Carlo Ponti and Sophia Loren's Roman villa

Carlo Ponti and Sophia Loren's home in Rome captured by LIFE photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt in 1964.

Fabio Novembre

This video on Euromaxx, Deutsche Welle, features Italian architect and designer Fabio Novembre who has converted an old building in eastern Milano, Italy, into a space that allows him to combine his professional and personal life.

La belle jardinière

When I first saw this episode of the Gilmore Girls, I was so excited to see that Emily Gilmore had a Raphael cushion that I had to go back and screenshot it.

La belle jardinière

Raphael, 1507

Oil on panel, 122 x 80 cm

Musée du Louvre, Paris

La belle jardinière, also known as Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist, was painted by Raffaelo Sanzio da Urbino, more famously known as Raphael, under commission by the Sienese patrician, Fabrizio Sergardi. Raphael's works depict a soft modelling of forms and figures with a graceful piety, and it is evident that he was influenced by the chiaroscuro techniques of Leonardo. Raphael painted many scenes of the Madonna and Child, but this one is among the most famous.

Palazzo Orsini

This incredible palazzo was built on top of a teatro, and it is now for sale! Palazzo Orsini is situated in the centre of Rome, and is currently on the market for £26 million. The palace includes frescoed staterooms, a ballroom, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a library, a dining room, a terrace overlooking the Tiber, a separate penthouse, and cellars which lead to ancient Roman arches. The gardens boast numerous fountains and orange trees. But what is perhaps most special about this property is the fact that the building has been built on top of the Theatre of Marcellus, Teatro di Marcello, a stone and marble structure from the 1st Century BC that resembles a small Colosseum.

There is good reason for the frenzy and the asking price of this property; it is rare for palazzi to be sold to the public, generally they are kept within the family for centuries. The palace is being sold by the family of Dame Iris Origo, who was famous for her book, War in the Val'd'Orcia: An Italian War Diary, which describes her experience in Italy from 1943-44. Marrying an Italian aristocrat, Antonio Origo, they together bought an estate near Siena, Tuscany, and looked after refugee children, families who had been affected by the war, escaped prisoners of war, and Allied airmen.

She rented and then bought Palazzo Orsini in the 1950’s. Teatro di Marcello was designed to seat 20,000, begun by Julius Caesar, and completed in 11BC by Emperor Augustus, who named it after his favourite nephew. It was abandoned in the 4th Century AD, but was later reconstructed in the Middle Ages, with the removal of the top tier of seating and columns, it was turned into a fortress for the Fabii. Finally, in the 18th Century, the Orsini family built their home upon the travertine blocks of the theatre.


Oh Rome, you are so magnificent. Someone please buy me this.

Sources: Telegraph; Daily Mail