francesca bezzone

From North to South, from East to West, Italy is a beautiful chest filled with mysterious treasures. Bones of dragons and alchemic doors, secret symbols to warn against the Devil and dark ladies of the Renaissance, our trip through the …

While I write, I’m sitting in my own house in the hills of the Langhe, a good feet of snow outside. It’s that time of the year when the scent of mandarins’ peels burned on the stove fills homes all …

The nature of mystery is manyfold and there is certainly more to it than supernatural events, haunted locations and unsolved murders. Mystery, sometimes, lies also in our impossibility to interpret a habit or a specific moment in history, to understand …

When I was a child, Carnevale was the occasion to don some improbable outfit, usually involving satin gowns and glitter or, depending on the mood of the year, a musketeer hat and a plastic sword. Possibly already nodding to what …

Writing for a living is at once a curse and a blessing: a curse because, believe me, writer’s block is real and hits when you least expect it. A blessing because nothing can really beat sitting down with your thoughts, …

Photography is an incredible versatile form of visual expression, yet there are instances when only painters, with their brushes, charcoals and colors, can truly capture the essence of a place or the soul of a person. There is something so …

Indeed, at the times of the Empire, all roads led to Rome, especially when you think the Romans are behind the creation of the first Italian and European communication arteries in history. Don’t we all know about the Via Aurelia, …

When I still lived abroad, I once visited my brother in Rome with two Irish friends, who were astonished by the fact the city only had two underground lines (it’s three today). “Well, every time they begin digging, something archaeologically …

As usual, Cicero is illuminating: “a life without music is like a body without its soul.”  There’s an undeniable truth in his words the people of his motherland, glorious Rome, always kept in mind. Indeed, the Romans loved music and …

Luba Mitnik-Gankin, creator and owner of Primavera Dreams, is a true citizen of the world: she grew up in Saint Petersburg, Russia most splendid jewel; she lived, studied and worked in Paris, epitome of European art and culture, then moved …