the central Tuscan hill town of Siena in the Middle Ages — served with a glass of vin santo, a sweet Italian dessert wine. Several legendary origin stories surround panforte. Some culinary historians believe it was inspired by lokum, aka Turkish delight, the ancient date- and nut-based confection popular in different forms in several Middle Eastern countries to this day, brought back to Tuscany by medieval-era crusaders. According to local lore, Sienese soldiers won the Battle of...

More than 3,000 people were believed to have been killed when the River Arno flooded the streets of Florence on this day in 1333.More than six centuries later, 101 people died when the city was flooded on the same day in 1966. The 50th anniversary of the most recent catastrophe, which took a staggering toll of priceless books and works of art in the Cradle of the Renaissance, is being commemorated in the city today.The 1333 disaster - the first recorded flood of the Arno - was chronicled for posterity by Giovanni Villani, a diplomat and banker living in the...

The Italian peninsula seems to shimmer and shine with history and art, from graceful, full bodied nymphs set against make-believe cypresses and oaks, to crumbling mounds of marble on which lie the almost breathable, almost visible words of lives, songs, and politics past. But before all the art, before the reawakening, before the soldiers cloaked in scarlet and gold, and the senators in their Senate hall...before the reign of emperors and tyrants was a race of peoples whose culture lived on in the greatest empire the world has ever known. They were the Etruscans, a mysterious tribe that scattered throughout...

Geneticists have added an edge to a 2,500-year-old debate over the origin of the Etruscans, a people whose brilliant and mysterious civilization dominated northwestern Italy for centuries until the rise of the Roman republic in 510 B.C. Several new findings support a view held by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus — but unpopular among archaeologists — that the Etruscans originally migrated to Italy from the Near East. Though Roman historians played down their debt to the Etruscans, Etruscan culture permeated Roman art, architecture and religion. The Etruscans were master metallurgists and skillful seafarers who for a time dominated much of...

On the origin of the Etruscan civilisation 00:01 14 February 2007 NewScientist.com news service Michael Day Etruscan cippus (grave marker) in the shape of a warrior head. Found in Orvieto, Italy One of anthropology's most enduring mysteries - the origins of the ancient Etruscan civilisation - may finally have been solved, with a study of cattle. This culturally distinct and technologically advanced civilisation inhabited central Italy from about the 8th century BC, until it was assimilated into Roman culture around the end of the 4th century BC. The origins of the Etruscans, with their own non-Indo-European language, have been debated...

Tuscany's Etruscan claim knockedModern Tuscans not descendants of ancient people, DNA says (ANSA) - Rome, May 16 - The Tuscans' proud claim to be the descendants of the ancient Etruscans has taken a knock . A DNA comparison of Etruscan skeletons and a sample of living Tuscans has thrown up only "tenuous genetic similarities", said lead researcher Guido Barbujani of Ferrara University . "If the Tuscans were the direct descendants of the Etruscans the DNA should be the same," said Barbujani, a genetecist who coordinated the study with Stanford University in the United States . The study, which appears in...

A massive floating effigy of Donald Trump mixed with God Emperor from the game Warhammer 40K surfaced at a parade in Italy. If you thought the giant float of "ugly baby Trump" which started following United States Of America President Donald Trump around since last July was bad, then there's worse things coming your way. At a parade in Italy, a mechanical float of Trump, mashed up with the “God-Emperor” character of the Warhammer 40K video game, took to the skies. And the general consensus for the float was a strong "Um nope." The float which appeared at the annual...

The mainstream media pretends that their scorn for President Trump is almost universally shared overseas. While globalists everywhere (along with their media allies) dislike him for standing up for national sovereignty, a rising tide of populist revolt is shaking them to their core. And Trump is a hero – even a superhero – to the growing number of anti-globalist populists around the world. Stark evidence of this popularity of President Trump comes from Italy, where a populist government won power – though the media tend to ignore this. The Carnival of Viareggio, described as “world-famous” by Medium.com (the website...

It's Yuge!

A giant President Trump float made its debut on the first day of one of Italy’s most famous carnival events this weekend. The Carnevale Di Viargeggio festival in Viareggio, Italy, is attended by about 600,000 people and is famed for its papier-mâché sculptures. The largest of which can be as heavy as 40 tons and often carry a political message. However, to American audience members, one gigantic float stood out: a huge, moving sculpture of President Donald Trump, decked out with wings and golden armor. SEE VIDEO HERE: Italian Carnival displays Massive `Emperor Trump` Float - 10th February 2019

A carnival in Viareggio, Italy featured a massive statue of President Donald J. Trump dressed in power armor from the Warhammer 40k games and books, referencing the popular “God Emperor Trump” meme. The huge statue stood over four stories high, and featured speakers blaring the metal song “Carolus Rex” by Sabaton.

In 990AD, the Archbishop of Canterbury named Sigeric the Serious had a more practical reason to walk to Rome. Having risen into his prestigious office, he needed to visit the Vatican to be ordained and collect his official garments. At the time he made the journey, there were many different paths to Rome. But Sigeric, who’d left from Canterbury, wrote down his route home through Italy, Switzerland, France and into the UK, cataloguing the towns he stayed in on his journey. The route he took now makes up the official Via Francigena. The only part that cannot be completed on...

These sweeping photos certainly command attention. The stunning shots have been revealed as the winners of an international panoramic photography contest. Both professional and amateur photographers were invited to enter their best landscape shots for the Epson International Pano Awards 2018 in a bid to win more than $50,000 (£38,000) in cash. And this year's competition received 4,937 entries from 1,251 photographers in 74 countries. The overall winner of the contest was Veselin Atanasov from Bulgaria, who impressed with his shot of the sun rising over a tree-lined hill in Tuscany. We were also very taken with the shot of...