Italy begins with Venus—Goddess of Love, Beauty, Fertility, and Sexual Healing. She’s that gorgeous divine gal you’ll see posed naked all over the country.

The Ancient Romans believed they were her chosen descendants. It was Venus who seduced a Greek mortal and thus became the great grandmother of Romulus and Remus, those twins suckled by a she-wolf on Rome’s Palatine Hill who founded the Eternal City.

Her presence is eternal. If you have doubts, watch Italian women striding down the via, knowing that spark of Venus lives inside them.

Moving from Pagan to Christian times, churches honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary (aka the BVM) were built smack over Venus’s temples. Mary is everywhere: dangling off taxicab mirrors, popping out of alleyway altars, wowing you in masterpieces.

Madonna Mia! Two divine females embody the essential spirit of Italy.

• Italy is Venus: Country of beauty, freedom, mercurial passions, surprising possibilities.
• Italy is Mary: Country of motherly love, compassion, serenity.

With those two adored beauties and many more goddesses and saints surrounding you, go and have a divine time exploring…