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Amici di Italy Magazine,
There has been a Borgia boom over the past couple of years including two completely unrelated Borgia TV series, an American showtime series called The Borgias and a French-German-Czech production Borgia: Faith and Fear.
The family name is usually associated with greed, power, lust and murder, all perfect elements for writers and producers who want to develop fictional stories against a back-drop of mounting religious and political corruption. But were the Borgias the most infamous family of Renaissance Italy as the latest TV series represent them or did they just have astonishingly bad 'historical' press?
In our series focusing on famous Italian families, Carol King looked at the history of this incredible family and focused on five key individuals: Pope Calixtus III, his nephew Pope Alexander IV, his sons Cesare and Gioffre, and daughter Lucrezia.
We also talked to acclaimed author Sarah Dunant about her latest historical novel about the Borgias. She shared her passion for the Italian Renaissance with us and explained how: "That period of history is creative, beautiful, corrupt and brutal all at the same time: the Borgias are emblematic of what that meant. Yet people don't put them into the social and political context of a violent, volatile time in history."
During the Renaissance, the church financed and patronised artists and architects all over the peninsula, leaving behind a wealth of incredible masterpieces. Some of the most amazing works of art of that time are actually in the Vatican City. Magda Lauer took us around the Vatican treasures.
One of these treasures is undoubtedly the Sistine Chapel which celebrates its 530th anniversary this year. Do not miss ITALY Magazine's slideshow dedicated to it.
For our gourmet readers, this week, we entered the truffle season with a Foodie Guide to Italian Truffles and a classic recipe for Tagliatelle al Tartufo Nero.
This year we created a 2013 Italy Magazine desktop wallpaper calendar. We hope you liked the idea and downloaded the first months. It is now possible to download the October page.
A presto!
ITALY team
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