Villas in Umbria
Villas
A villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper
class. According to Pliny the Elder, there were two kinds of villas, the villa
urbana, which was a country seat that could easily be reached from Rome (or another
city) for a night or two, and the villa rustica, the farm-house estate, permanently
occupied by the servants who had charge generally of the estate, which would center
on the villa itself, perhaps only seasonally occupied. There were a concentration
of Imperial villas near the Bay of Naples, especially on the Isle of Capri, at
Monte Circeo on the coast and at Antium (Anzio). Wealthy Romans escaped the summer
heat in the hills round Rome, especially around Frascati (cf Hadrian's Villa).
Cicero is said to have possessed no fewer than seven villas, the oldest of which
was near Arpinum, which he inherited. Pliny the Younger had three or four, of which
the example near Laurentium is the best known from his descriptions.
Renaissance villas
In 14th and 15th century Italy, a 'villa' once more connoted a country house,
sometimes the family seat of power like Villa Caprarola, more often designed for
seasonal pleasure, usually located within easy distance of a city. The first
examples of Renaissance Villa dates back to the age of Lorenzo de' Medici, and
they are mostly located in the Italian region of Tuscany (the "Medici villas") such
as the Villa di Poggio a Caiano by Giuliano da Sangallo (begun in 1470) or the
Villa Medici in Fiesole (since 1450), probably the first villa created under the
instructions of Leon Battista Alberti, who theorized in his De re aedificatoria
the features of the new idea of villa. From Tuscany the idea of villa was spread
again through Italy and Europe.
Excerpt of "Villa." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
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Image from "Image:Villa_Medici_a_Fiesole_1.jpg" Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
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Umbria
Umbria is a region of central Italy, bordered by
Tuscany to the west, the Marche to the east and Lazio to the south.
The region covers 8,456 km² and has a population of 867,878(2006 census).
The region is named for the Umbri tribe, who settled in the region in
the 6th century BC. Their language was Umbrian, a relative of Latin. The
modern region of Umbria, however, is essentially a different region of
Italy than that bearing the same name in Roman times (see Roman Umbria),
which extended through most of what is now the northern Marche, to Ravenna,
but excluded the west bank of the Tiber — and thus for example Perugia —
which was in Etruria, and the area around Norcia, which was in the Sabine territory.
...
The "green heart of Italy"
In tourist literature one sometimes sees Umbria called il cuor verde d'Italia
(the green heart of Italy). The phrase, taken from a poem by Giosuè Carducci —
the subject of which is not Umbria but rather a specific small place in it,
the source of the Clitunno river, treasured since Antiquity as a beauty spot —
is to a certain extent appropriate since the modern administrative region is
the only one to have neither a coast nor a border with a foreign country, and,
except for August and September, is notoriously green.
Excerpt of "Umbria." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 25 Oct 2006,
18:43 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 26 Oct 2006
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Umbria&oldid=83685695 Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Italia,
[..] or Repubblica Italiana, [...], is a Southern European country. It
comprises the Po River valley, the Italian Peninsula and the two largest
islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. It is also commonly
called by Italians "lo Stivale" ("the Boot", due to its boot-like shape),
or "la Penisola"[1] ("the Peninsula" as an antonomasia).
Italy shares its northern alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria
and Slovenia. The independent countries of San Marino and the Vatican City
are enclaves within Italian territory. Campione d'Italia is an Italian enclave
in Switzerland.
...
Climate
The Italian climate is unique and can be far from the stereotype of a
"land of sun.", depending on the region. The north of Italy (Turin, Milan,
and Bologna) has a true continental climate, while below Florence it becomes
more and more Mediterranean. The climate of the coastal areas of the Peninsula
is very different from that of the interior, particularly during the winter
months. The higher areas are cold, wet, and often snowy. The coastal regions,
where most of the large towns are located, have a typical Mediterranean climate
with mild winters and hot and generally dry summers. The length and intensity
of the summer dry season increases southwards (compare the tables for Rome,
Naples, and Brindisi).
Between north and south there is a quite remarkable difference in the temperatures,
above all during the winter: in some days of December or January it can snow in
Milan by -2°C while Palermo or Naples have just clouds and +17°C. Some mornings
Turin can be by -12°C while on the same time Rome has got +6°C and Reggio Calabria
+12°C. In the summer the difference is lighter. (‘‘See how Po valley can be frosty
in winter)
Excerpt from "Italy." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
29 Oct 2006, 09:02 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 29 Oct 2006
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Italy&oldid=84391810 |
and find it!
