Two cities

"For centuries, travelers, historians, writers, politicians, tourists and even Italians themselves like to compare these two cities : Florence and Siena." Desmond Ong

Perfect City

"So what do we learn from the Bologna model? if you want create utopia, put your city in the middle of a rich agricultural area; make good eating a priority for everyone; set up a large university and allow it freedom if thought; spend 1000 years building and preserving a historic centre; let workers band together to improve their conditions, run their own businesses, and form a political party; and have your city regularly criticised by religious conservatives so that your citizens can enjoy a satisfying sense of boldness. What could be simpler?"
Essential Places, David Dale

[Lucca] - aerial

Aerial view of the well preserved medieval city of Lucca
Source:Google Earth

The most Beautiful Italian City

Jakob Burckhardt the great historian of the Italian Renaissance wrote, "Considering individual buildings, there are four or five cities preceeding Bologna, but it is and remains the most beautiful Italian city judged as a whole".

Quotes of the Day

"For the first time in human history more than half of the world lives in cities and it's rising". Sustain That, Architecture Review Australia 2005

"While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand;
When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall;
And when Rome falls -- the world"
-Lord Byron-

"Florence is beautiful, as I have said before, and must say again and again, most beautiful. The river rushes through the midst of its palaces like a crystal arrow, and it is hard to tell, when you see all by the clear sunset, whether those churches, and houses, and windows, and bridges, and people walking, in the water or out of the water, are real walls and windows, and bridges, and people, and churches." - Elizabeth Barrett Browning - Letter to Mr. Boyd (1847)

[Bologna] - Red City

bologna17f
Originally uploaded by displace

Photo by Desmond Ong, displace at Flickr