Tag Archives: Italy

Google Europe Blog 2014-04-25 12:39:00

If you’ve ever dreamt of being a time traveler like the movie character Doc Brown, now’s your chance.  Want to experience different seasons and see what it would be like to cruise Italian roadways in both summer and winter?  Starting this week, you can travel to the past to see how a place has changed over the years by exploring Street View imagery in Google Maps for desktop. We've gathered historical imagery from past Street View collections dating back to 2007 to create this digital time capsule of the world.

If you see a clock icon in the upper left-hand portion of a Street View image, click on it and move the slider through time and select a thumbnail to see that same place in previous years or seasons.

Now with Street View, you can see a landmark's growth from the ground up, like the Freedom Tower in New York City or the 2014 World Cup Stadium in Fortaleza, Brazil. This new feature can also serve as a digital timeline of recent history, like the reconstruction after the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Onagawa, Japan.

Construction of the Freedom Tower, New York City

Destruction in Onagawa, Japan after the 2011 earthquake

Forget going 88 mph in a DeLorean—you can stay where you are and use Google Maps to virtually explore the world as it is—and as it was. Happy (time) traveling!

Posted by Vinay Shet, Google Street View Product Manager


Inviting you to take a Romanesque journey

More than a millenium before the birth of the European Union, a style of architecture and art spread across the continent. It was called Romanesque and it emerged almost simultaneously in Spain, France, Italy, and Germany with sufficient unity to be considered Europe’s first common international art style.

Celebrating this achievement, our Cultural Institute just has launched launch a new, virtual exhibition, called “Origins of Romanesque: the Birth of Europe.” Curated by the Santa María la Real Foundation, it presents 26 iconic expressions of Romanesque beauty, explaining their social, political and cultural context. More than 100 guests attended the launch event in Madrid, featuring the president of the Foundation, José María Perez Peridis and the President of National Heritage as speakers.


Monestaries and abbeys led the way in spreading Romanesque constructions. In Spain, Romanesque cathedrals, churches, monasteries, cloisters and chapels mark the famed Camino de Santiago pilgrammage route.

Elsewhere in Europe, abbeys in Fulda, Lorsch, St. Gallen and Bobbio arose in the 11th century and became beacons for the new style, as did Europe’s first universities, beginning with Bologna in 1088.

Beside exploring Romanesque buildings, the new online exhibition includes drawings, photographs, films and video about Romanesque Europe.



We hope this present exhibition is only the first of a series, exploring other a series of exhibitions on life and art in Europe from Roman to modern times. Our goal is help everyone learn about and enjoy the beauties from the past.

Posted by Barbara Navarro, Director of Institutional Relations and Public Affairs Google

Made in Italy goes digital

Italy long has been famed for its quality of life, its fashion, its heritage and its food. We believe the Internet can help promote the Made in Italy lifestyle brand and the Google Cultural Institute has worked with the Italian Agriculture Ministry, Union of Chambers of Commerce, the University Ca' Foscari, the Symbola Foundation to launch an online platform designed to help bring Made in Italy online.



On the new platform, anybody, anywhere can discover hundreds of digital displays, stories, pictures, videos, and historical documents about Italian craftsmanship. Many of Italy’s most famous culinary and handcraft products are represented, from Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and Prosciutto di San Daniele ham to Murano glass and Montappone Hats. Little-known gems also can be uncovered such as Vercelli accordions and Ascoli Piceno lace.
Discover Montappone Hats
Many of the best Italian producers are small and medium sized, family-owned companies. They are homes to craftsmen who produce niche products. By bringing them online, we hope to help them export and reach global markets. Before, an American or Chinese buyer would have found it hard to obtain many of these Italian gems. With the new site, niche products no longer are forced into niche markets.

Online interest is growing in Italian “cultural” products. Google searches in these categories grew by 12 percent last year; fashion is the most searched category, followed by tourism and food. Even so, Made in Italy producers still lag with their digital activities: only 34 percent  of Italian SMEs have their own website and only 13 percent use it to do e-commerce.

Media partner Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso, excited about the economic potential of the internet, dedicated an entire section to the project, focusing on examples of successful Italian entrepreneurs going digital. Savor this new digital platform - and encourage more and more Italian purveyors of the sweet life to benefit from the Internet.

Posted by Luisella Mazza, Program Manager, Cultural Institute and Diego Ciulli, Public Policy Analyst, Rome

Ski with Street View

Europe’s ski season is moving into high gear, making it a perfect moment for us to help you explore some of the continent’s best resorts and runs. We’ve taken our Street View snowmobile to the slopes and have launched new imagery of some great pistes in Italy, France, Andorra and Spain.






 Italy: From the western border between Italy and France in La Thuile to Siusi, Pusteria and Kronplatz in the eastern Dolomite Stations south of Austria, we are bringing online a total of eight Italian ski resorts. Take a look where the pros will head down the pistes at Bormio, which hosts a World Cup stop on December 29.



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France: Val Thorens is one of the highest stations in Europe, while Les Gets opens up to the 600 kilometers of slopes on the Portes du Soleil.


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 Spain: The Pyrenees boasts some great skiing and we feature Estació de Esqui de Masella.


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 Andorra: The small state of Andorra is home to a lot of skiing. We are bringing online two Alpine resorts Estació Esquí de Grandvalira and Estació Esquí de Vallnord. Together they cover more than 300 kilometers of slopes. You can also explore Nordic skiing facilities at Estació Esquí de fons de Naturlandia.




Check out the slopes online, pick up your skis and head to the mountains.

Posted by Ulf Spitzer, Street View Program Manager, Zurich