May 2018

  • Bookshops in Budapest

    Bookshops in Budapest

    As bookshops continue to close down in cities across the world, the pleasure of browsing becomes ever more difficult to indulge. Shopping online is undeniably convenient, if you know precisely which title you want to buy. But how do you find out about those books you never knew you wanted?…

  • Living with Leonardo

    Living with Leonardo

    Some time ago I was sitting next to a retired surgeon at a dinner party. I asked him how he filled his time. He told me that he had discovered the anatomical drawings of Leonardo da Vinci and was so astonished by their accuracy that he had taken to lecturing…

  • Budapest at the Biennale

    When the Szabadsรกg hรญd (Freedom Bridge) that spans the Danube in Budapest had to be closed to traffic for essential repairs and maintenance in 2016, the city seized the opportunity to turn the traffic-free road- and tramway into a public space, a floating park above the water, where people young…

  • The Zeugma Mosaics Saga

    The Zeugma Mosaics Saga

    Visitors to southeast Turkey will be familiar with the โ€˜Gipsy Girlโ€™, the portrait of a young lady (actually a maenad, one of the frenzied followers of Dionysus) exhibited amid tight security at the Gaziantep Museum. The imageโ€”featured on the cover of Blue Guide Southeastern Turkeyโ€”is now so ubiquitous (second only…

  • News from Syracuse

    News from Syracuse

    Blue Guide Sicily author Ellen Grady has some updates from Syracuse, where, on the island of Ortygia, the old city, there’s a useful new Tourist Infopoint just behind the cathedral, at Via Minerva 4. It has up-to-date information on opening hours of the museums and the archaeological sites in Syracuse…

  • Titian in Brescia

    Titian in Brescia

    Tiziano e la pittura del cinquecento tra Venezia e Brescia is an exhibition curently running (until 1 July) in the Museo di Santa Giulia in the Lombard town of Brescia. The centrepiece is Titianโ€™s Averoldi polyptychโ€”although it is in fact only present in a dramatic video show as the curators…

  • Raphael in Bergamo

    Raphael in Bergamo

    There are two exhibitions in the two neighbouring Lombard towns of Bergamo and Brescia in northern Italy which are drawing crowds of visitors, especially from Italy itself. Bergamo has chosen Raphael since the townโ€™s art gallery, the Accademia Carrara, owns one of his early masterpieces (St Sebastian), just restored. Brescia…

  • Comments and updates on Blue Guide Budapest

    Comments and updates on Blue Guide Budapest

    Blue Guides celebrate their centenary year with this new edition of Blue Guide Budapest, an in-depth companion to the history, art, architecture, food, wine and thermal baths of this exceptional city. View the bookโ€™s contents, index and some sample pages, and buy securely from blueguides.com here ยป Budapest is a…

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