francesca bezzone

2021 has been rough. Not as rough as 2020 but I am not that sad to see this year go. While we are sitting and gorging on panettone on two different sides of the Atlantic, I reckon our New Year’s …

Mark the 25th of March on your calendar, and get ready to enjoy an amazing evening. The Nexxt Foundation Inc. is organizing its first Annual Gala Event at the Ovation Center in Long Beach and we are all invited. The Gala will offer delicious …

Italy is filled with Renaissance beauty: Florence, Perugia, and Siena. Mantova, Pavia and Ferrara, just to name a few.  This is not surprising, because the Renaissance, the historical and cultural period that, in Italy, runs from the very early 14th century to …

Tomatoes: they come in all shapes and sizes, their color moving from the deepest, brightest red to a golden green, all the way to hues that reach the depth of purples. They can also be yellow, bright, and full of …

The Romans certainly knew a thing or two about beautiful yet sturdy, long-lasting architecture: I remember thinking just that the first time I visited the majestic Pont du Gard, in the South of France – closer to where I am …

In Christianity, Lent is the period of forty days that anticipates Easter and corresponds to the forty days spent by Jesus fasting and praying in the desert of Judea, as told by the Gospels. For Catholics, this is traditionally a period of …

 In the narrative of the Gospels, the birth of Christ doesn’t take up much space: the focus, as those among you who went to catechism as children may remember, is all on the last three years of his life, those …

Have ever heard about the Passetto di Borgo or, to say it in Romanesco, er Coridore de Borgo? This historical landmark is a bit of a 007-esque fixture in the middle of the baroque beauty of the area around the Vatican. The elevated and …

Imagine the stupor, the surprise Paolo Dal Poggetto, then director of the Museo delle Cappelle Medicee Florence, must have felt when he discovered, entirely by chance, the last secret of Michelangelo Buonarroti. The year was 1975, the location was the Basilica di San Lorenzo, more precisely the Sagrestia …

At the end of the month, Italy will choose its new President, the successor of Sergio Mattarella. Contrarily to what happens in the US, however, citizens don’t vote for their head of state directly: it’s the Parliament that decides. This is …