La vita italiana

This time of year, Aosta, Italy hosts the Fair of Saint Ursus (Sant’Orso in Italian and Saint’Ours in French). This thousand-year-old festival will showcase the work of local artisans in the city center’s ancient quarter January 30-31. With the beautiful …

The galleries of the Accademia Museum in Venice have recently been re-opened to the public, following a radical restoration by Venetian architect Tobia Scarpa, begun in 2001, which has doubled the exhibition space from 6,000 to 12,000 square metres. This …

The images and stories out of Syria that stem from the Arab Spring uprising in 2011 are both heart wrenching and painfully disturbing. Men, women and children have been displaced and forced into overcrowded refugee camps. The victims of the …

Spending the holidays with your group of Italian friends, you should be aware of the fact that they’ve most likely started planning New Year’s Eve celebrations at least a month in advance. In fact, Capodanno – the Italian word for …

Many years ago the famous British writer Elizabeth Bowen announced to her friends that she intended to write a travel book on Rome. They warned her that better writers than she had tried to write about Italy and failed. To …

Two years after the election to his second mandate – something unprecedented in Italy’s history -, the President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano resigned from his role as leader of the Country due to old age. His successor and 12th …

Can anyone possibly imagine an ancient Roman ship floundering in heavy seas off the coast of what is now South America?     There are some who theorize that such a ship still exists, after having been blown off course …

On December 24, 1914, a dejected Pope Benedict XV cel- ebrated midnight mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. His efforts to secure a Christmas truce had failed. A 400-mile trench stretched from the Belgian coast to the Swiss border. Some British …

When I heard the news of Mario Cuomo’s death this past month, I reflected on a moment that I had with the former New York State Governor.  He had retired from public office after he was defeated for a fourth …

Angelina Jolie, born in L.A. 39 years ago, was recently nominated the highest-income actress three times by Forbes, but also “Special Envoy” and former “Goodwill Ambassador” for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).   Upon meeting with Queen …