Pedestrianization of the city continues with plans for both Oltrarno and Piazzale Michelangelo to be car-free in 2015. Piazza del Carmine’s famous carpark will be reduced to the piazza’s perimeter by January 12, clearing the center for use by pedestrians. City officials anticipate that the piazza will already be more pedestrian-friendly in …
A dazzling newly lit Sistine Chapel is shining after three years of preparations. The innovations enable the frescoes to survive the rigors of mass tourism, as the Vatican seeks to reduce the number of visitors to the chapel and the time of each visit. “Visitors to the Vatican Museums are going to be offered …
A 70-year-old Italian Canadian woman recently returned a first-century AD terracotta roof decoration that she stole from Pompeii. The woman repented her theft of the antefix – a carved vertical slab blocking the covering tiles of an ancient roof – from a colonnaded courtyard behind the theater at the archaeological site in June 1964 during …
The University of Pisa has devised a new and patented method of extracting extra-virgin olive oil. Designed by agricultural scientists at the University of Pisa led by Professor Gianpaolo Andrich, the innovative technique uses dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) to achieve a nine percent average higher yield (17.4kg instead of 16kg of product …