Barberini Family History in New Book by Urbano Barberini

A new book titled "La bellezza nel destino. Le api, il principe, l'eredità della famiglia Barberini" chronicles four centuries of the Barberini dynasty, focusing on Pope Urban VIII (Maffeo Barberini) and his patronage of artists like Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini during the Baroque era. Author Urbano Riario Sforza Barberini Colonna di Sciarra, a descendant, discusses the family's impact on Rome's cultural transformation. He also recounts his environmental activism, notably in 2011 as Assessore alla Cultura e Turismo of Tivoli, where he opposed a landfill near Villa Adriana, a UNESCO site. Barberini calls for repatriation of Caravaggio's portrait of Maffeo Barberini to Palazzo Barberini. His tragicomic play "Barbari, Barberini e Barbiturici," co-written with Daniele Falleri, recently ran at Rome's Off Off Theatre.