Luca Signorini

There is a place in Tuscany’s Mount Amiata region, where Christmas is synonym with fire. In truth, the connection between the two is quite common across the country, with ritual fire celebrations like those in Nemoli (Basilicata), Agnone (Molise), and …

Twenty-four hours: that’s how long it took to Mount Vesuvius to obliterate Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae, and Oplontis from the face of the Earth. Twenty-four hours and two devastating phases: the first buried Pompeii under meters of ashes; the second, some …

In one of his masterpieces, Oceano Mare  (Ocean Sea), Italian novelist Alessandro Baricco describes an artist who painted the sea with sea water. I remember thinking, after reading the book for the first time, that there couldn’t be anything more …

We all know ragù, the delicious meat and tomato sauce that goes perfectly with tagliatelle, or gnocchi. In the US, it’s largely associated with a dish, spaghetti bolognese, that in Italy doesn’t really exist: you’d be hardly pushed to find …

If you’ve been to Tuscany, you had vin santo, the sweet, thick fragrant nectar often served with another Tuscan legend, cantucci cookies. To be fair, vin santo is typical of all regions of central Italy and some variants of it …

Venice and Florence are key players in Italy’s well honed tourism industry. But the past year has proven difficult beyond belief for them, too. While the end of the pandemic is far from being “around the corner,” the mayors of …

As many of you probably know, after more than 70 years of service, Alitalia is no more. Its last flight landed in Rome at 23,23 on the 15th of October, and it did feel like the end of an era. …

Not many know that, since 1946, Rome celebrates the new year in an unusual way: a dive from Ponte Cavour at midday, just when the cannons from the Gianicolo ring the hour. The first to celebrate the new year in …

While born in Italy, the habit of having aperitivo with friends to unwind after a day at work, or as a fun preamble to a good dinner in company, has become a worldwide custom. Similarly, what we Italians like to …

Even during the hardest times, there is something that never changes in Italy: we have plenty of pasta in the larder: it’s cheap, versatile, and makes everyone happy. When the country went into lockdown for the first time, in March …