Rowley Gallery Blog
I’d read of a huge tree, a monumental cedar of Lebanon, that grows just outside the walls of the town of Barga in northern Italy. It was born in 1814 and transplanted here in 1836 where it became adopted as a symbol of Giovine Italia (Young Italy) and Italian unification. Continue reading “Barga & Beyond”
Palazzo Dona
In Venice I revisit views that I have drawn or painted before and feel more free to take liberties with, like Palazzo Dona in Campo S. Maria Formosa or the big palaces across from San Vio near Accademia. But there is nothing quite like a first ‘go’ at a newly discovered subject – last summer it was a view across the Grand Canal from Calle Giustinian, discovered near a sumptuous Sean Scully exhibition, and the little Oratorio in Campo Sant Angelo which I must have by-passed countless times but which I suddenly saw in a new light as I made my hot way home for lunch.
What a seductress – La Serenissima – I just can’t stay away! Continue reading “In Venice”
We’d read about a giant oak tree, Quercione (big oak), north of Montecarlo in the province of Lucca, in a village called San Martino in Colle. It sounded magical and intriguing but also a little confusing.
Where the hill of Monte Carlo declines in the north slope below the village of San Martino in Colle, there is the “Quercione of Carrara.” This is a monumental oak (Quercus pubescens), whose age exceeds 500 years, the height of 14 meters, the circumference of the shaft 4 meters and the opening of branches more than 30 meters. The surrounding lawn is charming place and meeting place for romantic encounters. On this tree are passed down legends of witches in her hair would keep, in the nights of full moon, their Sabbath. It is said, also, that this is the oak tree where the cat and the fox hanged puppet Pinocchio: Collodi, in fact, is a stone’s throw away. The place is always accessible and is definitely worth a photo. Continue reading “Quercione”
Last summer, on the 10th of August, we made our first visit to Florence. We drove there without satnav and without a hitch, the roads were clear, no hold-ups and we left the car with a parking attendant in a super-efficient underground car park. It was all going surprisingly smoothly, until we hit the streets and joined the procession of pilgrims to the birthplace of the Renaissance. Continue reading “Florence At First Sight”
Lucca was our nearest and most favourite city this summer. We visited many other places but often ended up here and we got to know it better each time. This was my first photo in Lucca, in Piazza Anfiteatro – a ramshackle circuit of medieval buildings, it incorporates elements of the Roman amphitheatre that once stood here – and there’s always another photographer in the middle. Continue reading “Another Look At Lucca”
Benabbio is a hilltop village above Bagni di Lucca in Tuscany. I found this photo (c.1920) in a book in the house we rented there this summer. The house was just below the church tower. Continue reading “A Walk Around The Village”
An aerial view of Lucca and its magnificent walls planted with trees, a green belt around the city, a circular park punctuated by six gates and eleven bastions. In the foreground is Baluardo San Paolino. Continue reading “A Walk Along The Walls”
According to The Rough Guide to Tuscany & Umbria – The best town on the coast, Viareggio is also one of Tuscany’s biggest seaside resorts, graced with an air of elegance lent mainly by the long avenue of palms that runs the length of its seafront promenade. We walked the promenade but we didn’t see the sea. It is separated from the town by a series of gated private bathing beaches. Continue reading “A Walk Along The Promenade”
After climbing out of Menaggio on tight switchbacks up to Croce, high on the ridge, the road scoots along the floor of the Val Menaggio, passing Bene Lario and 3km later reaching the small, reedy Lago di Piano, protected as a nature reserve and breeding place for water birds. Drop into the little information office beside the lake, or ask the Menaggio tourist office for the route description of a pleasant, almost flat two-hour walk here that takes in woodlands and a fortified cluster of medieval houses on a peninsula in the lake, known as Castel San Pietro. Continue reading “Rogolone”
Villa Panza is a grand 18th century mansion in the hillside suburb of Biumo Superiore, overlooking the city of Varese. It was the home of Count Giuseppe Panza, art collector and a great champion of Minimalist and Conceptual Art. He bought his first painting in 1956, by Antoni Tàpies and in 1966 he began collecting work by Brice Marden, Richard Serra and James Turrell. In 1996 the house was donated to the nation and opened to the public after major restoration work in 2000. Continue reading “Villa Panza”