Day Trip From Rome - The Slow Architect

Palazzo Farnese Caprarola, detail of South facade

Italy

CAPRAROLA — THE PALACE THAT TURNED A WHOLE TOWN INTO A STAGE SET

Some places you visit and forget. Others follow you home. The Palazzo Farnese at Caprarola is the second kind — a fortress turned into a palace, and a whole town rebuilt to serve it.

Oblique view of Orvieto Cathedral under a blue sky, showing the intersection where the mosaic-covered Gothic front screen meets the black-and-white striped side wall.

Architecture

ORVIETO — THE CATHEDRAL THAT BECAME A LIGHTHOUSE

Everyone photographs the golden facade. Almost nobody asks why it's so bright — or what holds it up. An architect's reading of Orvieto's cathedral, from the mosaics to the hidden engineering.