Heritage

A Christmas without panettone is barely a Christmas in Italy: loathed or loved, the Milanese born sweet loaf is something everyone has in the kitchen this time of  the year. Light, fragrant and pleasantly rich, panettone lovers relish its candied …

The second landmark in our tour of the “houses of the House of Medici” in Florence is the one and only Palazzo Vecchio (Old Palace). Built around the year 1300 as Palazzo dei Priori (Priors’ Palace), the worldwide-known building overlooking …

Even though Dante Alighieri lived more than a century and a half before the Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli, the two of them seem to be linked by some kind of mysterious connection. The famed painter of such masterpieces as The …

Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly…and any Texan worth his or her braggin’ rights has gotta own a pair of mighty fine cowboy boots. Ask any Lone Star State resident to name the Cadillac of boot brands and you’d most …

Technology represents today a powerful tool for challenging the political nature of the chronicles of the past, the one we learn as truth at school. The history of “old Europe” is something that it is usually taken for granted. Unless …

Next year promises to be big for Pistoia. This little-known town in the north of Tuscany has just been chosen as the Italian Capital of Culture for 2017. And as the world’s press turn their spotlights on the town, we …

From scarlet undies to pig’s trotters, fireworks to fearless bridge divers or tombola to fat ox parades, Italians love to celebrate the New Year with some wonderful traditions. It’s all to help usher in good luck and a good year. …

Christmas is a universal feast. It is the apogee of all year’s celebrations for Christians all around the world; it is a time of love and warmth for everyone else. Regardless of your faith and beliefs, in the end, Christmas …

The House of Medici. To anyone the name of this powerful Florentine family is in and of itself a synonym for the Italian Renaissance. But how many do really know about the origins, history and art patronage of the dynasty which …

Shakespeare’s famous “Fair Verona” may have been the ideal setting for his story about the star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet, but modern Verona has become a city with a wonderful mixture of those historic elements and contemporary Italian culture. It …