Giuseppe Volpi, founder of the Venice Festival, and the Grand Council of Fascism

The Venice Film Festival was born under Mussolini's warm wing. Its founder, the rather successful Italian politician Giuseppe Volpi, sat on the Grand Council of Fascism until 1943. True, when he spoke out against the alliance with Hitler, he was not merely driven out of every post but arrested as well. Volpi was also president of the Venice Biennale from 1930 to 1943. I recently wrote about his Neo-Palladian villa on the shore of the Tyrrhenian Sea.

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

Giuseppe Volpi, founder of the Venice Festival, and the Grand Council of Fascism

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s