Apennine MountainsThe Apennines or Apennine Mountains (ˈæpənaɪn; Ἀπέννινα ὄρη or Ἀπέννινον ὄρος; Appenninus or Apenninus Mons – a singular with plural meaning; Appennini appenˈniːni) are a mountain range consisting of parallel smaller chains extending along the length of peninsular Italy. In the northwest they join with the Ligurian Alps at Altare. In the southwest they end at Reggio di Calabria, the coastal city at the tip of the peninsula.
LiguriaLiguria (lɪˈgjʊəɹiə; liˈɡuːrja; Ligûria liˈɡyːɾja) is a region of north-western Italy; its capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennines mountain range and is roughly coextensive with the former territory of the Republic of Genoa. Liguria is bordered by France (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) to the west, Piedmont to the north, and Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany to the east. It rests on the Ligurian Sea, and has a population of 1,557,533. The region is part of the Alps–Mediterranean Euroregion.
The Birth of VenusThe Birth of Venus (Nascita di Venere ˈnaʃʃita di ˈvɛːnere) is a painting by the Italian artist Sandro Botticelli, probably executed in the mid 1480s. It depicts the goddess Venus arriving at the shore after her birth, when she had emerged from the sea fully-grown (called Venus Anadyomene and often depicted in art). The painting is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. Although the two are not a pair, the painting is inevitably discussed with Botticelli's other very large mythological painting, the Primavera, also in the Uffizi.
LiguresThe Ligures or Ligurians were an ancient people after whom Liguria, a region of present-day north-western Italy, is named. In pre-Roman times, the Ligurians occupied the present-day Italian region of Liguria, Piedmont, northern Tuscany, western Lombardy, western Emilia-Romagna and northern Sardinia, reaching also Elba and Sicily. They inhabited also the French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and Corsica. However, it is generally believed that around 2000 BC, the Ligurians occupied a much larger area, extenting as far as what today is Catalonia (in the north-eastern corner of the Iberian Peninsula).
VillaA villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity, sometimes transferred to the Church for reuse as a monastery. Then they gradually re-evolved through the Middle Ages into elegant upper-class country homes.
Dante AlighieriDante Alighieri (ˈdante aliˈɡjɛːri; 1265 – 14 September 1321), most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (ˈdɑːnteɪ,_ˈdænteɪ,_ˈdænti, USˈdɑːnti), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His Divine Comedy, originally called Comedìa (modern Italian: Commedia) and later christened Divina by Giovanni Boccaccio, is widely considered one of the most important poems of the Middle Ages and the greatest literary work in the Italian language.
Duchy of Modena and ReggioThe Duchy of Modena and Reggio (Ducato di Modena e Reggio; Ducatus Mutinae et Regii; Duchêt ed Mòdna e Rèz) was an Italian state created in 1452 located in Northwestern Italy, in the present day region of Emilia-Romagna. It was ruled since its establishment by the noble House of Este, and since 1814 by the Austria-Este branch of the family. The Este dynasty was a great sponsor of the arts, making the Duchy a cultural reference during the Renaissance and Baroque periods.
Piero della FrancescaPiero della Francesca (ˌpjɛəroʊ_ˌdɛlə_frænˈtʃɛskə, USalso-_frɑːnˈ-, ˈpjɛːro della franˈtʃeska; ; 1415 – 12 October 1492) was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. To contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer. Nowadays Piero della Francesca is chiefly appreciated for his art. His painting is characterized by its serene humanism, its use of geometric forms and perspective. His most famous work is the cycle of frescoes The History of the True Cross in the church of San Francesco in the Tuscan town of Arezzo.
Papal StatesThe Papal States (ˈpeɪpəl ; Stato Pontificio; Dicio Pontificia), officially the State of the Church (Stato della Chiesa ˈstaːto della ˈkjɛːza; Status Ecclesiasticus), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope from 756 until 1870. They were among the major states of Italy from the 8th century until the unification of Italy, between 1859 and 1870. The state had its origins in the rise of Christianity throughout Italy, and with it the rising influence of the Christian Church.
Renaissance humanismRenaissance humanism was a worldview centered on the nature and importance of humanity, that emerged from the study of Classical antiquity. This first began in Italy and then spread across Western Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. During the period, the term humanist (umanista) referred to teachers and students of the humanities, known as the studia humanitatis, which included the study of Latin and Ancient Greek literatures, grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, and moral philosophy.
