francesca bezzone

I have lived for fifteen years outside of Italy and had to endure the oh-so-harsh reality my beloved adoptive country knew next to nothing about aperitivo: the ritual, the food and, crucially, the drinks. Honed by years of aperitivo practice …

Palermo is the beating heart of Sicily, a heart that holds within all the mesmerizing beauty and stark oppositions typical of this land: it is rich in art and beautiful to the point of pain, yet rough around the edges …

There is no peace to Italy’s most famous cheese: Parmigiano Reggiano. If counterfeit varieties of it were not enough to alarm producers, in the past couple of years they also had to face the presence of a criminal ring specialized …

In Italy, he became TV popular only in very recent months, after news and gossip outlets alike made known he custom made the shirt POTUS Donald Trump wore on inauguration day, but the much criticized American first citizen is far …

Cannolo siciliano: is there any other Italian dessert this popular in the world? Tiramisù may be one of its more glorious competitors, but cannolo making is an art that you can’t reproduced at home with the same simplicity. We can …

The first memories I have of Fabriano paper are of the A5 notebooks we used in elementary school: each page was heavier and thicker than average, making it perfect for the daily wear and tear imposed by the hands – …

Let me put things straight: there’s no place like Rome. Cradle of culture and art, archetype of beauty, favored destination for history buffs and foodies alike, Rome has no rivals when it comes to these things. Yet, Rome is also …

Family: the essence of our being, the root of our ideals and the place we go back to when everything fails us. It does not really matter if it is  large or small, extended or nuclear, family is the first …

“Fatta l’Italia, bisogna fare gli Italiani,” famously said Massimo D’Azeglio shortly after the unification of Italy. And he was right: in those faithful last decades of the 19th century, when Risorgimento reached its apogee and political ideas of unity and …

Not many may think of it, but the 15th of March, the Ides of March, to say it with the Romans, marks the millenary anniversary of one of history’s most notorious murders, that  of Caius Julius Caesar. Legendary Roman leader …