Duino Castle, Duino

Duino (Devin in Slovenian, Tybein in German) is a town in the coastal part of the municipality (comune) of Duino-Aurisina, part of the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia in the province of Trieste, north-eastern Italy.

The total population is recorded as 8,753 (4,281 males, 4,472 females in 3,753 families), the population density (per square kilometre) as 193.8, and number of housing units as 3,983.

Duino is noted for being the place where the physicist Ludwig Boltzmann died and for inspiring the poet Rainer Maria Rilke to write his Duino Elegies.

The two castles are the main attraction. The older castle, dating back to the eleventh century, is in ruins, while the newer castle is inhabited to this day and can be visited by tourists.

Below the ruins of the ancient castle there lies a white rock projecting into the sea, the Dama Bianca, which resembles a veiled woman and gave origin to many gothic legends.

The new castle of Duino is approximately dated to about the year 1400, when the family Wallsee commanded the construction of a strong fortress. Over time, the Wallsee family disappeared and the castle, after having been used as a prison, became the residence of the Luogar and Hofer. At the end of the 19th century it became the property of Prince Alexander Johann Vincenz Rudolf Hugo Karl Lamoral Eligius von Thurn und Taxis from the Czech Branch of the House of Thurn und Taxis. It remains with the family to this day with his great-grandson Prince Carlo Alessandro della Torre e Tasso, Duke of Castel Duino the current owner. The castle has been opened to the public as a museum and park.

Since 1982 the town has been home to the United World College of the Adriatic, a no-fee international school attended by students from 80 different countries.

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Italy's Grand Hotel Ritz

The Grand Hotel Ritz, Italy, is situated in the fashionable Parioli district of Rome, near the new Auditorium concert venue, the Villa Glori park, the Euclide station with trains for the city centre and the Olympic Stadium. The area is full of trendy restaurants and boutiques. Public transportation that takes you to other parts of the city is also easy to reach. The property offers all the comforts necessary for a pleasant stay including two bars, a restaurant and conference facilities for up to 500 persons.

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Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy

This is the monument that, among the others of the "Piazza dei Miracoli", stirs the imagination of everybody, from the old to the young. Firstly we like to give you some information and events regarding its long history.

The construction of this imposing mass was started in the year 1174 by Bonanno Pisano. When the tower had reached its third storey the works ceased because it had started sinking into the ground. The tower remained thus for 90 years. It was completed by Giovanni di Simone, Tommano Simone (son of Andreo Pisano), crowned the tower with the belfry at half of 14th century.

The top of the Leaning Tower can be reached by mounting the 294 steps which rise in the form of a spiral on the inner side of the tower walls.

This very famous work is of Romanesque style, and as already stated dates back to the year 1174. Cylindrical in shape it is supplied whit six open galleries. A cornice separates these galleries one from the other and each presents a series of small arches fitted on the capitals of the slender columns. In the base there is a series of big blind arcades with geometrical decorations. In the belfry there is the same design of arcades as that of the base, with the difference that here, there are, apart from the reduced proportions, the housings of the bells.

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Castle of Rivoli

The Castle of Rivoli is a former Residence of the Royal House of Savoy in Rivoli (province of Turin, Italy). It is currently home to the Museum of Contemporary Art of Turin.

The Castle of Rivoli was probably built in the 9th-10th centuries, but its existence is mentioned for the first time only in 1159, in a diplom by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa that ceded the Rivolese territories to the bishops of Turin.

The House of Savoy acquired Rivoli in the 11th century, and soon began a feud with the bishops that as soon as 1184 provoked damage to the castle. In 1330 Amadeus VI of Savoy moved in the castle the Consiglio dei Principi, senior administrative council of the countryside. The castle was also the first place of public veneration of the Shroud of Turin in his path towards Turin under Amadeus IX.

After a period of decline, the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559) established that Duke Emmanuel Philibert could not reside in Turin until he had not a male child. He therefore set his residencei in the Castle of Rivoli, having it restored by architect Ascanio Vittozzi. In 1562 heir Charles Emmanuel I was born, and he returned to Turin. Works on Vittozzi’s designed were brought on until 1644 under Carlo and Amedeo di Castellamonte, with the construction of the so called Manica Lunga, intended to house the Savoy Gallery, the sole 17th century part of the edifice still visible today. Numerous of the works of art were however stolen by French troops in the following years. New works began after 1706.

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