francesca bezzone

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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, …

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 …