Educational Media Reviews Online

While the full impact of the pandemic is still unlikely known, it is clear the lockdowns over the last few years have really impacted student learning. One area of student learning that has not received much attention has been the limitation of travel on the ability of students to explore historically and culturally significant landmarks throughout the world. One way to address the limitations created by the pandemic has been for students and others interested in visiting these types of locations to explore the art and architecture along with the history of these sites through guided video tours. Drawing you into the beauty of St. Peter’s, St. John in the Lateran, St. Mary Major, and St. Paul Outside the Walls, St. Peter’s and the Papal Basilicas of Rome offers a guided tour as if you were there as a tourist.

Taking the viewer into each of these buildings, it offers a mixture of art, architecture, history, and religion as if they were on a tour, the film brings you into each location highlighting the art and architecture along with providing views that one would not be able to see if they were there. As part of the expert guided tour, viewers are exposed to works of from masters like Michelangelo, Bernini, and Torriti.

Centering this tour through video with breathtaking overviews of the area from drones, the high-quality filming continues with each segment. With a mixture of historical images, architectural drawings, and current day footage, the story of these buildings is brought together with a well-developed narrative. Driving the engagement between the viewers and the images on the screen is music that pulls one into the story unfolding on the screen. While the English voiceover is well done, the cuts to the experts speaking in Italian can become distracting for English speaking audiences and takes one out of the immersive experience.

This film is highly recommended for and will enhance any existing collection supporting European and Italian art history and architecture. It also will support collections in European history and religious studies.

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