francesca bezzone

Scientific innovation or inventions may not be the first thing coming to mind in relation to the Bel Paese. No offense to the many Italian scientists, from Trotula to Galileo, all the way to Rita Levi Montalcini, Margherita Hack, and …

My memories of the Fall are so stereotipically Italian they could go on a postcard. Those I cherish the most, of course, come from my childhood and are all about white truffles, wild mushrooms and vendemmia. Memories of handmade tajarin …

My neighbor is from Naples. We bonded over our personal obsession on a Spanish novela and our love for coffee: we’d invite each other for one several times a day. She has one of those fancy coffee machines with dozens …

Tourism is one of the main motors of Italian economy, but something has been going awry in the past few years. Senseless mass tourism hasn’t really done all that good to Italy’s small economy: our “botteghe” and small restaurants have …

Italy is becoming a country of old men and women. Or is it? True, Il Bel Paese does have the lowest natality rates of the continent, with only 7.8 children born every 1000 people, half of the rates in Ireland, …

Stereotypes: there’s always a bit of truth in every one of them, positive or negative, and those about Italy are plenty: Italians are loud, Italians can’t stand in a queue, Italians always stick with one another, Italians always think about …

I was having dinner a couple of weeks ago,  when my attention was caught by the news blabbing on tv: The Sun, one of Britain best-selling tabloids, had compiled a list of the world’s most dangerous cities and, lo and …

Many readers may have been already to the cinema to watch one of the most anticipated movies of this Summer, the modern take on classic comic and 1970s’ tv series Wonder Woman. Those a bit more familiar with the lands …

Truly poetic and delicately beautiful: this could be Spettacolo in a nutshell. But I wouldn’t pay it justice, because there’s so much more to it than that. Chris Shellen and Jeff Malmberg, the minds and eyes behind the production, didn’t …

One of the cons about traveling to Italy is the country has so many touristic hot spots it’s almost impossible to enjoy some quiet. One of the pros of traveling to Italy is that for each of those hot spots …