Tag Archives: UNESCO

Urbino: Ideal Renaissance city drowned in a sea of drunken students

How could I help it?  I idealized Urbino. Even though I’ve long maintained a vigilant stance against romanticizing people and places alike, this was Urbino: Renaissance mecca for humanists, scholars, art and architecture.   The location, in the isolated and mountainous region of Italy’s Marche, combined with being a university town filled me with visions of […]

Lübeck, Germany: brick Gothic or bust

We walked to the peninsula that encloses the old town of Lübeck, in the far North of Germany, towards….hmmm, a giant cone bra???  Well, actually, it was the Holstentor: a fortified medieval gate and my introduction to brick Gothic.  I’ve long been a drooling aficionado of Gothic architecture, especially it’s carved stone elements and sculpture.  Bricks, though, […]

The Apocalypse Tapestry in Angers and why I’m glad I’ve studied Revelations

After several hours of gaping in awe at the Apocalypse Tapestry in Angers, France, I kept thinking “Why isn’t this masterpiece world famous?”  Well, perhaps it is famous in France, but in the states you’d need to be a big medieval art nerd to have heard about it. The most likely reason  is it’s a difficult […]