Tag Archives: A.K.Nickerson

Web Sites for Cultural Travelers

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If you ask a bit more of your travels than “Where is the Big Mac?”…if you want to truly absorb the local culture, the arts, the literature…(well of course we know you want the literature–that’s why you are here)…I have three sites to recommend to you.

My Melange Robin Locker fell in love with Italy, and then cheated on her first love by also falling in love with France. She brings the culture of Europe back to America in her blog, My Melange.As the title indicates, she covers a little of this and a little of that. She also will help you organize your own trip to Italy or France.

Angela K. Nickerson calls her blog Gypsy’s Guide. She has written a book on Michelangelo’s Rome, so her blog focuses on Italy. She spotlights books, art works and other cultural attractions of Italy. Nickerson also leads tours to Rome, explained at Michelangelo in Italy. With her truly beautiful site, Nickerson makes it almost impossible not to travel to Italy.

Laura Byrne Paquet also offers up linked web sites.  Facing the Street advises on how to make the most of travel with local experiences, and La Vida Local (Spanglish for the local life) follows up with specific advice about apartment and other long-term arrangements. Facing the Street gives me interesting information every time I drop by, and I know I can count on it, because Paquet is a many-times book author and frequently published articles writer. She knows how to find information and make sure it is correct. Viva!

Have you checked out these web sites and found something of value?  Please leave them a comment and tell them you came from A Traveler’s Library.  Thanks.

Angels and Demons: Movie Travelogue of Rome

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Four Rivers Fountain, Piazza Navona, Rome

Destination: Rome

Movie: Angels and Demons

Well, here we are at the end of Italy week.  I went to the long-awaited movie of Angels and Demons around noon today. I would say it was the equivalent of dining on one of those fancy bakery cakes decorated with lard and sugar icing and fresh violets.  Absolutely beautiful, but no substance.

I think that the movie Angels and Demons reflected Angels and Demons the book perfectly.  The book was shallow and error-prone.  Ron Howard, director of the movie, said in an interview that they stripped away the non-essential things. So what do you have when you take something that is insubstantial to begin with, and strip things away? Certainly not much brain food.

I have to hand it to the model-makers, set designers, set decorators, etc.  I have been to Bernini’s Piazza San Pietro (St. Peter’s Square) at the Vatican, I had been in the tombs below the Vatican, and although I unfortunately had never been in the Sistine Chapel it is familiar from pictures. The accuracy of their portrayal in this movie should win those guys an Oscar or two.  I would have sworn the scenes in Saint Peter’s Basilica and other parts of the Vatican were really in those places. However, since the Vatican would not allow the film crew inside Vatican property, it was all the work of clever designers.  Note, however, that when the camera scans the Sistine Chapel, it moves quickly, not focusing enough for you to study the art work and statuary, and the scenes there are brief. Very clever work, indeed.

(Spoiler alert) And somebody gets loads of credit for that gorgeous, turbulent sky when the anti-matter explodes. I was waiting for Michaelangelo’s outstretched fingers of God and Adam to appear.

The dialogue, on the other hand can only be called lame.  What kind of exposition is it when a Professor of Humanities is having to tell a woman with a PhD in Physics about how Galileo thought that the earth revolved around the sun, and therefore the church excommunicated him? The movie seems to rely more on dramatic music and sound effects than dialogue to move the plot along.

When I read Angels & Demons , I thought the book  was a fun, quick, read, but superficial.  The movie is the same, but its saving grace is the gorgeous views of Rome, both aerial views and close up inside famous piazzas and churches–enough to satisfy any aficionado of Italy. And perhaps to lure some travelers to visit the Eternal City. Given that fact, I would certainly not want my negative remarks to deter you from seeing the movie.

Photograph by Vera Marie Badertscher. All rights reserved.