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Italy

This portrait of Ferdinando de’ Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany (center), by Anton Domenico Gabbiani, was damaged after a visitor tripped while posing for a photo with the artwork.

Museumgoer Posing for Photo Stumbles Into Portrait of Medici Prince, Damaging the Historic Painting

The incident at the Uffizi Galleries is the latest in a series of tourist-related accidents at museums around the world. Now, the Florentine cultural institution plans to start limiting selfies

The garden features a reconstructed shaded alcove for dining.

The 2,000-Year-Old ‘Perfume Garden’ in the Ancient City of Pompeii Has Been Restored to Its Former Glory

The small garden now features thousands of roses, violets, cherry trees and vines. Experts think a perfumer may have once used the plants to experiment with new scents

Visitors posing for photos accidentally broke Van Gogh's Chair by Nicola Bolla.

Museumgoers Accidentally Break Fragile Crystal-Covered Chair Inspired by Vincent van Gogh Painting

Security footage shows the two museumgoers pretending to sit on the artwork as they pose for photos at the Palazzo Maffei in Italy. After the piece’s front legs bucked, the pair left the museum

A dormitory at the San Servolo psychiatric hospital in Venice in the early 1900s

Tens of Thousands Were Treated for a Deadly Disease While Confined to Psychiatric Hospitals on These Two Venetian Islands

In the 19th and 20th centuries, San Servolo and San Clemente housed patients suffering from pellagrous insanity, a condition caused by a vitamin deficiency

A plume of ash and gas rises from Mount Etna on the Italian island of Sicily on Monday. The eruption also featured lava fountains and a pyroclastic flow.

Mount Etna’s Spectacular Monday Eruption Marks the Volcano’s Most Intense Activity in Years

The explosion was the strongest since 2021, expelling ash, dust, lava and a pyroclastic flow, but no injuries or deaths were reported

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These 11 Marble Sculptures of Iconic Artists Once Decorated One of America’s First Art Museums. What Happened to Them?

The Corcoran Gallery of Art was adorned with the statues, commissioned in the late 1800s. But since then, they’ve changed hands many times and finally found their way back to each other in a botanical garden

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There's More to That

The Joys of Discovering the Roman Underground, From the Colosseum to What’s Beneath the Trevi Foundation

To escape the crowds of the Eternal City, head below ground and enter a portal into Rome’s past

A bed frame shoved against the door served as a makeshift barricade.

New Research

By Shoving a Bed Frame Against the Door, This Pompeii Family Tried to Survive Mount Vesuvius’ Eruption

Archaeologists are learning new details about the four individuals’ futile attempt to hide inside an ancient residence called the House of Helle and Phrixus

Leo XIV made his first appearance as pope on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica on May 8.

The New Pope Is Calling Himself Leo—Just Like 13 Other Pontiffs Who Came Before Him. Who Are They?

When Robert Prevost was elected pope this week, he chose one of the most popular papal names. The lives of the Pope Leos who preceded him may offer insight into his approach to the papacy

A close-up view of Leonardo da Vinci's Ginevra de' Benci, which depicts a famed Florentine poet

Meet the Mysterious Renaissance Muse Immortalized in the Only Leonardo da Vinci Painting in the Americas

Ginevra de’ Benci was a poet famed for her beauty and intellect. But art historians know little about her beyond the writings and artworks left behind by the men who admired her

Italian researchers have devised a scientific recipe to get cacio e pepe right every time.

Researchers Have the Perfect Cacio e Pepe Recipe Down to a Science—Literally

Cooking the famous, creamy pasta sauce is as delicious as it is frustrating, because the cheese tends to clump when exposed to heat. That’s why Italian scientists created a new technique that’s “simple yet precise”

The exhibition includes pieces of ancient pottery.

Hundreds of Looted Ancient Artifacts Confiscated From the Black Market Are Now on Display in Naples

The National Archaeological Museum of Naples is showcasing 600 recovered objects, which date to between the Archaic period and the Middle Ages

Tomatoes from arranged shopping trolleys seen outside a store in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, on March 29, 2025

How the Misrepresentation of Tomatoes as Stinking ‘Poison Apples’ That Provoked Vomiting Made People Afraid of Them for More Than 200 Years

The long and fraught history of the plant shows that it got an unfair reputation from the beginning

Tarot deck designed by Austin Osman Spare in 1906

Discover the Renaissance Origins and Mystical Evolution of Tarot Cards

An exhibition at London’s Warburg Institute traces tarot decks’ evolution from the 1450s through the present

The figures adorn the wall of a tomb found in a necropolis near one of Pompeii’s city gates.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Uncover Two Nearly Life-Size Statues Carved Into the Wall of a Tomb in Ancient Pompeii

The figures appear to represent a married couple. Experts think the woman, who is holding laurel leaves, may have been a priestess

Portrait of Doge Cristoforo Moro (ruler of Venice from 1462-1471), attributed to Lazzaro Bastiani; Ottoman-inspired fabric by 20th-century textile designer Mariano Fortuny.

Two Great Empires Traded for Financial Gain and Achieved a Brilliant Cultural Exchange as Well

A new show illuminates the rich artistic wonders that arose out of the 400 years of commerce between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire

Researchers found grave goods while excavating the Liternum necropolis.

Cool Finds

A Gladiator’s Marble-Etched Epitaph Is Found in an Ancient Roman Necropolis

The graveyard of Liternum, near Naples, was in use between the first century B.C.E. and the third century C.E.

During her clandestine efforts for the Italian Resistance, Anita Malavasi used these forged papers to travel under the identity of “Marta de Robertis.”

This New Book Reveals the Daredevil Lives of Four Italian Women Who Stood Up to Hitler and Mussolini

By delivering newspapers, munitions and secret messages to resistance groups, among many other incredible tasks, the brave fighters strove for a freer world

Portrait of a Gentleman, His Daughter and a Servant at the Musée de la Chartreuse in Douai, France

Cool Finds

Expert Rediscovers Painting by Renaissance Master Lavinia Fontana, One of the First Professional Female Artists

The artwork had been hiding in plain sight in the archives of a provincial museum in France, where it will eventually go on permanent display

This portrait of Cristina Roccati (left) is by the contemporary Italian painter and engraver Matteo Massagrande. In the background is the only depiction of Roccati (right) from the 18th century.

How an 18th-Century Female Physicist Broke Boundaries and Inspired the Generations Who Followed

Cristina Roccati graduated from the University of Bologna when few other Italian women earned degrees, and she taught physics for decades

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