Luigi De Marchi, architect, is the editor and publisher of Cultural Heritage Online. He founded the archive in 1998 as beniculturalionline.it and has published it without interruption since.
Contributions: 44 articles · 1,238 heritage places · 26 itineraries · 2 road-books
Published on beniculturalionline.it, the Italian archive of this publication, online since 1998. They are being brought into Cultural Heritage Online.
The red steel mast on Vadsøya island where Nobile’s airships moored on their way to the North Pole: the Norge in May 1926, the Italia in May 1928. It still stands, with a plaque to the Italia’s call.
Ten smaller cities of art — Matera to Ortigia — where Ferragosto 2026 costs less, crowds thin out, and the heritage stands comparison with any capital.
Venice on 15 August: what the Assumption changes, which museums and churches stay open, and the lagoon rituals — Lido mornings, island silence — locals keep.
Florence on 15 August: the Assumption in Santa Maria del Fiore, gardens and Medici villas against the heat, and the hill viewpoints locals keep for evening.
Rome on 15 August: which ancient sites and churches stay open, where to escape the heat, and where Romans themselves go. A practical Ferragosto 2026 guide.
Ferragosto falls on Saturday 15 August in 2026. What the holiday means, which museums and sites stay open, what closes, and where Italians actually spend the day.
The car-free island of colonial villas facing Xiamen, run from 1902 as an international settlement of thirteen nations — Italy’s small consulate among them. UNESCO World Heritage since 2017 as Kulangsu.
The Italian wing of Rockefeller Center (1935): Piccirilli’s fascist-flavoured glass panel was boarded over days after Pearl Harbor and replaced in 1965 by Giacomo Manzu’s bronzes. A New York City landmark since 1985.
Tirana’s central square, framed by the ochre neo-Renaissance ministries of the Brasini-Di Fausto plan of 1925 and onwards. Pedestrianised in 2017 by 51N4E, it won the 2018 European Prize for Urban Public Space.
The 71.8 km Massawa-Asmara cableway (1935-37, Ceretti & Tanfani) was the longest in the world at its completion, lifting 30 tonnes an hour from the Red Sea to 2,326 m. Stripped as war reparations in the 1940s, scrapped by the 1980s.
