Heritage

When current mayor of Rome Virginia Raggi was elected, she made it quite  clear that banning botticelle was one of her aims. These traditional horse-drawn carriages  are  as romantic as they are, alas, unjust. Throughout the years, episodes of animals …

Blessed with one of the most beautiful languages, Italy is also home to a plethora of linguistic minorities, twelve to be precise, across fourteen regions, with almost three million speakers. The Occitan linguistic minority of the Alpine valleys of Piedmont …

Even the most diehard self-professing Scrooges out there probably succumb to at least a few of the joyful traditions of the Christmas season. Whether it’s scrumptious baked goods or carols sung loudly or the odd family tradition that no one …

About 60 million people speak Italian in the Belpaese and an extra 1.5 million do it around the world, including France, Croatia, Switzerland, Slovenia,  as well as Argentina, Australia, Brazil and the US, of course.  A brief review of what …

Italians love cooking and eating: this is a truth as scientific as water boiling at 100C and gravity keeping us anchored to the earth. Each one of us has a favorite dish and a favorite recipe, and I am sure …

Goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg may have invented the movable-type printing press around 1450 in Meinz, Germany to create his monumental Bibles, but Venice is where the Printing Revolution began by giving the nascent industry a major push and changing men’s lives. …

Christmas is finally here and the heavens know how badly we need some seasonal cheer this year. It’s been a hard 12 months and we deserve some peace, quite and pandoro, let me tell you. What’s beautiful about this time …

In the 21st century, protecting our homes means, more often than not, installing a top notch alarm system, one of those we regularly set off by mistake in the morning when, before our first coffee, we open the kitchen door …

Saint Peter’s is Rome and  Rome is Saint Peter’s: the connection between the city and the most famous church in Italy is so deeply rooted we tend to forget that, technically, the basilica and its cupolone are not in Rome …

It’s not even up for debate. Italy is one of the grandest places on earth. Period. What then would we expect during the Christmas season in Italy but the best of ways to celebrate it!   One day? How about …