La vita italiana

When Niccolo Machiavelli penned his masterpiece, The Prince, Italy was a land divided and besieged by many foreign forces.  In his last chapter, “An Exhortation to free Italy from the Hands of the Barbarians,” he calls for new weapons and …

Walking down Mulberry Street, gelato alla nocciola in hand, I couldn’t help but watch the old man wearing a vest and a coppola animatedly talking to his friend in Sicilian. If I had snapped a picture, you would have guessed …

The Torino flavored wine returns to the spotlight of cocktails on the bar top with the vintage atmosphere from the beginning of the century, not only in the Piedmontese capital but throughout Italy and the world. In a bottle of …

The “Scoppio del Carro” or Explosion of the Cart, is one of the most spectacular festivals in Italy. It’s an ancient tradition that is deeply rooted in folklore. One that’s exciting and noisy as it is colourful. This is Easter, …

The 100th edition of the Giro d’Italia is well underway. A celebration of Italian cycling and one of the most famous tours of its kind in the world. Lasting three weeks, the route covers a total of 3612 kilometres and …

The first memories I have of Fabriano paper are of the A5 notebooks we used in elementary school: each page was heavier and thicker than average, making it perfect for the daily wear and tear imposed by the hands – …

We all love it and eat it, and we may even be somehow knowledgeable about how to prepare some of its most representative dishes, but what do we really know about the history of food in Italy? Why does the …

Piazza Navona: how beautiful it is. So beautiful one may even accept to pay an excruciatingly high price for a “granita al limone” and a coffee in one of its many cafés just to dwell in comfort for a few …

The “Marinella philosophy” originated in the year 1914, when the thirty-four-year-old Neapolitan Don Eugenio opened a small shop in the Riviera of Chiaia of Naples. After having completed the renovations, the young founder undertook his first trip to London to …

There isn’t a period in history as quintessentially Italian as the Renaissance. Even though it spread throughout Europe, with the notable exception of the British islands, it is in Italy that the rebirth of culture after the “dark ages” (which …