Rebuilding The Renaissance

Rocky Ruggiero has a PhD in art history and has been releasing Rebuilding The Renaissance weekly since 2019. The archive is now north of 370 episodes, which is frankly a little intimidating but also means that whatever obscure chapel, fresco, or Roman ruin you are curious about, he has probably already covered it. Ruggiero's specialty is Italy from antiquity through the Renaissance, and he approaches it as someone who has spent a lot of time on the ground in front of the actual buildings and paintings. You can hear it in the way he talks about architecture in particular: details about vault construction, about how a specific piazza was laid out, about what the Medici were thinking when they hired Brunelleschi. The show is steady, not flashy. Production is simple, mostly just Ruggiero walking you through a topic with the confidence of someone who has taught this material to a lot of students. The weekly schedule is reliable, the listener base is loyal, and the review average is excellent. This is a good companion to a trip to Florence or Rome, or a good substitute when you cannot get there. Expect to learn, not to be entertained in a flashy way.