City Breaks

Munich Episode 06 The Town Centre

Munich Episode 06 The Town Centre

Starting in Marienplatz, hear about the two – yes, two – Town Halls and the quaint daily marionette shows: why does the blue-and-white knight always win the daily jousting competition and what are the coopers frolicking about? Then we visit the Peterskirche (Munich’s oldest church) and the Frauenkirche (her biggest), plus others offering sunny, Italian-feel baroque, the dank crypts of the Wittelsbachs and the vanity project of two brothers with plenty of money and a taste for the extravagant. You’ll find out where and why the devil stamped his foot and which bell tolled when there was to be a public hanging. Lastly, we're off round the Englischer Garten, one of Europe’s very largest city parks.

http://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk

Munich Episode 05 Ludwig's Dream Castles

Munich Episode 05 Ludwig's Dream Castles

We're going on a virtual tour of some of the fairy-tale castles built by Ludwig II in the Bavarian countryside so we can enjoy their magnificent, some would say insane, splendour.  Hear about Neuschwanstein, believed to have been the inspiration for the castle in Disney's Sleeping Beauty, and Linderhof, where even the hunting lodge was crafted from marble, crystal and mahogany and where the indoor trinkets included a life-sized peacock in Sèvres porcelain. Finally, there's Herrenchiemsee, Ludwig's splendidly deranged attempt to build a copy of the Palace of Versailles. The castles prove that, as one biographer wrote, Ludwig was 'a unique phenomenon of his epoch.'

http://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk

Munich Episode 04 Ludwig II

Munich Episode 04 Ludwig II

Ludwig II, the flamboyant and ultimately tragic King of Bavaria who reigned from 1864 to 1886, is remembered for his physical beauty, but also for his strange behaviour. He often retreated from Munich to the Bavarian forest, where he enjoyed midnight sleigh rides and dreamed up the ever-more-extravagant decorating plans for his fairy-tale castles. His declining mental health and increasingly remote behaviour led to him being declared mentally unfit to rule. The circumstances of his unexpected and suspicious death have never been fully explained, but the popularity of the sites around Munich related to him reminds us of this 'most romantic, beloved and tragic monarch of modern times.'

http://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk

Munich Episode 03 Schloss Nymphenburg

Munich Episode 03 Schloss Nymphenburg

Find out which baby Wittelsbach had the Nymphenburg Palace built in his honour and which family member built a hermitage in the garden to make up for a lifetime of revels. Discover such highlights as the picture gallery filled with portraits of Ludwig I's favourite women and the hunting lodge with its own hall of mirrors. Then meet two colourful personalities linked to Schloss Nymphenburg. Ludwig I was famous for his magnificent building projects and enthusiastic patronage of the arts, but Lola Montez was his eventual downfall: enigma, beauty, drama queen, con girl, pampered mistress, of whom the besotted Ludwig said, she 'gave up everything for me.'

http://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk

Munich Episode 02 The Residenz

Munich Episode 02 The Residenz

A brief history of Munich's most visited tourist attraction, the Residenz, is followed by tips on what is most worth seeing, such as the grottos where 19th century ball-goers did their eating, meeting and greeting and the Treasury with its crowns and ostrich-egg-holder. Then we introduce the Wittelsbach family, who ruled Bavaria from this palace between 1180 and 1918, and who will keep popping up in future episodes. Find out about the king doomed by an extraordinary love affair with a con girl and his grandson who shied away from busy Munich, preferring to retreat to his bejewelled boudoirs in the depths of the Bavarian forests.

http://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk

Munich Episode 01 Introduction

Munich Episode 01 Introduction to City Breaks Munich

http://citybreakspodcast.co.uk

Florence Episode 19 Literary Florence

Florence Episode 19 Literary Florence

The final episode on Florence focuses on a selection of the many literary writings connected to the city, beginning with the Tuscan writers Petrarch and Boccacio and the English poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Then four novels set in Florence are covered:Irving Stone’s biographical novel about Michelangelo,The Agony and the Ecstasy, Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel, E M Forster’s A Room with a View and finally Sarah Dunant’s The Birth of Venus, a vivid imagining of the life of a 15 year-old cloth merchant's daughter, which paints a colourful picture of Florence in 1528.

http://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk

Florence Episode 18 History and Travel Writing

Florence Episode 18 History and Travel Writing

First a brief look at some history books which have much to tell about Florence, and then glimpses into the many different writings of those – famous and not-so-famous – who have travelled to Florence and then written about it. There is a whole selection of quotes from travellers as varied as the actor David Garrick enjoying the city's 'fine profusion of things' in 1763, and Dylan Thomas who found Florence 'a gruelling museum'. Find out too about such literary delights as Mary McCarthy's The Stones of Florence, David Leavitt's Florence: A Delicate Case and Diana Athill’s A Florence Diary.

http://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk

Florence Episode 17 The Uffizi

Florence Episode 17 The Uffizi

This episode is devoted to the Uffizi, Florence's world-famous art gallery, offering a short history of the gallery and an overview of its treasures. The main focus is then on a number of highlights by Italian painters, such as the three glorious Madonnas (by Ducio, Cimabue and Giotto respectively) displayed together in the first main room plus, of course, Botticelli's Primavera and The Birth of Venus. Mention is also made of a well-known double portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino by Piero della Francesca and in each case the descriptions are supplemented by useful background information.

http://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk

Florence Episode 16 Michelangelo

Florence Episode 16 Michelangelo

Of course, Michelangelo deserves an episode to himself and this is it. First, hear about the museums which display his work, including the Bargello and the Accademia. Then, there's a brief biography, focussing particularly on his Florence connections, especially his time as a youngster under the care and sponsorship of Lorenzo il Magnifico. Despite a long period working in Rome, Michelangelo took care to leave instructions that after his death his body should be returned to his home city for a funeral and burial in Santa Croce. Florence is still proud to be 'the birthplace of this divinely endowed spirit'.

www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk