La vita italiana

Once upon a time, about 600 years ago, the deep southern reaches of Calabria cradled the heart of Europe’s silk industry. Nestled in the Catanzaro hills, mulberry trees flourished in the mild Mediterranean climate, their leafy branches offering food for …

A couple of weeks ago, we learnt about Florence, right on these pages, right off the pen – well, keyboard – or yours truly. Today, is Venice to conquer the headlines for the same reasons. A short recap for those …

There is something at the heart of Lerici that works on my imagination to create magic as interesting things happened in its world of sand and sea, harbor and castles, alleys and pastel-colored houses. All can be read through the …

When Juno, Queen of Olympus, needed to vent her spleen, she visited Aeolus, god of the winds, on his draughty island off Sicily. Juno was outraged that the fugitive Trojan prince Aeneas was destined to found Rome and destroy Carthage, …

Since the beginning of time, light has been a recurrent symbol in Christianity and, from a liturgical point of view, it refers directly to God. Light was considered a weapon against the treachery of darkness and remains still today ancestrally …

The first weekend in October will be very busy for locals and visitors in San Francisco. While the Marina will welcome the San Francisco Fleet Week – a celebration of the Bay Area naval tradition, honoring men and women serving …

Silence engulfs the double vaulted reading room as solitary scholars pore over ancient scripts. Spidery trails of ink scurry across crackling pages. And the friary corridors are lined with nearly 80 kilometers of aged books dating back over a thousand …

We are in that time of the year again. The summer is over, we’re all going back to our daily routines and embracing the comforting colors and sound of the fall, yet, it’s hard not to think about another holiday, …

This is what many came to think, when the Florence city council emitted an ordinance, which took effect on September 4 and will last until January 6 2019, banning people from eating on the sidewalks and on front of the …

Every time the month of October rolls around, many people think about the change of the seasons, from summer to now true fall. The holidays are just ahead, and so we all gear up to see how and where and …