Heritage

Pangiallo, which literally means “yellow bread,” is a traditional Christmas dessert in our capital and in the region of Lazio. In fact, this flavorsome bun is heir to a recipe known already by the ancient Romans, so there is nothing …

Underground tunnels, burial sites, places of worship, hiding spaces. Catacombs have been all that throughout their history. Many cities – the older the better, of course – have some sort of underground networks of passages and chambers, some more famous …

The Romans are known for their ingenuity: aqueducts, road systems, daily newspapers, cement, sanitation, elements of social care, welfare and our modern legal system all come from them. That’s without even taking into account their military and tactical know-how. However, …

Fora Febraro che marso xé qua, people from Veneto say: “Let’s get rid of February, March is here!” The funny expression is also synonymous with a popular tradition in the region, called the Fora Febraro, rooted in the very history …

If you think about it, Verona, one of our most beautiful cities, has been made world-famous by a Briton. And certainly not a random one: William Shakespeare. The Bard – this is what the residents of the land of Albion …

Medicine in Rome was at once incredibly different and incredibly close to what it is today. Different, of course, because of what 2,000 years of discoveries and research gave us; but similar, because some of our ancestors’ intuitions – which …

On the 17th of January, Italians celebrate Sant’Antonio Abate, known in English as Saint Anthony of Egypt or Saint Anthony the Great. Anthony is a saint of the early Church and he is considered the first saint hermit, as well …

Pizzoccheri are a traditional dish from Valtellina, a mountainous region between northern Lombardia and Switzerland. The dish has ancient origins, with some believing that the Romans already knew them, as we will see.  The recipe is quite simple: a dough made …

The Petruzzelli Theater in Bari is the fourth-largest opera house in Italy and one of the most important, with La Scala in Milan, La Fenice in Venice, the Regio in Turin, the San Carlo in Naples and the Massimo in …

Stereotypes are hard to die and they are more complex than we may think. Because if it’s very easy to dismiss them as superficial nonsense, sometimes they do hold a grain of truth, under all that silly fluff.  I don’t …