La vita italiana

I have always had a secret fantasy to dress like Eleonora de’ Medici. This desire is played out in a new book I have written called “Dreaming Sophia”. Have you seen the painting by Agnolo di Cosimo Bronzino of Eleonora? …

Fiat 500 Restoration: You, Me and Sicily 

The influence of the powerful Medici dynasty can be seen everywhere in Florence. Palazzo Vecchio was once the home of the Medici; the Uffizi Gallery began as a collection of Medici art; the churches of Florence are filled with famous …

Christmas time. Children love it: as the days go by and the 25th approaches they can hardly wait to see what Santa is going to leave underneath the tree. Most adults, whether they like to admit it or not, are …

Each Christmas season brings with it the telling and retelling of a familiar tale portraying the nativity of Jesus Christ.  Camouflaged within the story are vague and obscure words, concealed in the rhetoric of Christmas tradition which we allow to …

In Italy you know Winter has finally arrived when, upon entering a café in the mid-afternoon, the comforting scent of hot chocolate and whipped cream embraces you like an old friend. Now, hot chocolate in Italy is a serious thing: …

Hidden away in a tiny little workshop at the bottom of a walled garden sits the last artisan battiloro in Europe. Beating out a rhythmic golden heartbeat, his hand-held hammer pummels a pack of gold nuggets into gossamer-thin gold leaf …

Since my Italian-American Italy has long been renowned for its miracles in stone. From Roman amphitheaters and aqueducts to Michelangelo’s David, the people from this mountainous land have produced creations that made history.    The Latins converted the untamed into …

Italy is a wounded country. Never, in recent years, the Bel Paese has endured so much tragedy in such a short amount of time. Black-clad still, mourning the almost 300 victims of last August’s quake, Italians woke up a week …

Endless row upon row of cotton fields, shimmery white as far as the eye can see. A frosty glass of Southern sweet tea offers companionship to a plate of piping hot fried chicken. The wail of an old blues tune …