August - 2017

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Albania’s dynamic cultural heritage

Albania’s dynamic cultural heritage

Back in Albania for meetings about the future of Butrint and to see the excavations along the Trans Adriatic Pipeline project. Butrint is astonishing: between 3000 - 5000 visitors when I arrive. Quite astonishing. No less astonishing are the Abkons excavations along the pipeline. The quality of the excavations and recording of the two digs I saw – near Berat and near Korça – respectively, an Ottoman hamam and Middle Neolithic village were of the very highest international sta

Corfu’s iconic Asian Art Museum

Corfu’s iconic Asian Art Museum

Lucky to be in Corfu before crossing to Albania to visit different archaeological projects. I spend my free afternoon visiting old haunts and reflecting on this historic city and the idyllic island taking its name. Corfu was magical in the time of the Durrells. Parts of it still are. Blissfully situated in the northern Ionian Sea directly across from Albania and Epirus it is a quintessential Mediterranean isle. Its history spans deep prehistory, the Corinthian colony, the Rom

San Vincenzo al Volturno (Molise) redux

San Vincenzo al Volturno (Molise) redux

San Vincenzo al Volturno, the best preserved Carolingian-period monastery in Europe, has new hope. This year the Abbot of Monte Cassino has instigated the transfer of eight nuns from a convent stricken by the Amatrice earthquake to San Vincenzo. In a stroke – as the monks of San Vincenzo re-founded Monte Cassino in 718, so Monte Cassino has reciprocated. A new energy and spirituality has arrived in the upper Volturno valley. The nuns are blissfully happy. For an hour I regale

Debating the future of Cato's model farm at Pozzilli with Onorevale Patriciello

Debating the future of Cato's model farm at Pozzilli with Onorevale Patriciello

A member of the Soprintendenza in Molise long ago told me there’s nothing of archaeological importance in the regione. Exactly why this sentiment is wrong is the reason I am in Pozzilli, just outside Venafro, to talk to a group of students. My lecture is on my 18 years of excavations and surveys at San Vincenzo al Volturno, arguably one of the more important archaeological discoveries of post-war Italy. My host, Professor Andreina Ricci, famed archaeologist at Tor Vergata Uni

Dark Age Water Mills at San Vincenzo al Volturno

Dark Age Water Mills at San Vincenzo al Volturno

Water mills fascinate me. My first solo excavation was of a 17th-century mill in England, a large operation quite different from those we know of from the Middle Ages. Medieval mills were compact and made efficient use of canalized streams of water rather than powerful rivers. Now my fascination with mills has got me into hot water. A rescue excavation ten years ago at the site of my old excavations at San Vincenzo al Volturno in Molise – made long after my time – found rema

The paradox of Gustav Mahler's heritage legacy

The paradox of Gustav Mahler's heritage legacy

Italy is blessed by supreme diversity of landscapes. So, to escape winter winds, Sicily is one answer. To escape Rome’s heat-wave, the Tre Cime Unesco World Heritage park is a blissful solution. I had wanted to visit the park’s First World War fortress at M. Piano but ferocious tempests have blocked the road. Looking for an immediate alternative – and Italy is always blessed with them – I sought out the hotel where Gustav and Alma Mahler used to stay. Gustav & Alma Mahler The

Remembering Riccardo Francovich

Remembering Riccardo Francovich

Rocca San Silvestro, Tuscany. Ten years since my friend, Riccardo Francovich died in an accident. His students with funds largely from our nEU-MED project, created a travelling exhibition that opened in Siena University to mark this anniversary. Now, during August, it is at the most remarkable of all his many excavations, the Pisan mining village of Rocca San Silvestro. At an inauguration ceremony this evening the conical village is truly resplendent. The outer fortification

Snails at S. Pietro ad Palazzuolo

Snails at S. Pietro ad Palazzuolo

Monteverdi Marittimo, Tuscany. I first ate snails at S. Pietro in Palazzuolo in a huge old farmhouse following a torrential downpour. The main course was cinghiale as we discussed with the farmer’s family whether this was the site of the fabled monastery founded by a Pisan noble, Walfrid in the mid 8th century. Deep in the Colline Metallifere it seemed improbable until Giovanna Bianchi excavated vestigial traces of a great Benedictine house that then moved in the 11th century

Murder in Matera

Murder in Matera

I have just read Helene Stapinski’s new book, Murder in Matera. The sub-title tells all: ‘a true story of passion, family, and forgiveness in southern Italy’. Carlo Levi’s authoritative Christ Stopped at Eboli it isn’t. Yet for those who love Matera it is well worth a dipping into it. This is a whodunnit written by an Italian American whose great-grandmother was involved in a murder. But who murdered whom? Helene Stapinski tries and fails to find out more in her first sojourn

Rome never disappoints. Ever.

Rome never disappoints. Ever.

LoveItaly’s Tracy Roberts took me to Rome's Colle Oppio, up behind the Colosseum. The new excavations are already legendary, but a visit by the President of the American University of Myanmar, Craig Klefter, provided the perfect excuse for an outing. Next to Nero’s Golden House are the stupendous Baths of Trajan. An emperor whose vaunting ambition at home and abroad sought parallel with Augustus, these baths involved remodelling the Colle Oppio. Enter through an old padlocked

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