francesca bezzone

This time of the year is my personal favorite: I am a child of the snow and the mountains, invigorated by the dry, crispy chill of winter, rather than the sticky heat of the summer months. I like early-setting darkness …

Norcia: a cradle of tradition and art, a symbol of western culture, home to Saint Benedict father of monasticism and patron saint of Europe. Norcia: medieval alleys and stone, “norcinerie” with their prosciutto and wild boar salame, the peaceful fragrance …

Pizza finds a place on every country’s table and is topped with countless delicacies, each country creating its own – more or less – orthodox version of this quintessentially Italian food. Yet it remains Neapolitan in the  minds of all of …

As unbelievable as it may seem, one can get used to Beauty. Try to live in a city like Florence for a bunch of years and you may end up taking even Santa Maria del Fiore for granted. The wondrous, …

Off the usual touristic beaten tracks lays the point of the Italian boot, Calabria. Italian Americans are probably well aware of its beauty and amazing traditions and history, as a large part of the community originated, at its very beginning, …

It was 1989 when Chazz Palminteri wrote A Bronx Tale,  a one man pièce that was to become a movie in 1993 and eventually get on a Broadway’s stage around 15 years later, in 2007. Bronx, its cinematic transposition, was …

That of presepe is, very likely, Italy’s best known Christmas tradition: it is popular from north to south and it is indissolubly tied to one of the country’s most important religious figures, Saint Francis of Assisi, patron on the nation. …

Christmas is a universal feast. It is the apogee of all year’s celebrations for Christians all around the world; it is a time of love and warmth for everyone else. Regardless of your faith and beliefs, in the end, Christmas …

Writing in English is my job, so it goes without saying I love this language. I like the way it alliterates easily and its pragmatic nature, which is so different from the Baroque concatenation of subordinates that usually makes up …

A Christmas without panettone is barely a Christmas in Italy: loathed or loved, the Milanese born sweet loaf is something everyone has in the kitchen this time of  the year. Light, fragrant and pleasantly rich, panettone lovers relish its candied …