Jordan Diffenderfer

After seeing La Guardia Svizzera, or in English, the Swiss Guard, standing at attention at the gates of the Holy City, donned with their halberds, their chest armor, their blue, yellow and red striped uniforms, and helmets with red fur …

Close your eyes. Imagine walking down winding, cobbled lanes that slope increasingly downward, wandering away from the cream and mustard colored houses with terra cotta roofs and onto a hoof-beaten dirt path that leads into the woods—a grove of orange …

In the northernmost part of Italy, bordering the majestic, snowcapped Swiss Alps, is a valley called Valtellina, long known for the quality of its produce and vineyards as well as the natural and cultural landscape. Historically and politically, the valley …