mariella radaelli

Even in a country like Italy blessed with immense beauty, the Aeolian Islands are a standout destination. The Aeolian archipelago – a group of seven islands and five islets afloat in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the coast of Sicily – …

“Sicilian novels and memoirs that speak of food are more important to me than cookbooks,” says Mary Taylor Simeti, a grande dame of the vibrant Sicilian kitchen and culture. “Sicily’s culture, including its food, is a magnificent melting pot, an accumulation …

Early one morning in 1959 a ceramic artist from Turin known simply as Clizia arrived in Bussana Vecchia, a medieval hilltop village about five miles northeast of Sanremo that had been a complete ghost town for 72 years. On Feb. …

There is a remote island of resilient men in southwestern Sardinia. It is called San Pietro and legend has it that St. Peter visited in 46 AD. The lovely town of Carloforte lies at its heart as an island within …

The road into the Hyblaean Mountains snakes left and right, hugging the hillsides as the flora turns from spartan scrubland to holm-oak forest. It’s hard to not notice, after the 40 km drive up from the gem city of Siracusa, …

Born Joanne Stefani Germanotta, Lady Gaga was raised in Manhattan, but her melodramatic excess and sense of the theatrical baroque might spring from her Sicilian cultural matrix. Her grandfather came from Naso, a small, isolated, aristocratic town with 4,000 residents …

A slice of paradise was created by a landslide at Mt. Rava a thousand years ago, forming Lake Scanno, a heart-shaped mountain lake 1,050 meters above sea level in the Sagittario Valley of Abruzzo. “It boasts incredible biodiversity just waiting …

Pinned like a medieval brooch on the slopes of Mount Milocca, Castelbuono is the leading producer of manna in all the Mediterranean region. In this small corner of the Madonie Park near Cefalù, manna does not fall from the sky …

For a new angle on Italy, ditch the car and try sailing off on the Ionian Sea along the coast off Rocca Imperiale, a bijou-size borgo that just joined the club of the most beautiful villages of Il Bel Paese. A sojourn …

Springtime is on the way in Zafferana Etnea, the pearl of Etna. Buds on the cherry trees are plumping up and soon the first will burst, starting a spectacular floral extravaganza of fields speckled with wild flowers: The Mount Etna …