La vita italiana

America: its name alone has been enough to bring a sparkle in the eye of several generations of young Italians. A sparkle of hope, initially: hope for a better life, hope for a future free from hunger and poverty, just …

When summer passes the torch of seasons to fall and people start getting back into their routines after weeks at the beach, Italy enjoys one last sparkle of glamour on her most famous Lido, that of Venezia. Between the end …

Rimini has attracted a crowd in August since time immemorial. The internationally renowned summer holiday destination on la Riviera Romagnola is synonymous with long sandy beaches that are hard to beat, especially for families and party-goers. But this pre-eminent party …

It’s only the 2nd of September, today, yet the sounds and scents of summer seem far. The weather has been helping to get into the mood, treating us with the beauty of violet skies filled with softly round clouds, heavy …

Saying that food, in Italy, is more than simple nutrition means stating the obvious: years and years of Sunday lunches and holiday feasts at nonna’s place didn’t simply made our childhood memories sweeter, but taught us this little secret about …

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 …

Outside Caffé Sant’Eustachio students and cabbies, bankers and brokers, pundits and senators sip espresso and mock the news. Starbucks, the US coffee chain with nearly 27,000 locations worldwide, had opened its first Italian store in Milan. “Blasphemy,” pronounces an archivist …

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 …

La donna Italiana: timeless like la Loren, mesmerizing like Milva, beautiful like la Bellucci, intelligent like la Montalcini, strong like la Fallaci. Good in the kitchen like all nonne, eternally charming, she knows how to be a leader without forgetting …

More than sixty years ago the Italian writer and painter, Carlo Levi, wrote a series of essays about Rome that were published posthumously. These short essays, published in 2005 under the title Fleeting Rome, must rank among his best works, …