Culture

For us Italians, it is a familiar melody and we all know its lyrics. Many of us learned it in elementary school, along with the first lines of our national anthem. But the rest of the world, probably, only got …

The day commenced like any other in the coastal Roman towns that hugged the Bay of Naples. Another hot August morning was underway as townspeople in Pompeii, Herculaneum, and other smaller communities began to gather in public places as they ate, …

What a movie, Casablanca. The cinematography, the aesthetics, the music, the actors, of course. Who doesn’t have in mind Humphrey Bogart, dark and handsome, with his fedora hat and trench coat, in the famous airport scene where he says goodbye to Ilsa, interpreted …

Of all the provinces of Tuscany, Pistoia is, perhaps, the one we are less familiar with. Yet, it was Italy’s Capital of Culture only a handful of years ago (it was 2017), and it has one of the best-preserved and maintained medieval …

Once upon a time, Siena was as large as Paris. That was, of course, centuries ago, during the late Middle Ages and the early years of the Renaissance, before the plague epidemic of the mid-14th century, which killed between 75 and 200 …

When legendary silent film star Rudolph Valentino died at age 31 on August 23, 1926 in New York City from a perforated ulcer, the announcement sparked scenes of mass hysteria. A hundred thousand mourners lined up the streets outside the funeral home, …

If you’ve ever been to an Italian old-men bar, the one where your granddad would go spend the afternoon with his mates if that’s the type of thing he is into, or if you had the curse – or blessing, depending on …

Not many are familiar with the name Norba,  and the history behind it. Once upon a time, Norba was a flourishing, wealthy Latin town, some 30 miles south of Rome, perched on the Lepini Mountains. Its origins, much like those …

Today, most European countries share the same currency, the euro. I am old enough to remember lire and the pain of having to change money at the airport when you were traveling: honestly, I am happy those days are gone. What many people …

Filigree is magic: gold or silver threads, twisted together to create ephemeral shapes and delicate patterns. There is something so incredibly alluring in filigree jewelry, perhaps because it is such an  ancient tradition and one so strongly tied to our peninsula, …