francesca bezzone

Italy is known worldwide for its bread: fragrant, tasty, a magnificent balance of crunchiness and softness, it is the perfect companion  to all dishes and the most essential ingredient of countless types of sandwiches.  We all know Italian bread comes …

Who says that good food must be complicated to make, or  that it has to take loads of time to prepare? There is a lot to learn from the way our grandmothers used to cook: it may  have  been a …

The late Anthony Bourdain notoriously said once that pasta cacio  e pepe “could be the greatest thing in the history of the world.” And how could you say he was wrong?  I still remember the first time I had a …

During those first, dramatic days of lockdown balconies became, for a large number of Italians, the sole place to experience human contact. Stepping outside on that small, reassuring outdoor corner of our home was the closest thing  to our former …

When we think of Italian immigration to the US,  our thoughts immediately go to the sunny shores and hills of Southern Italy and we’re not making a mistake, really: of the 9 million people who arrived to America from the  …

Second probably only to pizza when it comes to its “iconic” status, caprese salad, or insalata caprese if we want to say it in Italian, is one of the country’s favorite dishes. A staple in the summer, when the juiciest, …

Venezia, la Serenissima and bellissima Venezia.  For centuries queen  of the  seas, always battling for the crown with Genova, la Superba. Hub of cultures, trends, people and…diseases. Yes because, as all places with high people passage and presence, Venezia had …

Ligurians, often, don’t come across as particularly pleasant: they lack the expansiveness of our Southerners, but also the good-tempered simplicity of the Piedmontese. Perceived as perennially in a  bad mood and unfriendly to the verge of rudeness, in truth Ligurians …

Whether they are on holiday or moved abroad for work, Italians do show some unmistakeable behaviors. If you have Italian friends and you hang around them often enough, you certainly noticed at least some of them. Actually, you may even  …

Being quarantined leaves you a lot of time to ponder upon stuff — even if you actually work from home so you need to pump through your 8 hours a day writing and editing anyway. Some reflect on the meaning …