La vita italiana

Brilliant, versatile, spiritual, funny and generous. Franc D’Ambrosio, an artist with a thousand faces, hidden for over 2,600 performances behind the shadow of the most fascinating and obscure mask of the theater musical, The Phantom of the Opera. D’Ambrosio’s resume …

I am referring to Leonardo da Vinci ’s portrait of Ginevra de’ Benci, his only painting to be found in the Western hemisphere. It is one of the greatest glories of the National Gallery in Washington D.C., and was purchased …

Lorenzo Soria’s parents were Jews, urged – by the suffocating climate following the “Italian Racial Laws” – to embark on a diaspora to Argentina. They settled down in Buenos Aires, where, in 1951, Lorenzo was born. The boy grew up …

The 11th edition of the Los Angeles, Italia. Film, Fashion and Art Fest, held at the TCL Chinese Theatres, on the pre-Oscars week, from February 21 to 27, channeled its efforts in celebrating two Italian legends.   The first, Italian …

On my first Easter in Rome in the Jubilee year of 2000, I joined the throngs jammed into the massive piazza of St. Peter’s basilica. Pope John Paul II, bent with age, extended Easter greetings in dozens of languages, including …

More than 200 years after it was invented, the elegant Bodoni typeface is still among the most admired and largely used around the world. Indeed, it is easy to come across the Bodoni font on a daily basis; it is …

When looking at a gondola, have you ever noticed that sinuous object supporting the gondolier’s oar? Well, neither had I, until I learned about it at the Venetian workshop of Piero Dri, one of only four remaining artisans in the …

“There is no wealth but life. That country is the richest which nourishes the greatest number of human beings; that man is richest, who, having perfected the functions of his own life to the utmost, has also the widest helpful …

A century ago in Black Diamond, Wash., the freight trains arrived empty twice a day and twice a day they left, loaded with coal. Railroad assistant Amos Ungherini would go down the line each day in a hand-pumped “speeder” to …

“Trust your crazy ideas” is Roberto Bonzio’s motto. Founder of Italiani di Frontiera, or Italians of Border, the Italian journalist once decided to make the bold move to move to Palo Alto with his family in 2008 to pursue a …