La vita italiana

I stand in a small square at the end of Via del Governo Vecchio, a stone’s throw from Piazza Navona. Poised on blocks of ancient concrete, I lean against a corner of Palazzo Braschi, home to the Museo di Roma. …

Where I grew up in New York, we lived in a community comprised mostly of Italian Catholics. Our neighborhood bordered a Jewish community and I had many Jewish friends with whom I attended school, but none of them were Italian. …

Each year I dread September 20. On this day in 1870 Piedmontese artillery blasted a hole in Porta Pia, the fortified gate on the northeastern side of the Aurelian Wall. Black-plumed Bersaglieri routed pantalooned Papal Zouaves, ending a thousand years …

I dropped my husband off at Malpensa in the pre-dawn light, plugged Corso Vittorio Emanuele 135 Naples into my rental car’s GPS, and drove off with one last giddy nervous wave. I still remember the look on his face as …

Italy has long been one of the world’s most popular travel destinations, and many a person has diligently saved to make the trip, but few can claim to have given up as much as Queen Christina, who renounced the kingdom …

All culturally literate people know who George Frideric Handel was, yet the man who gave him his biggest career boost as well as being one of the great composers of his age and more, is largely unknown.  It was, in …

We all have our vacations. But where on this earth will you find one nation who closes down, packs up, and goes off to rejuvenate all at one time? In the month of August, Italy does just that and of …

My husband, a first-generation Italian, is fiercely passionate about the culinary traditions of his homeland. I often get to reap the benefits…and endure the castigations about what is truly Italian, and what is not. The other night, for instance, I …

One of my earliest recollections of my father’s town in southern Italy was at nine-years old. The town of approximately 12,000 inhabitants is called Mugnano del Cardinale and it is surrounded by the Irpini Mountains, located just 45 miles from …

Bologna is famous for its towers, among other things. In fact, it is also known as “la turrita”, the town with many towers. Of the 100 that dotted the historical center in the Middle Ages, only 20 remain today. One …