Culture

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 …

The history of our Made in Italy is long and many businesses and families have contributed to it. Since 2000 there is an association, the Unione Imprese Centenarie Italiane, that brings them together as “expressions of tradition rooted in our territory …

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, …

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 …

Easter wouldn’t be Easter in Italy without chocolate eggs: yes, I know they are quite popular in other parts of the world, like Ireland and the UK, for instance, but we think that in Italy the art of chocolate egg making and …

Piazza San Marco is the heart of Venice and, if you’ve been to La Serenissima, you definitely spent some time there, either enjoying a Spritz at one of its many cafés or walking through the square itself, perhaps towards the Basilica, …

Naming her brings to mind a time of conspiracies, cloak-and-dagger events, and lascivious, decadent orgies of sex and wealth. But was Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of Pope Alexander VI and his favorite, Vannozza Cattanei, truly such a dissolute being? According to historians …

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 …

For Catholics, Easter is the most important celebration of the year. Yes, even more important than Christmas. In it, we remember the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is considered by the faithful the ultimate proof of His divine nature. While Italians, just …

“È stata la mano di Dio” (The Hand of God), written, directed, and produced by Paolo Sorrentino is now available on Netflix. Paolo Sorrentino, already well known for his films “La Grande Bellezza” (The Great Beauty), “Il Divo,” and “The Young …