simone schiavinato

This, more than any other before, is the year of Leonardo da Vinci, as we celebrate the 500th anniversary of his death, which took place in Amboise (France) on the 2nd of May 1519. Leonardo, then, was 67. He had …

We’ve been coyly rising our hopes in Italy, but we know the emergency is far from over. The infection has been  slowing down, but 800 deaths every day leave us all breathless, just like the virus. Because of the virus, …

Today, 18th of March, we are just starting  our second week in isolation.  The streets are empty and everything is incredibly silent, without the voices of kids and teens coming and going from school and cars roaring just outside the …

According to the peoddddple at the Istituto Treccani — one of Italy’s most prestigious cultural institutions — there are 270,000 words in the Italian language, and that’s without considering the  declined and conjugated variations of them, in which case, the …

Rome: caput mundi, the Eternal City, the cradle of Western culture as we know it (without forgetting Athens, of course!). A city made of history and art, spirituality and, well… controversy.   Those among you who follow the Italian news …

Family life is made of plenty of things: of simplicity and mundanity, of smiles and fights, of daily routine and special moments, of love and many, many memories. Family life, when you think of it, is at the very heart …

We are going to press when Italy has just surpassed 80.000 positive coronavirus cases, aware of how the  peak has yet to come in spite of the drastic containment measures implemented. Here  in the United States, the emergency has only …

Vedi Napoli e poi mori, once you’ve seen Naples, you are free to die. It may sound unsettling at first, but whoever visited the city can testify it is so special, so unique and so precious it could well represent …

On the 4th of May, the vast majority of Italy’s productive activities will open and almost three million workers will return to work. A first, little step towards normality, ready to be retracted should social distancing not be respected and …

We’ve been living in a new decade for almost two weeks, and so many things have already happened. Yet, the month of January is, more often than not, a time when we look back at what  we did and  set …