Raphael
By the end of 1508, Raphael had moved to Rome, where he lived for the rest of his life. He was invited by the new Pope Julius II, perhaps at the suggestion of his architect Donato Bramante, then engaged on St. Peter's Basilica, who came from just outside Urbino and was distantly related to Raphael. Unlike Michelangelo, who had been kept lingering in Rome for several months after his first summons, Raphael was immediately commissioned by Julius to fresco what was intended to become the Pope's private library at the Vatican Palace. This was a much larger and more important commission than any he had received before; he had only painted one altarpiece in Florence itself. Several other artists and their teams of assistants were already at work on different rooms, many painting over recently completed paintings commissioned by Julius's loathed predecessor, Alexander VI, whose contributions, and arms, Julius was determined to efface from the palace. Michelangelo, meanwhile, had been commissioned to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
Porto Rafael
Raphael was born on 26 August 1926 and sent to Paris and London to be educated. His father wanted him to study Architecture in Paris, but his bohemian son had other ideas, and became a chorus dancer in the Follies Bergeres dancing in Josephine Baker's shows. In 1959, Raphael took a trip to Sardinia, where he stumbled upon a small bay facing an Archipelago of little islands, (Maddalena archipelago) and he fell irrevocably in love with it. (see Book 'Sardinia' by Dana Facarci and Michael Pauls). He bought a small patch of land between Baia di Nelson (where Lord Nelson had once anchored his fleet) and Punta Sardegna, near the town of Palau, from a local landowner called Paolo Cudoni - and for the rest of his life, maintained he had first seen this place in a dream. "Sognare e Vivere" (to dream and to live) became the motto of his eponymous resort. 
Lord Nelson made a gift of silver candlesticks and a silver cross to the church of Santa Maddalena, on the island of La Maddalena across the water from Porto Rafael which are still on display at the "Diocesano" museum.