I was in Italy last week, and I made it to some new places, and some old favorites, such as the Tomb of Cecilia Metella above, along the Via Appia south of Rome, or the colossal portrait bust of the Emperor Constantine below.

I also was in Urbino, which is famous for its massive Renaissance palace in the center of town.

The cathedral of Milan, one of the largest in the world, is adorned with hundreds of sculptures, all carved out of the most unique marble I’ve ever seen: a mixture of white, blue and red.

We’ll look at these sites in more depth this week, and relate them to the architecture of St. Louis.