mariella radaelli

When modern bikini hit the shelves in Paris in the summer of 1946, Mediterranean women quickly snatched up it. One year later the world’s smallest bathing suit was introduced to the United States. Unleashed on the world, it conquered both …

William Papaleo is a prominent painter whose dramatic depictions are full of controlled and potent emotion. The New York-born artist, a third generation American, captures the texture, colors and toil of Southern Italy, which has absorbed layers of history and …

Arturo Toscanini’s boisterous humanity comes alive throughout a new biography by eminent music historian Harvey Sachs. To mark the 150th anniversary of the legendary conductor’s birth, “Toscanini – Musician of Conscience” will come out next spring from Liveright Publishing Corp., …

Since my Italian-American Italy has long been renowned for its miracles in stone. From Roman amphitheaters and aqueducts to Michelangelo’s David, the people from this mountainous land have produced creations that made history.    The Latins converted the untamed into …

With unprecedented cooperation from people who knew and worked with Jorge Mario Bergoglio, film director Daniele Luchetti offers a thoughtful, compelling account of the life of the man who would become Pope Francis in the two-part series “Francesco — Il …

From the time of Emperor Augustus, the Salt Road has been a path for commerce between the mountain hamlet of Limone Piedmont and the Mediterranean Sea. Today trade continues in another form as visitors flock to the Maritime Alps seeking …

The pristine medieval village Civita di Bagnoregio has paradoxically found a boom in tourism due to its slow, steady collapse down a jagged cliff of volcanic rock. Its nickname is Il Paese che Muore because it has actually been collapsing …

Bagheria is a curiosity, a literary space in the most exotic place in Europe: Sicily at the crossroads of the Mediterranean, part of Europe and Africa, yet belonging entirely to neither. Sicily remains a unique land with an Arabic vibe, …

What would inspire people to book trips to Ivrea? The small city near Turin is not just your next obscure travel destination. It is an absolutely must-visit stop in the carnival season, when its distinct identity takes shape as the …

St. Ambrose died in 397 but the world of Ambrogio lives on today in Milan. He was mourned by thousands at his funeral on a snowy night. Women sang his hymns. Fog was thick, shrouding Mediolanum, the ancient name for …