Culture

The month of January is traditionally considered the coldest. In fact, its last three days are believed to be the chilliest time of the year: in Italy, we call them Giorni della Merla,  or “the blackbird days,” and there are …

 In the narrative of the Gospels, the birth of Christ doesn’t take up much space: the focus, as those among you who went to catechism as children may remember, is all on the last three years of his life, those …

          For centuries travelers have visited La Piazza della Bocca Della Verità located just south of Rome’s busy center. The significance of this piazza is that the traveler can see in one-stop Rome’s many layers: from the Roman temples, Temple …

Italy is a country where beauty is common. In the landscape, in art and, of course, in its language. Italian isn’t known as la bella lingua, the beautiful language, for no reason. However, Italian has been going through some difficult …

Not many know that, since 1946, Rome celebrates the new year in an unusual way: a dive from Ponte Cavour at midday, just when the cannons from the Gianicolo ring the hour. The first to celebrate the new year in …

We were sitting in Adele Negro’s kitchen in Albany, CA in 1993.  There were four of us, contemplating the exhibit we were about to construct—on the WWII story“When Italian Americans Were ‘Enemy Aliens,’” and what we could formally name it. …

The Romans certainly knew a thing or two about beautiful yet sturdy, long-lasting architecture: I remember thinking just that the first time I visited the majestic Pont du Gard, in the South of France – closer to where I am …

Happiness, triumphs, and pain are always green, white, and red in Italy, just like the colors of the flag. Our beloved Tricolore that, for 225 years, has been flying in every village and city in the country, on every public building from …

Capodanno is, on the Italian calendar, the second most important holiday in the season,  just after Christmas and just before Epifania. From a religious point of view, of course, the day of the Befana is more important – and not …

2021 has been rough. Not as rough as 2020 but I am not that sad to see this year go. While we are sitting and gorging on panettone on two different sides of the Atlantic, I reckon our New Year’s …