Around Bologna

Bologna, Italy, is famous for being a university town and for its tortellini. Food for the brain and the tummy. What else is notable?

How about twin towers, Garisenda e degli Asinelli? Looking good in the stark daylight.

Art is always welcome. A fun frieze at the San Pietro cathedral. "Young Christians, study your bible." Saint Sebastian with his usual arrows and unusually prominent codpiece. Someone is mesmerized.

Sometimes it rains at Hello Talalay. The famous Neptune fountain in the Piazza Maggiore.

Ooh, fabulous colors of fabulous things. Mortadella, the other famous food of Bologna. Ridiculous inlaid marble at a church.

A full moon is out over the most important landmark of the city, Basilica di San Petronio. Glowing.

Getting Fooled At Santa Maria Near San Satiro Church

Santa Maria seems like a nice, neighborhood church of no significance. Not huge, not full of priceless art, just a place to pop into for a little prayer.

Front facade, crammed into a small plaza.

Nice dome, nice frieze on the side. Poor Jesus, he always ends up dead.

Looking down the central aisle toward the altar, choir. Wow, that barrel vault behind the altar goes on for a while. Or does it?

It turns out, designer Donato Bramante had a grand idea for what is actually no space at all. He created one of the first examples of painted perspective, trompe-l'œil. Bravo!

Back to shrines along the side of the church, a noir-ish scene.

Bugging Out At The Milan Natural History Museum

The meek dioramas may inherit the Earth. The Natural History Museum in Milan may have miles of dioramas filled with the world's grandest beasts. Think elephants, rhinos, gorillas, maybe a paleontologist. The place also made room for a few little buggers. How cute.

Swamp dragonfly.

Bugs in a jungle, bugs in some sort of post-apocalyptic, white hellscape. Glad there's glass between us.

Who says there's no life in a desert?

More hellscape, more adorable homes for bugs. Frog went a-courtin'. For dinner.

Do you ever wonder what would happen if a lobster and a cockroach had a baby and...?

Church Of San Sepolcro In Milan

So many amazing churches in Italy, all with something unique inside. San Sepolcro in Milan features a handful of great icon, relic, high frieze sculptures. Devotion comes to 3D life.

The exterior is also a bit unique, done up in Romanesque styled red brick instead of typical stucco.

Nice nave. Icons everywhere. And donating a necklace seems to be a thing.

One of the main friezes, Christ washing the feet of St. Peter. What a nice young man. The curved sculpture is an impressive illusion. Allusion?

More icons. A nun, all crossed. Boy getting a little bread.

Back to Christ, in another impressive high relief frieze. Getting his crown of thorns. Ouch.

Missing Animals At Milan's Natural History Museum

Sometimes you just don't want to look at the center. The dioramas at the Natural History Museum in Milan are great. Beautifully staged, lit, full of regal specimens. And then the eye wanders.

Plant. With monkeys.

Yak with birds. Side of camel.

Stags fighting and a vocal spectator.

Braying boar. The delicate feet of a mountain goat.

Elephant, rising up. And out of frame.

Bagatti Valsecchi Museum

Two baron brothers with a slight hoarding problem. Fausto and Giuseppe never left the family mansion in the late 19th century and instead collected paintings, decorative arts, armor, baubles and anything their endless lira could buy. The big digs are now a museum and you can wander through, imagine yourself living like a baron. "Brother, what shall we procure today?"

Front entrance. Just a humble townhouse along the lane.

Plain fireplace. Hints of horror vacui. Celestial ceiling.

A typical bedroom. Nice mini me, baby bed next to the main bed.

The brothers had a skull obsession. Original or plated with a clock crammed into the forehead?

Part of the armor collection. Once you have 10 spears or swords, what's another 50 of them?

Milan Expressing Itself

Wandering around Milan, enjoying what the city shows you.

The Duomo, never a dull sight.

Europe loves graffiti and Milan is full of fun messages. Tons of underground stickers. Glad Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks is still worthy of subversion.

Nike, getting the augmentation.

Pink Barbie font. Sending up more brands, Burger King and Pepsi.

Back to architecture, rehabbing some Fascist era buildings. Grand. Mean.

Creature Comforts At The Milan Natural History Musem

The Natural History Museum in Milan is classic old school. Huge building from the 19th century, endless halls of artifacts and lots and lots of beautiful dioramas. No antiseptic displays with miles of white walls. Just creatures in their exotic environments.

Starting early. "Get back! It's a hungry Tanystropheus!!"

Digging in the dirt. Humans can be considered animals, even archeologists. Turtles on the hard shell.

Ugly into adorable, a momma manatee with baby calf.

Let's eat. A seagull gets some salmon leftovers from a bear. How about a Polar bear, wearing seal rouge?

Llama train.